Karen E. Pointer is a Partner of the firm and co-chair of the Labor and Employment practice group. She represents clients in a wide variety of industries in all aspects of employee/employer relations and employment law. Her practice encompasses advice and counseling, workplace investigations, and litigation and administrative actions.

Advice and Counseling

Karen’s expertise includes day-to-day counseling of clients with respect to hiring, professional development and promotion, discipline and termination, contract negotiations, and compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws, including laws governing wages and hours, leaves of absence, disability accommodation, and harassment, discrimination, and wrongful termination.

Karen assists clients in the formulation, implementation and enforcement of employment policies and procedures and drafts a variety of employment-related agreements, including employment agreements, confidentiality and trade secret agreements, arbitration agreements, and separation agreements. She provides employee and management training in harassment, discrimination, implicit bias, and bullying.

Workplace Investigations

Karen has substantial experience conducting workplace investigations. She navigates expertly highly sensitive and complex investigations at all levels, including investigations involving managerial and nonmanagerial employees, senior executives, boards of directors, and non-employee third parties. Her expertise includes investigating complaints of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, implicit bias, bullying, whistleblowing, fraud, and other allegations of workplace misconduct. She has investigated allegations of single incident misconduct as well as allegations of patterns of misconduct, workplace culture concerns, and intersectionality of multiple protected characteristics.

Karen has conducted investigations for a wide variety of business entities, including law firms, entertainment companies, news media, cultural institutions, healthcare providers, real estate developers, auto dealerships, and non-profit organizations. She is enlisted by inside and outside general counsel, employment lawyers, chief executives, boards of directors, human resources professionals, and business managers seeking neutral and objective fact finding and the highest level of discretion and judgment.

Karen’s commitment to a fair and neutral process engenders trust from interviewees and her thorough yet sensitive interview style elicits candor and completeness in witness testimony.

To best position clients to fully understand problematic workplace dynamics, Karen prepares comprehensive, clear, and well-reasoned written reports designed to withstand legal scrutiny and to equip employers with the information needed to remedy workplace concerns quickly and efficiently.

Litigation and Administrative Actions

Karen has extensive experience litigating a wide variety of employment and business disputes, including disputes involving wrongful termination, harassment and discrimination, failure to accommodate, wage and hour violations, unfair competition, trade secrets, and breach of contract. She represents clients through trial in state and federal courts, in arbitration, and before public agencies, including the California Labor Commissioner, the United States Department of Labor – Wage and Hour Division, the California Civil Rights Department, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her client base ranges from individuals and small businesses to publicly traded entities, large national and international corporations, and large and small nonprofit organizations and foundations.

Prior to joining Bartko, Karen was a founding partner of Lerman & Pointer LLP, a law firm focusing on employment law, business litigation, and business advice and counseling. Prior to forming Lerman & Pointer LLP in 2000, Karen practiced for several years in the employment law group at Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger in Los Angeles.

 Community Involvement

Karen is active in a variety of community activities.

Since 2018, Karen has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization formed in 2015 as a strategic initiative of Boys & Girls Clubs of America to help steward clusters of metro-area clubs in building strong, sustainable organizations, increasing programmatic offerings, and serving more kids, more often, in areas most in need of youth development services.

Karen is also a member of the Board of Directors of HealthRight 360, an internationally recognized family of agencies providing comprehensive health, mental health, and substance abuse rehabilitation services. Karen chairs the Board’s Human Resources and Compensation Committee.

For several years Karen has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Loyola Marymount University’s African American Alumni Association (AAAA), which provides financial assistance to deserving undergraduate LMU students who succeed academically and are active in supporting their communities. AAAA also promotes and fosters a sense of community among African American students and alumni through professional development activities and social events.

In 2018, Karen was inducted into the inaugural Alumni Hall of Fame class at her alma mater, Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles.

In her leisure time, Karen enjoys jazz, golf, wine and travel.

Education

  • University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, J.D.
  • Loyola Marymount University, B.S.

Professional Affiliations

  • Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles

Bar Admissions

  • State Bar of California
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • United States District Court for the Northern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Southern District of California
  • United States District Court for the Central District of California

Honors & Awards

  • American Jurisprudence Awards in Contracts, Civil Procedure and Legal Research and Writing
  • California Super Lawyer – 2023-2024

Publications & Speaking Engagements

  • Labor & Employment Section of the California State Bar
  • Labor & Employment Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • National Employment Lawyers Association
  • California Employment Lawyers Association

Practice Areas