Karen L. Jacobsen

Karen Jacobsen started Jacobsen & McElroy in 1998 and was previously a partner with Thompson & Heller.  During her 37-year legal career Karen has handled the defense of complex legal matters including personal injury, premises liability, product liability, construction defect and other complex general liability matters.   She works with insurance companies, third party administrators, self-insured clients and business clients.  Karen is an “AV” rated attorney and has been previously selected as a “Super Lawyer” by her peers.

Karen is a 1983 graduate of the University of Pacific’s School of Business. She attended UOP on a volleyball and basketball scholarship, where she played on the nationally ranked UOP volleyball team. She subsequently returned to her hometown of Sacramento, where she obtained her law degree from McGeorge School of Law at the University of Pacific in 1986. She graduated with distinction, and was Order of the Coif, and a lifetime member of the Traynor Honor Society, as well as a staff writer and editor of the Pacific Law Journal.

Karen is very active in legal organizations.  She was the 2010 President of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada and served on the ADC Board from 2002 to 2011. Additionally, she was the 2016 President of the California Defense Counsel (CDC), the legislative advocacy group for the civil defense bar in California. She is also a member of the Anthony M. Kennedy Inn of Court and she is on the Inn’s Executive Committee. The organization is made up of Federal, State and Appellate Judges/Justices and civil and criminal attorneys and is dedicated to increasing professionalism, civility and ethics among members of the bench and bar.  She is also a member of CLM and is a graduate of CLM’s Litigation Management Institute held at Colombia University. 

Karen also continues to serve on the Sacramento Superior Court Presiding Judges Civil Law Advisory Committee from 2010 to the present.  This committee is made up of Judges, Court Administration and Attorneys to work on access to the Courts for our clients, efficiencies in court processes and sharing of information on court rules, timelines and judicial assignments.  Further, Karen serves as a Settlement Conference Judge and Arbitrator for the Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer Superior Courts and as a mediator/neutral for the Eastern District Federal Court’s Voluntary Dispute Resolution Program.  Karen is a current member of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California, Association of Southern California Defense Counsel and Sacramento County Bar Associations and is a charter member of the Eastern District Historical Society.  She also previously served on the University of the Pacific National Commission on Excellence, the Women Lawyers of Sacramento Board and the YWCA Board.

Further, Karen was also previously selected by the Sacramento Bee as one of the top 50 all-time prep girl basketball players in the Greater Sacramento Area and in 2011 was awarded the University of the Pacific’s Amos Alonzo Stagg Award given to a student athlete who has lead a life of distinction by demonstrating integrity, dedication, idealism and team spirit.

In her free time, Karen enjoys spending time with her family and pup Murphy as well as snow skiing, water skiing, cycling, yoga, theater and travel.