Karen Siteman Bio

Karen Siteman joins DBM Legal Services as a Senior Partner with knowledge of many areas of the law including, but not limited to, healthcare, banking, business advice and counsel, mergers and acquistions, mediations, and employment and traditional bargaining. Karen has been in the practice for over thirty years in her own law firm, and as General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel as well as Senior Counsel at several companies, both publicly traded and closely held. Specifically, her substantive experience includes aspects of general corporate law, and as the de facto Board secretary preparing minutes and filings and originations for a number of her outside clients. Her mergers and acquisitions experience includes the traditional types of as well transactions as well as combined dispositions of a business and the real property to which the business is attached. The SEC filings with which she is familiar are Annual Reports, including ‘33 and ‘34 Act (10-K’s, 10-Q’s, 8-K’s, S-8’s and S-4’s Section 16 Forms 3, 4 and 5). Regarding banking, Karen’s experience is not only in the general support for all departments but also in compliance and regulatory matters and she has been a member of loan committee. She was instrumental in the “turn-around” of one of the institutions, disposing of all REO, and wherein we were able to earn re-claim our membership on NASDAC and brought one of the Bank’s into regulatory compliance. All of her positions have included litigation management, everything from performing formal and informal mediations to managing outside litigation counsel in discovery and strategic planning. She has been the primary contract negotiator in most of negotiation of a multitude of commercial agreements. In addition to the usual types of transactional matters Karen has experience in banking and insurance start-ups. Additionally, Karen has developed a sound base in some areas of compliance and risk management as well as regulatory matters. After receiving certification from the Straus Institute at Pepperdine University Law School, she has performed many mediations over the years for the US and California court systems and the Los Angeles office of the EEOC. As mentioned above, Karen has also been affiliated with a top tier international firm wherein she started the healthcare practice in the Los Angeles Office and where she co-hosted seminars, one in particular was the False Claims Act which co-hosted this seminar with the Los Angeles Office of DOJ. She has performed many varied trainings as General Counsel and outside counsel to her private clients. Regardless of the economic climate, Karen has always recognize the need to assist her clients in developing preventative measures which will keep our clients focus on looking forward to build their businesses so no opportunities are missed. Karen founded her own firm to bring “large-firm” legal expertise to companies of all sizes and to individual clients in a more cost effective means without compromising the quality of legal services and counsel. With her years of experience she is well positioned to meet the demands of many types of clients's substantive areas of advice and counsel while minimizing our clients’ costs.She has been involved in a wide range of civic and non-profit organizations as a Board member and Co-Chair of these organizations and she is now applying to the San Diego chapter of Habitat for Humanity Board membership, Affordable Housing is a passion of hers. Karen earned her B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley, then continued her education by earning her J.D. at Hofstra University Law School and an L.L.M. from Boston University’s Banking and Financial Institutions and she has been certified by the Straus Institute at Pepperdine Law School in Mediating the Litigated Case. She is a member of the California State Bar.