Karen Pieslak Pohlmann

Of Counsel

Karen Pieslak Pohlmann is of counsel in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. Ms. Pohlmann's practice focuses on securities and shareholder litigation and corporate governance issues. She is currently defending several shareholder class actions brought under the federal securities law. She has represented public companies and their officers and directors, broker-dealers, and accountants in lawsuits with investors and putative class actions in state and federal courts, including breach of fiduciary duty and derivative claims. Since 2000, she has worked on the defense of more than 35 federal securities class actions. She also has represented companies and shareholders in disputes involving closely held corporations, including appraisal actions.

In the Barrier Therapeutics Securities Litigation (D.N.J. 2006), plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their securities claims with prejudice in response to a motion to dismiss that Ms. Pohlmann developed. She also has prepared successful motions to dismiss under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 challenging putative class action complaints that allege violations of the federal securities laws in Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union 719 Pension Fund v. Zimmer Holdings, Inc. (S.D. Ind. 2009) which was affirmed by the Seventh Circuit on May 21, 2012; Solomon-Shrawder v. CardioNet, Inc. (E.D. Pa. 2010); In re GPC Biotech AG Sec. Litig. (S.D.N.Y. 2009); ; In re NutriSystem, Inc. Sec. Litig. (E.D. Pa. 2009); Cordova v. Lehman Brothers Inc. (S.D. Fla. 2007); In re Trex Company Sec. Litig.(W.D. Va. 2006); In re American Business Financial Services, Inc. Sec. Litig. (E.D. Pa. 2005); Brashears v. 1717 Capital Management and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. (D. Del. 2004 & 2005); Suprema Specialties (BDO) (D. N.J. 2003); In re CDnow, Inc. Sec. Litig. (E.D. Pa. 2001); In re FreeMarkets, Inc. Sec. Litig. (W.D. Pa. 2000); In re StaffMark, Inc. Sec. Litig. (E.D. Ark. 2000); and Klein v. ICT Group, Inc. (E.D. Pa. 1998).

Ms. Pohlmann's derivative and other corporate governance cases include working on the team that litigated issues of first impression under Pennsylvania law in obtaining dismissal of derivative claims relating to Superior Group, Inc. (C.C.P. Del Cty. 2007), which dismissal was affirmed by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in December 2008 in an opinion defining the proper scope for attorney involvement in an investigation by a special litigation committee and adopting the definition of "disinterested" and "independent" under Pennsylvania law. She worked on the successful motions to dismiss derivative claims in Saginaw Police & Fire Pension Fund v. Hewlett-Packard Company (N.D. Cal. 2012) and In re NutriSystem Derivative Litig. (E.D. Pa. 2009). She helped obtain the dismissal of claims challenging management of a private company in Egan v. TradingScreen, Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 2011) and challenging private investments in public companies in  Frohman v. Health Benefits Direct Corp., (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2009). She assisted in the successful motion to abate the derivative claims relating to RadioShack (Tex. 2007), the motion to dismiss the derivative claims concerning POZEN (N.C. 2005) and in the defense of proposed claims seeking to enjoin a merger in Memo v. Noble (W.D. Pa. 2004) in which the court granted the motion to dismiss. She also helped prepare the motion to dismiss claims for breach of fiduciary duty, gross negligence, corporate mismanagement, and waste which was granted as to 11 of 12 defendants in Continuing Creditors' Committee of Star Telecommunications v. Edgecomb (D. Del. 2004). She assisted in the dismissal of class action securities fraud claims in In Re Numerex Corp. Sec. Litig. (E.D. Pa. 1996), briefed and argued prevailing motions to dismiss non-class action securities law claims in federal and state court in Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. v. Asensio (E.D. Pa. 1999) and Garrett v. Cell Pathways, Inc. (C.C.P. Mont. Cty. 1999), drafted the successful opposition to a motion for class certification in Tafuri v. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (E.D. Pa. 1998), and prepared a motion to dismiss that defeated federal securities fraud claims relating to the exercise of employee stock options in Garrett v. Tseng Labs, Inc. (E.D. Pa. 1998). 

In addition to her securities litigation practice, Ms. Pohlmann has litigated complex commercial matters before state and federal courts and the American Arbitration Association. Her trial experience includes a federal nonjury trial involving the interpretation of a contract between a sales representative and a manufacturer, an arbitration hearing before the American Arbitration Association involving a dispute between joint venture partners, a nonjury trial in Delaware Court of Chancery concerning the sale of a $39 million telecommunications business, and a five-week federal jury trial on lender liability claims. She has also worked on complex appellate issues in both the federal and Pennsylvania state courts of appeals.

Ms. Pohlmann received two awards recognizing her pro bono service representing abused and/or neglected children in Philadelphia Family Court and in criminal cases, work which she has been doing since the early 1990's. The Support Center for Child Advocates honored her as one of their 2006 Distinguished Advocates, and the Pennsylvania Bar Association awarded her a Pro Bono Award in 2006.

Ms. Pohlmann served as a law clerk to Judge Donald W. VanArtsdalen of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1990-1991, after receiving her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1990. Prior to law school, she received a Rotary Fellowship and studied for a year at the University of Strasbourg, France, where she earned a Certificate of Political Studies. She received her A.B. from Princeton University in 1986.

Ms. Pohlmann is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.