Sidley Austin Partner Karen Popp Honored by Global Investigations Review
Global Investigations Review (GIR) honored Sidley Austin’s Washington, D.C. partner Karen A. Popp with its inaugural “Award for Services to Diversity.”
Popp was lauded for her “great commitment to improving women’s positions in the workplace,” both within Sidley and in the wider white collar defense and investigations world. GIR commended Popp for her leadership in developing Sidley’s firmwide women’s program, forming the D.C. office’s Diversity Committee for racial, ethnic and LGBT communities, and serving as the first Chair of Sidley’s D.C. Women’s Committee.
She was also cited for serving on Sidley’s task forces on Diversity and Women, formed by the Executive Committee. Popp was praised for co-founding the Women in White Collar Defense Association, which she launched along with Beth Wilkinson in 1999 shortly after leaving government and noticing the distinct lack of female practitioners on panels or among the attendees at the American Bar Institute’s Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime.
GIR credited Popp’s vision and “impressive leadership and interpersonal skills” with the “extraordinary growth” of the organization which has grown to 30 chapters with more than 1,400 members across the world in less than 20 years.
At Sidley, Popp is the global co-leader of the firm’s White Collar: Government Litigation & Investigations group. She has a practice representing companies and individuals in high-profile matters with legal, political and public relations components, such as corporate criminal defense, internal investigations, SEC Enforcement, Congressional investigations, OIG and State Attorney General actions, corporate compliance, and litigation.
