| Leadership Council on Legal Diversity

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Karen L. Hart is a litigation partner at Bell Nunnally &amp; Martin LLP, based in Dallas, Texas. &nbsp;Karen has been at Bell Nunnally for&nbsp;over 15 years. &nbsp;Before joining the firm, Karen served as a law clerk to the Honorable Hayden Head, Jr., United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi Division. &nbsp;
Karen grew up bi-culturally on the Texas/Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, where she played mariachi music professionally in high school and college. She graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a B.A. in Literature/Political Science with highest honors and a 4.0 GPA. &nbsp;She was a graduate of the UT El Paso Honors Program, and she was selected as a Top Ten graduate of her class, amongst other awards. &nbsp;
Karen attended the University of Texas School of Law, where she graduated with honors in 2001. &nbsp;While at UT Law, Karen participated in moot court and mock trial competitions and in the process discovered that she was destined to become a litigator. &nbsp;Karen's&nbsp;moot court team won the National Championship for the Pace National Environmental Moot Court Competition in 2000, and again, in 2001, her team was a national semi-finalist and won Best Appellee Brief.&nbsp; She was also a national quarterfinalist for the Duberstein National Bankruptcy Moot Court Competition in 2001.&nbsp; &nbsp;
Karen served as a law clerk extern to the Texas Court of Appeals, Third Judicial District, Austin, Texas in 2001. After graduating from law school, Karen served as a federal trial court law clerk for the Honorable Hayden Head, Jr.&nbsp;from 2001-2002.&nbsp; After completing her federal clerkship, Karen joined Bell Nunnally, where she has been practicing commercial litigaiton for the duration of her career.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Karen has served on the boards of several industry and community charitable organizations, including Texas Winds Musical Outreach Inc., the North Texas District Export Council (NTDEC) and Commercial Real Estate Women Dallas (CREW Dallas).&nbsp; Appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to the Council, Karen served as Chairwoman of the NTDEC from 2013-2015 and Vice Chair in 2012.&nbsp; Karen served as President of Texas Winds Musical Outreach Inc. from 2011-2013 and Vice President from 2009-2011.&nbsp; For CREW Dallas, Karen served on the Board of Directors from 2014-2016 as Director of Programs and of Marketing, and Karen has also chaired several committees for CREW Dallas.&nbsp; Karen currently serves as Co-Chair of the Landlord-Tenant and Diversity Subcommittees for the American Bar Association (ABA) Real Estate Litigation Committee. She was awarded the ABA Section of Litigation Outstanding Subcommittee Chair award in 2016.&nbsp; She was recognized by the NTDEC with an Outstanding Member award in 2013, and she was also recognized by CREW Dallas in 2011 with an Outstanding New Member Award. &nbsp;Karen regularly speaks and publishes articles on legal topics locally, regionally, and nationally.&nbsp;
Karen has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for 2017, and she has been selected as a Texas Monthly Rising Star in 2006, 2007, 2011-2014.&nbsp; Karen has been honored as a Texas Lawyer Winning Women Award recipient, recognized as one of 20 outstanding female litigators in the State of Texas.&nbsp; She was also honored by the Dallas Business Journal as a Women in Business Award recipient in 2012.&nbsp;&nbsp;Most recently, in November 2017, Karen was honored as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers (Dallas) by the Texas Diversity Council.&nbsp;
Karen enjoys running half marathons and pinot noir wines (but not at the same time).&nbsp;