Overview
Karen Bell brings 30 years of legal and human resources experience to AALRR's Southern California Education Law Practice Group. Ms. Bell started her legal career at AALRR. She went on to serve as the Title IX Officer and then counsel for the University of California, Irvine. She later served as the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Superior Court of California, County of Orange. Ms. Bell has conducted and supervised hundreds of discrimination, harassment, and bullying cases, always with care for the rights of all parties.
Ms. Bell’s work in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging extends beyond the realm of investigations. She is trained in restorative practices and has served as a volunteer mediator for discrimination-related cases. She served as a member of the California State Bar Ad Hoc Commission on the Discipline System, which was charged with developing recommendations to ensure that the State Bar's enforcement of professional rules of conduct is fair and effective. She also served as a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Irvine, teaching upper-class seminars on “Gender and the Law.” She regularly conducts training in conflict resolution, performance management, and effective supervision. She holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) and Society for Human Resources-Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) credentials.
Representative Matters
Obtained a published decision in Governing Board of ABC Unified School District v. Haar (1994), upholding the termination of a middle school teacher for sexually harassing his students. The Court of Appeal held that the trial court was not required to defer to the findings of the Commission on Professional Competence and properly exercised its independent judgment in finding the teacher’s sexual harassment was immoral and sufficient to warrant dismissal.