Karen Kaiser

senior VP and general counsel The Associated Press

Karen Kaiser has been a leading global freedom of expression advocate for 25 years, championing press freedom, journalist safety, and freedom of expression. Karen currently serves as SVP, General Counsel, and Chief Compliance Officer of The Associated Press. In that capacity, Karen is responsible for overseeing all the legal operations of the company globally, as well as the company’s risk, governance and compliance portfolio, with particular emphasis on threats to press freedoms, journalist safety, disinformation, crisis management, and AI governance.

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 has twice been honored as one of “America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel” by the National Law Journal for championing First Amendment rights. 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 on the Advisory Committee for Lawyers for Reporters.

Karen holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a J.D. from Fordham Law School. She also holds a certificate from the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD Business School in France.

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