Karen Kaiser

Karen is director of access to justice, overseeing the work of the Institute that creates tools to harness AI to expand access to justice for women and journalists globally, making it easier for vulnerable communities to access free legal support.

Karen has been a leading global freedom of expression advocate for 25 years, championing press freedom, journalist safety, and freedom of expression. Prior to her role at CFJ, Karen served as SVP, General Counsel, and Chief Compliance Officer at The Associated Press for 12 years, where she was responsible for overseeing all the legal operations of the news organization globally, as well as the company’s governance, risk, and compliance, with particular emphasis on threats to press freedom, journalist safety, content protection, crisis management, and AI governance.

Karen has been a leader in advancing press freedom protections globally. In both 2014 and 2022, Karen was instrumental in reforming the U.S. Department of Justice Guidelines on Subpoenas for Members of the Press, and served on the DOJ News Media Task Force for over a decade, meeting regularly with the U.S. Attorney General on press freedom issues. She has testified before the U.S. Congress for stronger protections for journalists, and has engaged on press freedom issues with global leaders and international organizations, and has built partnerships advancing press freedom rights globally.

Karen is Chair of the International Bar Association Media Law Committee, and is on the Steering Committee of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and also serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Media Development Investment Fund, the Media Advisory Council of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, and the Advisory Committee for Lawyers for Reporters. She is a frequent speaker at numerous international conferences on issues of international press freedom rights, and the intersection with AI governance, information integrity, human rights, and democracy, speaking at venues including UNESCO World Press Freedom Day, G20, and the International Journalism Festival. Karen has twice been honored as one of “America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel” by the National Law Journal for championing press freedom rights.

Prior to serving as General Counsel, Karen was chief newsroom lawyer at AP, and previously also held positions at the Tribune Company, and as a litigator at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, where she worked on landmark First Amendment cases. She clerked for the Honorable Kevin Thomas Duffy in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

Karen holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, a J.D. from Fordham Law School, a certificate from the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD Business School (France), and a certificate in Crisis Leadership from Columbia Business School. Karen is conversational in French.