Spurlin, Tanya A.

As a former Presiding Judge of the Dallas County Civil District Judges, Karen Gren Scholer has extensive trial experience as an advocate and as a judge. Karen has represented international product manufacturers in multidistrict litigation and served as lead lawyer in multimillion dollar business disputes. Karen joined Jones Day after eight years of judicial service as a state district judge where she presided over thousands of civil cases, including more than 100 cases tried to jury verdict. During Karen's time on the bench, the Supreme Court of Texas appointed her as a multidistrict litigation judge.

Before taking the bench, Karen was in private practice for 18 years, focusing on complex tort, product liability, business, and other civil litigation in state and federal courts. She handled first-chair responsibilities in individual cases and coordinated with in-house counsel on litigation management at the local through national levels. Her first-chair case responsibilities included all aspects of case development, from investigation through trial. Karen has served on multiple bar seminar planning committees and frequently speaks on advanced litigation topics, including voir dire, discovery, expert witnesses, judge and jury persuasion, trial tactics, and ethics.

Karen has served on many nonprofit boards, including Camp John Marc, Dallas Women's Foundation, Victims Outreach, and Literacy Instruction for Texas. She was co-chair of Attorneys Serving the Community, and she co-chaired the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association's Annual Convention in 2004. She has served on the executive board of the Cornell Law Association and on the board of directors of the Association of Rice Alumni.