Karen Witt is a partner in the firm's Business Transactions Practice Group and is cochair of the firm’s Banking and Financial Services Industry Group. Her practice emphasizes securities, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, corporate finance transactions, and legal opinions.
In her financial institutions practice, Karen assists large and small financial institutions and their holding companies throughout the Midwestern and Western United States with mergers and acquisitions, branch purchases and assumptions, de novo charters, holding company formations, geographic expansion, capital raising, regulatory compliance issues, strategic planning, stock redemptions, FDIC-assisted bank purchases, business structuring issues, and corporate governance matters.
Karen’s securities practice has included representing issuers and investors in underwritten public offerings and private placements of stock and debt instruments. She regularly advises boards of directors and board committees on regulatory compliance issues, fiduciary duties, recapitalizations, corporate governance matters, tender offers, and going private transactions. Her securities practice experience includes working with publicly held companies to comply with stock exchange rules and securities laws.
Karen has substantial experience in the formation, merger and acquisition, and financing of businesses in a variety of industries, including banking, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, waste management, health care, real estate development, software, baby products, film production, paper products, environmental, alternative energy, information systems, and transportation. She represents clients in stock and asset acquisitions, joint ventures, tender offers, and statutory mergers.
Clients value Karen’s long-term approach to relationships, describing her as a focused, committed team player who sees each transaction within a larger strategic context. Karen’s clients are confident they have the sophisticated counsel required to balance and resolve issues to achieve their goals in a timely, commercial, and efficient manner. Karen provides savvy, actionable counsel geared to the demands of complex, fast-paced corporate transactions.
Karen's hobbies include hiking, gardening, and traveling with her family when she is away from the office.
Representative Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients
Financial Institutions
- Representation of bank holding companies in public and private equity and debt offerings.
- Representation of banks and bank holding companies in all types of mergers, acquisitions, and disposition transactions, including branch purchase and assumption transactions, charter conversions, and FDIC-assisted bank purchases.
- Representation of banks and bank holding companies in de novo charters, holding company formations, S-corporation formations, squeeze-out transactions, and stock redemptions.
- Representation of financial institutions with federal and state regulatory approvals and compliance, including with the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, various
- State Banking Commissions, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the United States Treasury.
- Representation of banks, bank holding companies, and their boards of directors in connection with regulatory compliance issues, strategic planning, business structuring issues, and corporate governance matters.
Capital Raising / Securities
- Public and private offerings of equity, debt, and derivative securities.
- Representation of both issuers and underwriters in public offerings, including initial public offerings, secondary offerings, and registered shareholder offerings.
- Private and public offerings in connection with mergers and acquisitions.
- Representation of clients regarding compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission rules and regulations and stock exchange rules.
- Assisting clients with ongoing compliance and reporting under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Forms 10-Q, 10-K, 8-K and proxy statements.
Corporate Governance
- Representation of boards of directors and board committees with regulatory compliance issues, fiduciary duties, succession planning, business plans, compensation, charters, director qualifications, and other corporate governance matters.
- Representation of financial institutions and their boards of directors with the negotiations of regulatory agreements and administrative proceedings related to cease and desist orders and other regulatory enforcement actions.
- Strategic planning retreats with boards of directors.
Mergers and Acquisitions
- Representation of individuals and public and private entities as both buyers and sellers in acquisition transactions.
- Representation in all types of mergers, acquisitions, and disposition transactions, including statutory mergers, asset purchases, tender offers, and branch purchase and assumption transactions.
- Mergers and acquisitions in numerous industries, including banking, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, waste management, health care, real estate development, software, baby products, film production, paper products, environmental, alternative energy, information systems, and transportation.
Professional & Civic Engagement
- Colorado Women's Bar Association, Member
- Business Law Section of the Colorado State Bar, Member
- Denver Bar Association, Member
- American Bar Association, Member
- Independent Bankers of Colorado Education Foundation, Director, 2014-2016
Honors & Awards
- The Best Lawyers in America, Corporate Law, 2021-2025; Business Organizations, 2023-2025
- Law Week Colorado, “Best Banking Lawyer,” Barrister's Best, 2019
- 5280 Magazine, Top Lawyers, Banking, 2023-2024
