Kara Kapp

Kara L. Kapp regularly handles a variety of criminal and civil matters on behalf of Fortune 500 entities, corporate executives, and foreign defendants, among others. Her matters have involved allegations of illegal gaming, securities fraud, health care fraud, tax fraud, antitrust offenses, environmental offenses, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, among others.

Kara has significant experience briefing trial and appellate matters before the U.S. Courts of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, federal district courts, and the Illinois Appellate Court. She is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Illinois, California, and D.C. Bars, and she is admitted to practice in the Seventh Circuit and the Northern District of Illinois.

She earned her undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College in 2006, double majoring in international relations and environmental studies. In 2010, she earned her J.D. from Stanford Law School, as well as a masters in Latin American studies. She is fully proficient in Spanish and proficient in reading and writing in Portuguese.

While at Stanford, she served as a symposium editor of the Stanford Law Review, where she received multiple awards for her service. She also worked as a constitutional and international law research assistant to Professor Jenny Martinez.

After law school, Kara served as a law clerk to then Chief Judge Bruce D. Black of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico and to the Honorable Edward L. Chavez of the New Mexico Supreme Court.

EXPERIENCE :

• Represented an individual under criminal investigation by the Special Counsel’s Office.  After extensive meetings with the Special Counsel, it decided not to pursue charges against our client.
• Represented CEO of publicly traded health care company at trial and sentencing in $85 million health care fraud scheme. Our advocacy at sentencing convinced the judge to sentence the client to 36 months in prison, where the court found the applicable sentencing guidelines range was 121-151 months imprisonment.
• Advised gaming companies on compliance issues and business opportunities for sports relating to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Murphy v. NCAA (2018).
• Recently completed a six-month secondment with AB InBev’s Global Compliance Team, where she conducted internal investigations, led witness interviews, led a major project to draft and update the company’s compliance policies, and gained familiarity with AB InBev’s award-winning compliance data analytics platform, BrewRIGHT.

EDUCATION :

• Stanford University Law School, J.D., 2010
• Stanford University, M.A., 2010
• Dartmouth College, B.A., summa cum laude, 2006

BAR ADMISSIONS : California; Illinois; District of Columbia

COURT ADMISSIONS :

• U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
• U.S. Supreme Court

AFFILIATIONS :

• American Bar Association
• ACLU of Northern Illinois, Next Generation Society Member
• American Constitution Society, D.C. Chapter, Board Member
• Illinois State Bar Association
• Justice Council of Northwestern Law School, Board Member
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• Women of Dartmouth, Leadership Team Member