Hon. Karen S. Crawford (Ret.)

Hon. Karen S. Crawford (Ret.) joins Signature Resolution with a career built in equal measure on the complexity of high-stakes litigation and the vision and discipline to help parties resolve their disputes. A former U.S. Magistrate Judge with fourteen years on the federal bench and a litigation career spanning the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and law firms with a national practice, Judge Crawford brings firsthand knowledge of how complex disputes arise, how they are litigated, and how they are resolved. Her frank approach is grounded in a career spent understanding the needs of diverse clients, from individual claimants to multinational corporations, and assisting them in balancing the risks and costs of litigation against the likelihood of success so they can make well-informed, strategic settlement decisions.

Her commitment to direct, honest engagement defines Judge Crawford’s mediation style. She questions positions asserted, pressing counsel to trace the path from their arguments to their desired outcome, and structures her sessions to ensure every party in the room understands where they stand and the litigation challenges they face. She addresses the costs of prolonged litigation candidly, walking parties through the financial realities associated with ongoing depositions, written discovery, and anticipated disputes, making the stakes of unresolved and time-consuming conflicts concrete rather than abstract. When progress stalls, she makes clear that her role is ongoing until resolution is reached and encourages parties to reconvene whenever they are ready to adjust their settlement strategies.

Appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in March 2012, Judge Crawford presided over a broad range of federal civil matters and was responsible for scheduling and managing pretrial proceedings and conducting settlement conferences for a diverse and high-volume docket. She assisted litigants ranging from corporate defendants managing complex, multiparty exposure matters to cases brought by individual plaintiffs for whom the outcome was deeply personal. She developed a precise read on where cases were strong and what positions were vulnerable and separately shared her perspective with all parties. Judge Crawford’s ability to speak plainly about the likelihood of success, litigation risks and costs, and potential outcomes enabled her to bring parties together to reach resolution.

Judge Crawford developed her mediation skills throughout her career as a litigator, where case resolution was an essential consideration in all of her cases. During her early career as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Division’s Torts Branch of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., she traveled around the country trying cases on behalf of the United States in mass tort multidistrict litigation filed pursuant to the National Swine Flu Immunization Program of 1976, P.L. 94-380, 90 Stat. 1113 (August 12, 1976). She continued to defend these cases after leaving Washington, D.C., and joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. There, her practice expanded to representing the United States in cases involving constitutional torts, personal injury and wrongful death, vaccine litigation, road design, medical malpractice, and a broad range of other civil matters.

Upon moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1991, Judge Crawford entered private practice and later opened and managed the first West Coast office for her firm in San Diego in 2005. Her private practice expanded to representing clients in commercial disputes in both state and federal courts, including matters involving breach of contract, theft of trade secrets, unfair business practices, and intellectual property disputes. She also served as national counsel to an international latex glove manufacturer in the defense of hundreds of cases in both federal multidistrict and state coordinated products liability proceedings. Defending these cases across multiple jurisdictions throughout the United States required Judge Crawford to build a cohesive team of lawyers and experts to ensure consistent strategies and positions were asserted on behalf of her client. She gained a keen understanding of her client’s goals by working with in-house counsel on a daily basis as they coordinated effective defenses. That work gave her a sophisticated understanding of client needs, how to assess litigation risks, and what it takes to move large-scale disputes toward resolution. Judge Crawford went on to lead the litigation group at Duane Morris in San Diego in 2005 before her appointment as a U.S. Magistrate Judge.

Throughout her career, Judge Crawford has been actively involved in her legal community, particularly through organizations that afford her the opportunity to mentor law students and young lawyers. One such organization is the American Inns of Court, which is dedicated to promoting civility, ethics, and professionalism in the practice of law. Judge Crawford joined an Inn of Court chapter early in her career and has continued her involvement to date as a Master, Board Member, and President of several chapters. On a national level, she participated on the American Inns of Court Foundation Board of Trustees and was elected to and served as its Secretary.

Judge Crawford’s sustained commitment to the legal community as a practitioner and judicial officer, and her substantial work to improve the civility of legal practice, also drive her efforts to assist counsel and their clients facing challenging disputes to reach fair and expeditious resolutions. She offers attorneys and their clients the benefit of a neutral who has occupied nearly every seat in the civil litigation process and brings that insightful perspective to her case resolution approach with directness, patience, understanding, and an unwillingness to leave a dispute unresolved.