Karen Christian, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (Courtesy photo)

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has added Karen Christian as a partner in its congressional investigations practice in Washington, D.C., from the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Christian has been with the committee for more than a decade, serving as general counsel since 2014. Earlier, as counsel and then chief counsel to the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, she spearheaded high-profile, complex investigations, including the U.S. Department of Energy's failed loan guarantee to solar company Solyndra in 2011, the implementation of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act and the rollout of HealthCare.gov in 2013, and the General Motors ignition switch controversy in 2014.

“Akin Gump was a natural fit for me,” Christian said, citing the firm's broad depth of expertise in both policy and the law.

After two years as an associate in the litigation department at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Christian joined the Energy and Commerce Committee in 2006 and gradually climbed the ranks there.

“After 13 years, I felt like I soaked as much out of my Hill experience as I could,” Christian said. With Democrats set to control the House in 2019, she said she viewed the end of the 115th Congress as a “natural transition time.”

In moving to Akin Gump, Christian said she will be working shoulder-to-shoulder with people she formerly sat across the table from as a congressional investigator, namely Raphael “Rafi” Prober, co-head of Akin Gump's congressional investigations practice, and Steven Ross, the practice's other co-leader.

“Karen is one of the best-regarded and most experienced congressional investigations lawyers on the Hill,” Prober said, citing her “consummate professionalism” and work opposite him on the committee. Akin Gump chairwoman Kim Koopersmith noted in a statement that Christian's experience was particularly necessary for the firm's clients now, “in this environment of increased risk for businesses resulting from investigations.”

Christian's endurance in the face of lengthy legal squabbles grabbed headlines in 2017, when her committee held a 27-hour markup on the American Health Care Act in 2017. The AHCA was the House Republicans' answer to the ACA, but it never reached President Donald Trump's desk as it was dead-on-arrival in the U.S. Senate.

Her combination of investigative and policy experience is likely to come in handy as the new Democratic majority takes charge, amid what Christian described as a “key time for investigations” both for corporations and for the Trump administration.