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Karen Getman was admitted to the New York Bar in 1986, the District of Columbia Bar in 1987, and the California Bar in 1988. She is a graduate of Yale College (B.A. with distinction, 1980) and Harvard Law School (J.D. cum laude, 1985), and was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Women's Law Journal.

Ms. Getman served as Chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission from March, 1999 to April, 2003. She was a member of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board from May, 2003 through February, 2005.

Ms. Getman was the first Executive in Residence at the Center on Politics at the University of California, Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, where she currently serves as a member of the IGS National Advisory Council. Ms. Getman also is a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley School of Law, where she co-teaches the course on Regulating Public Integrity. Ms. Getman previously served on the boards of Women Executives in State Government and Students Run Oakland, and was a member of the Assembly Speaker's Commission on the California Initiative Process.

Ms. Getman has extensive experience in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies, and represents a variety of clients in public policy and constitutional litigation and all aspects of ballot measure drafting and qualification. Most recently, Ms. Getman successfully challenged a local ordinance's ban on inter-candidate transfers of campaign contributions; succeeded in contesting certification of a proposed manual count voting system; represented the League of Women Voters in litigation over the counting of write-in ballots in the San Diego mayoral race; and represented the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties as Amici in Vargas v. Salinas, recently decided in the California Supreme Court. Ms. Getman advises candidates, committees, and public agencies regarding compliance with the state Political Reform Act, the federal Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act, and other legal matters, including conflicts of interest, financial disclosure requirements, open meeting laws, and use of public funds. Ms. Getman advises the California Teachers Association on matters relating to the constitutional school funding guarantee and other legislative and constitutional issues, and was lead counsel in CTA v. Schwarzenegger. She has represented school districts on a variety of constitutional and funding issues, and recently represented the State Superintendent of Public Instruction in a successful challenge to a newly-imposed algebra requirement for eighth grade students.

Ms. Getman's publications include co-authoring with Stanford Law Professor Pam Karlan a chapter in Conflict of Interest and Public Life (Cambridge Univ. Press 2008). She also authored chapters in Win the Right Way (Berkeley Public Policy Press 2005) and California Votes: The 2002 Governor's Race and the Recall That Made History (Berkeley Public Policy Press 2003).