About Karen Barth Menzies

After nearly three years as a solo practitioner, attorney Karen Barth Menzies has merged KBM Law with the Justice Law Collaborative, a female-led firm dedicated to fighting for women’s issues.

Karen founded KBM Law when California and New York temporarily suspended the statute of limitations for sexual assault lawsuits. Survivors with documented claims had two years to initiate legal action before the legal window closed. Several women asked Karen to represent their claims, but the firm she worked with at the time decided they weren’t a good fit for the litigation because the statutes were novel, and the lawsuits required significant individual attention. With the clock ticking on the statutory window, the best way she could continue to help the survivors was to go it alone.

The cases proved every bit as difficult as she expected—and in ways she couldn’t have imagined. Karen knew she’d need additional resources but struggled to find co-counsel who were up for the challenge. “These difficult, righteous fights that go against the grain in the legal world, they’re hard to do as a solo practitioner,” Karen says, “and they’re even harder to do with a firm that isn’t like-minded.”

The founders of Justice Law Collaborative, Kim Dougherty and Paula Bliss, share Karen’s values, and they agreed to help Karen take on her tough cases. “They had the attitude of ‘Let’s just fight as hard as we can because no one else will,’” Karen says. “Strength in numbers means we’re going to be able to do so much more, and our clients will benefit from the experience and the creativity generated by the group.”

The Influence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Early in her career, Karen had to fight against the grain in the competitive, male-dominated civil plaintiffs’ bar. “As a woman,” Karen says, “you had to fight harder to be recognized and for your voice to be heard.” Around that time, Ruth Bader Ginsburg earned her seat on the United States Supreme Court, and Karen found inspiration in the judge’s storied career.

“By her gender, by her size—she personifies the person you would underestimate the most,” Karen says, “but proved time and again her brilliance in achieving justice for the vulnerable and disenfranchised by using the system’s tools against those in power.” 

Karen was impressed by Ginsburg’s ability to make incremental changes from inside the system. “She figured out ways to get justice completely against the grain by tapping into her opponents’ beliefs without them even realizing it,” Karen says. She points to the 1972 Moritz case that Ginsburg prosecuted on behalf of a man who accused the IRS of gender discrimination for denying his deductions for expenses related to the care of his elderly mother—solely because he was a man. Until then, the government generally only recognized women as caregivers. 

Ginsburg won the case, and the ramifications have benefited the cause of gender equality. “She used a case involving a man’s civil rights,” Karen says, “ to score a victory for women in their fight for civil rights.” When the government recognizes that both men and women can be primary caregivers, it allows women more equal footing with men in their professional careers. Ginsburg said, “Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.”

Karen believes Ginsburg’s creativity as a litigator made her a more remarkable Supreme Court Justice. “I don’t know if she would have been as good at being ‘The Dissenter’ in the Supreme Court,” Karen says, “ if she hadn’t already gone against the grain for so long and had the courage to stick to stand her ground, never deviating from her core values.”