Karen E. Oprea

Karen’s practice is focused on appellate litigation and trial-level motion practice. She has briefed a wide range of issues in federal and state courts, from civil rights and constitutional law to business disputes and statutory construction. Her work has produced two published cases from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The first upheld the right to walk away from a police officer without creating reasonable suspicion that would justify a Terry stop. The second held that a debt-collection letter can be deceptive to the average consumer when it collects on a time-barred debt, but does not ask the consumer to settle the debt. Her direct and persuasive writing style has also recently persuaded two separate courts to grant motions for rehearing or reconsideration, which means the courts agreed to reconsider the merits of a decision already rendered. Those motions can be viewed here and here.

Karen graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 2012. During law school she interned for the ACLU of Michigan, the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, White & Case, LLP, and the National Registry of Exonerations. Upon graduating from law school, Karen had an offer of employment from the Manhattan office of White & Case, LLP, a top-tier multinational law firm. However, she chose instead to spend the first part of her career fighting for the rights of indigent defendants at the Criminal Appeals Bureau of the New York Legal Aid Society. She joined the Law Office of Oprea & Weber in 2014.

Karen is licensed to practice law in New York and Texas. She is also admitted into the Federal District Courts in the Southern District of New York, the Western District of Texas and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is on the board of the Travis County Women Lawyers’ foundation, and is a member of the Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Texas Bar College.