Mr. Karp exclusively practices animal law statewide from Bellingham,
Washington. Having graduated from Gonzaga University with a B.A. Honors,
and University of Washington with a J.D. and M.S. in statistics, this
is his thirteenth year actively practicing law. He founded and served as
first chair of the new Washington State Bar Association's (“WSBA”)
Animal Law Section and has held executive committee positions since its
formation. He has also served in a vice chair position of the American
Bar Association's (“ABA”) Animal Law Committee since its formation. Mr.
Karp served six years as a contributing editor of the Animal Legal Report,
produced by Animal Legal Reports Services, regularly writes on the
topic of animal law, and routinely speaks around the nation about
animal law, including at Yale, Harvard, Vanderbilt, and Vermont Law
School. He has taught and continues to teach animal law at the
University of Washington School of Law since 2004 and Seattle University
School of Law since 2004. He has been quoted in TIME, the National Law Journal, the ABA Journal, and other periodicals, including a dedicated article on his practice in the Seattle Times and Seattle Weekly.
Mr.
Karp has co-authored the ABA Tort and Insurance Practice Section’s
Survey on Animal Tort and Insurance Law for five consecutive years,
published three articles in Thomson West’s Causes of Action series pertaining to injuries to animals by animals (38 COA.2d 281
(2008)), intentional injuries to animals by humans (44 COA.2d 211
(2010)), and Section 1983 claims involving injury to an animal (48
COA.2d 527 (2011)), a fourth article to be published in American Legal Reports pertaining to preconviction and postconviction forfeiture of animals, and is contracted to complete a fifth article in Am. Jur. Trials pertaining to veterinary malpractice litigation and co-author a sixth article in Am. Jur. Proof of Facts pertaining to dangerous dog litigation.
He
has chaired several animal law continuing legal education (“CLE”)
conferences hosted by the WSBA, and has been a speaker at nearly forty
CLEs around the nation, all on the subject of animal law, including in
New Mexico, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Connecticut, Massachusetts,
and Florida.
With positive results, he has argued before the
Washington Court of Appeals on the subject of animal law, resulting in
some decisions that many regard as seminal. Since first joining a
superior court arbitration panel in 2006, Mr. Karp now sits on such
panels in Mason, Thurston, Kitsap, Pierce, King, Snohomish, Skagit, and
Whatcom Counties.
Mr. Karp and his wife have been vegan for eleven and twenty years, respectively, and care for four cats, ages 1, 3, 15, and 24.
