Karima Maloney

A former federal prosecutor and highly effective courtroom advocate, Karima Maloney represents clients in commercial litigation, internal investigations and white collar criminal investigations and prosecutions. With extensive state and federal trial experience, Karima excels in presenting complex facts to a jury and is sought after by clients facing high stakes litigation.

Karima represents clients in various sectors including financial services, energy, health care, and technology, among others. Prior to joining SKV, Karima served in the highly selective U.S. Attorney General’s Honors program for the Department of Justice and rose in the ranks to Deputy Chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section. During her twelve years with the Department of Justice, Karima handled high-profile official misconduct, human trafficking, and hate crime prosecutions across the country.

She routinely conducted grand jury investigations, handled jury trials to verdict, and managed complex investigations involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives, and Offices of Inspector General of multiple federal agencies.

Karima started her career as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Vanessa D. Gilmore of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School where she was a senior editor of the Columbia Law Review and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She received her undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Commercial Litigation

• Won complete dismissal of qui tam lawsuit filed against client, a financial institution, accused of conspiracy involving False Claims Act, Stark Law, and Anti-Kick Back Statute violations based on alleged incentives for referrals to a hospital.
• Represented corporate officer of oil field services company in eight-week jury trial involving breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, conspiracy and misappropriation of trade secrets case. 
• Secured favorable settlement for private equity company sued for the alleged torts of a portfolio company.  
• Represented health insurance company in jury trial involving allegations of underpayments to healthcare providers. Secured favorable judgment for client.  
• Represented liquified natural gas corporation in multi-million dollar breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit, resulting in favorable settlement for client on the eve of trial. 
• Counsel for multi-billion dollar breast implant settlement facility in variety of legal matters in federal district and appellate courts related to distributions to classes of claimants.  
• Represent fertilizer company in fraud and trade secrets misappropriation lawsuit against competitor and chemical manufacturer. 
• Represented pharmaceutical corporation in Texas opioid multi-district ligation, defending against claims brought by approximately 50 counties against manufacturers and distributors of opioid medications.  
• Successfully defended energy company executive in civil suit alleging sexual misconduct. Secured favorable disposition for client. 

White Collar Criminal Defense and Government Investigations

• Represent public figure prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for Eastern District of Louisiana for wire fraud. Obtained significantly lower sentence. 
• Successfully persuaded the Department of Justice’s Civil Division not to intervene in a qui tam False Claims Act action where the DOJ had previously demanded multi-million-dollar settlement from client. 
• Represented Bank Security Officer in FINCEN investigation into compliance with Bank Secrecy Act. 
• Represented Chief Operations Officer of healthcare consulting business in Department of Justice investigations of health care fraud and anit-kickback violations.  
• Represented former corporate officer of engineering and construction company in Securities and Exchange Commission depositions related to alleged financial reporting irregularities and other alleged violations of federal securities laws.  
• Pool counsel for employees of chemical plant under investigation by Environment Protections Agency’s Criminal Investigations Division, U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for chemical release incident. 
• Represented physician in healthcare fraud criminal prosecution brought by the Department of Justice.