Profile
Karen Bray is an experienced trial lawyer who focuses on defending complex commercial litigation, products liability, and mass tort matters. As trial counsel, Karen has lead multi-defendant trial teams in federal and state courts and arbitrations. Karen has wide-ranging experience in the development of expert witnesses in various professional and scientific fields, including damages, economics, government auditing, product design, and claims estimation. She also has played a substantial role in developing training programs for clients and counsel on all aspects of pre-trial and trial practice in complex multi-defendant cases.
Karen is actively involved in the firm’s in-house litigation training programs and is the Associate Co-Hiring Chair and Career Development Co-Liaison for the New York office. Karen also participates in the firm’s community service efforts, and is a member of the firm’s Green Team, which was developed to cultivate a firm-wide culture of conservation and responsibility for resource-use.
Concentrations
- Complex commercial litigation
- Complex products liability litigation
Capabilities
Experience
- Represented R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in a breach of contract dispute arbitration under the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with various U.S. states and territories in which R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco company signatories seek a reduction of hundreds of millions of dollars in their settlement payment.
- Represented Reef Technology in connection with a commercial dispute arising out of a breach of an asset purchase agreement involving the acquisition of multiple parking lots and business premises.
- Represented Reef Technology in a matter involving claims relating to the breach of an employment contract.
- Represented Ebay Inc. in connection with the successful dismissal of a commercial litigation under the Communications Decency Act.
- Special Counsel to the Future Claimants Representative in Mallinckrodt plc’s. Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing handling forecasting potential future liabilities in connection with creation of a liability trust and confirmation hearing.
- Special Counsel to the Future Claimants Representative in T.K. Holdings’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing resulting from airbag liabilities. Handled forecasting of future liabilities in connection with creation of a compensation trust fund and confirmation hearing.
- Advised R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in settlement strategy of various matters relating to the Engle v. Liggett Group Inc. class action against tobacco companies that was decertified by the Florida Supreme Court.
- Represented Lorillard Tobacco Company and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in numerous cases pending in state and federal courts throughout Florida as a result of the Florida Supreme Court's decertification of a class of plaintiffs, in its decision in Engle v. Liggett Group, Inc., 945 So. 2d 1246 (Fla. 2006).
- Represented various domestic and international tobacco companies in defense of hundreds of product liability and mass tort litigations in the U.S. and various international jurisdictions.
- Litigation counsel for client in connection with claims alleging toxic exposure to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
- Counseled manufacturers in foreign jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and Australia, with respect to product liability defense issues based on U.S. product liability litigation.
Recognition & Leadership
- Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Product Liability Litigation - Defendants, 2020-2024
- Member, American Bar Association
Credentials
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J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1995
- Administrative Editor, American Criminal Law Review
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B.A., magna cum laude, New York University, 1992
- Phi Beta Kappa
- New York
- Florida
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York