Karen M. Charlson

Karen Charlson's practice focuses on litigation with concentration in the areas of:

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) federal and state plan compliance and litigation
• Wrongful discharge and retaliation/whistleblower defense
• Workers’ compensation defense

Karen assists clients with federal and state plan Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance issues, challenging citations and defending against formal Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) actions. She has experience running investigations and defense of fatality matters and other multiple fatality catastrophic matters involving explosions and building structural issues. She has represented clients in OSHA and workers’ compensation matters in the following industries: healthcare, nonprofit social services, retail, public sector, construction, manufacturing, food production, paper production and trucking.

Karen’s workers’ compensation defense work is primarily with self-insured and high-deductible employers, defending against claims in an administrative setting and retaliation claims in district court. However, she regularly counsels employers on nonlitigated workers’ compensation issues including workplace safety, risk management, return-to-work programs and the interplay of workers’ compensation with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

She has handled jury trials, bench trials, administrative hearings, and has appeared before the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals, the National Labor Relations Board, Department of Labor and Industry Administrative Courts in multiple states, and the Federal Occupational Safety & Health Review Board. She also presents and trains employers, insurers/administrators and other lawyers on related topics.