Karen Waters Shields is a partner in the New Orleans office of Kean Miller. Karen is an experienced litigator with particular experience in a wide variety of admiralty and oil & gas casualty issues, including Jones Act, personal injury, oil and gas exploration, well blowouts, cargo damage, vessel collisions, vessel damage, platform damage and barge damage. Her experience with oil and gas casualties is both offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and on land. Karen also has experience in construction law, consumer credit reporting, products liability, and general personal injury litigation. Following law school, she served for one year as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Fredericka H. Wicker of the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court for the Parish of Jefferson.
Karen was selected by New Orleans CityBusiness as a 2011 Leadership in Law Award recipient, and as a 2012 recipient of the Women of Year award. She was selected for inclusion into the 2013 edition of the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers. Karen is listed in Louisiana Super Lawyers 2018 - 2019.
Karen earned her B.A. in Anthropology and Human and Natural Ecology from Emory University in 1993. She earned her J.D., cum laude, with a Certificate of Specialization in Admiralty Law from Tulane University Law School in 1998.
- Tulane University School of Law
- J.D. | Law
- Honors: cum laude, Certificate of Specialization in Admiralty Law.
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- Emory University
- B.A. | Anthropology and Human and Natural Ecology
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- Partner
- Kean Miller LLP
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- Attorney
- Lemle & Kelleher, LLP
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- Law Clerk
- 24th Judicial District Court for the Parish of Jefferson, State of Louisiana
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- Is the Limitation of Liability Act Going to Sink with the Deepwater Horizon?
- Louisiana Law Blog
- Certificate of Specialization in Admiralty Law
- Tulane University Law School
- Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers
- Martindale-Hubbell
- Women of Year award
- New Orleans CityBusiness
- Leadership in Law Award
- New Orleans CityBusiness
- AV Peer Review Rating
- Martindale-Hubbell
- Super Lawyer
- Super Lawyers
- 2018, 2019
- Louisiana State Bar
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- Federal Bar Association
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- Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA)
- Member
- Current
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- Women's Energy Network, Southeast Louisiana Chapter
- Member
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- New York State Bar
- Member
- Current
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- New Jersey State Bar
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- Current
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- American Bar Association
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- Louisiana
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- New Jersey
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- New York
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- 5th Circuit
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- U.S. Supreme Court
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- United States District Courts for the Eastern Districts of Louisiana
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- United States District Courts for the Middle Districts of Louisiana
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- United States District Courts for the Western Districts of Louisiana
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- Construction Law
- Construction Contracts, Construction Defects, Construction Liens, Construction Litigation
- Energy, Oil & Gas Law
- Utilities
- Maritime Law
- Personal Injury
- Animal & Dog Bites, Brain Injury, Car Accidents, Construction Accidents, Motorcycle Accidents, Premises Liability, Truck Accidents, Wrongful Death
- Products Liability
- Drugs & Medical Devices, Motor Vehicle Defects, Toxic Torts
- Consumer Credit Litigation
- English