Karen Popp, an internationally recognized attorney and UNC Charlotte alumna, has been elected chair of the University’s Board of Trustees.
The board also elected Joe Price, a longtime business leader in Charlotte, as vice chair and Charlotte banker Laura Schulte as secretary, earlier this month. The new officers will serve one-year terms on the 13-member board that is responsible for governing the University.
In her legal career, Popp has managed several high profile cases, from prosecuting members of New York’s crime syndicate families to serving as a White House counsel to President Bill Clinton. She has earned an international reputation for her ethics expertise through her work on cases of fraud, bribery, kickbacks and wrongdoing involving important civil and ethical implications.
“I have loved this University since the moment I stepped on campus as a freshman in 1976,” Popp said. “UNC Charlotte has grown tremendously and plays critical roles in higher education, research and development and many other respects in the Charlotte area, the state and in other communities afar. It is an exciting time to be part of the University and its future.”
A partner at Washington D.C.-based Sidley Austin LLP, Popp is global coordinator of Sidley’s white collar practice and a member of the firm’s executive committee. She also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the UNC Law School Alumni Association and as a chair and member of the Chancellors’ Scholars Committee of UNC Law School.
Frequently recognized for her work, Popp recently was named as one of the Top 250 Women in Litigation, a publication honoring the achievements of female lawyers in litigation practices in the United States. She was appointed by the governor’s office to serve on the North Carolina Council for Women.
A native of Elkin, Popp graduated cum laude from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1985. She served as an editor on the North Carolina Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. Upon graduation from law school, Popp clerked for the Honorable Sam J. Ervin III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She received her undergraduate degree from UNC Charlotte, where she graduated cum laude in 1980.
While a student at UNC Charlotte, Popp was involved in campus activities and received numerous awards. She was student body president, the first woman in the UNC system to be elected to that position. As a freshman at UNC Charlotte, she played varsity women’s basketball, was a member of the N.C. Student Legislature and the coordinator for a leg of the torch relay run from Ithaca Falls, N.Y., to Houston, Texas, to celebrate the “International Woman’s Year” in 1976.