Karen Patton Seymour

Practice Areas

White-collar criminal defense, internal investigations, crisis management, complex commercial litigation, corporate governance

Career

Karen Patton Seymour is a member of the S&C’s Management Committee. She has a multidisciplinary practice focusing on corporate governance, crisis management, complex commercial litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and internal investigations involving a wide variety of subjects.

Ms. Seymour rejoined the Firm in 2021 from Goldman Sachs, where she served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel and was a member of the Management Committee. She oversaw the firm’s strategy regarding class action and other litigation and enforcement issues and served as a key advisor to the firm across a wide variety of legal and reputational matters.

Prior to her time at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Seymour was co-managing partner of S&C’s Litigation Group and represented corporations and individuals in state and federal investigations and proceedings involving allegations of securities fraud and insider trading, FCPA, anti-money laundering, OFAC sanctions, and criminal antitrust violations. She often worked on complex, multi-jurisdictional matters, such as leading the negotiations of numerous significant settlements involving multiple jurisdictions. Illustrative of this is the high profile sanctions settlement Ms. Seymour secured for BNP Paribas in 2014 for which the Financial Times noted the “limited fallout.” Ms. Seymour has tried numerous jury and bench trials in federal court and argued many appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She has deep experience representing corporations and individuals outside of the United States in responding to U.S. inquiries and investigations, and assisting in complex international investigations.

From 2002 to 2004, Ms. Seymour served as Chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she supervised 165 federal prosecutors and oversaw all criminal investigations and prosecutions in the district.

Professional Memberships

Member, The Board of Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Trustee, The University of Texas Law School Foundation; Member, American Law Institute – Adviser on Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws project and on Principles of the Law, Compliance, Enforcement, and Risk Management for Corporations, Non-Profits, and Other Organizations; Board Member, Perlman Music Program; Board Member, Public Art Fund; Honorary Trustee, Vera Institute of Justice

Personal

University of London, LL.M., 1987; The University of Texas School of Law, J.D., 1986; Southern Methodist University, B.A./B.S., 1983