Karen Christiansen lawsuit

A Los Angeles County pro­sec­utor sought a job last month for her neph­ew from a law firm rep­res­ent­ing po­ten­tial wit­nesses in a con­flict-of-in­terest case she was hand­ling, an ac­tion that leg­al ex­perts cri­ti­cized.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ju­liet Schmidt, a mem­ber of the dis­trict at­tor­ney’s pub­lic in­teg­rity di­vi­sion, sent an email to the firm of­fer­ing to provide case law in­form­a­tion “that might ex­on­er­ate” its cli­ents in a mal­prac­tice claim be­fore men­tion­ing that her neph­ew was gradu­at­ing from Pep­perdine Law School.