Karen Patton Seymour is a partner of Sullivan & Cromwell and a member of the Management Committee. Her multidisciplinary practice focuses on corporate governance, crisis management, complex commercial litigation, white-collar criminal defense, and internal investigations.
Karen rejoined the firm after serving as Goldman Sachs’ Executive Vice President and General Counsel and was a member of the Management Committee, where she oversaw the firm’s strategy regarding class action and other litigation and enforcement issues and served as a key advisor to the firm across a wide variety of legal, reputational and other matters. Ms. Seymour successfully resolved a number of important matters on behalf of the firm and was key in negotiating the firm’s most critical legal matters, including 1MDB. She also advised the “Launch with GS,” Goldman Sachs’ $500 million commitment to narrow the gender investing gap and to increase access to capital for women and diverse entrepreneurs and investors.
Prior to her time at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Seymour was co-managing partner of S&C’s Litigation Group and represented corporations, financial institutions, and individuals in state and federal investigations and proceedings involving allegations of securities fraud and insider trading, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, anti-money laundering, OFAC sanctions, and criminal antitrust violations.
From 2002—2004 Ms. Seymour served as Chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she supervised 165 federal prosecutors and overall all criminal investigations and prosecutions in the district.
Ms. Seymour holds a B.A. and B.S. from the Southern Methodist University, a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, and an LL.M. from the University of London.