Karen Lindholdt has been practicing law in Washington since 1994 and in Idaho since 2000. She is licensed in the United States District Court for Eastern Washington and Idaho, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

She has focused on public-interest litigation, combining work as a public defender and an environmental attorney. She has conducted over 30 jury trials and was a 2009 graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyer College.

She began her practice as an Assistant Public Defender for Spokane County from 1994 to 1998. In 1998, she was one of the charter members of the Center for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that advocates for people and issues that other lawyers cannot or will not take on. At the CFJ, her practice included representing low-income individuals on a myriad of civil legal issues, as well as representing individuals in Washington and Idaho who were adversely impacted by smoke from burning stubble from farm fields.

Environmental causes have been a focus for Ms. Lindholdt her entire career. In 2001 and 2002, she focused solely as in-house counsel for Safe Air For Everyone, a non-profit organization founded in Sandpoint, Idaho, whose mission was to stop the bluegrass field burning in Northern Idaho that was harming citizens’ health. In 2003, she began working as the staff attorney for The Lands Council, a regional water and forest advocacy organization. In 2006, Ms. Lindholdt began a role as supervisor of the Environmental Law Clinic at the Gonzaga University College of Law, where she oversaw law students who represented The Lands Council and other non-profit environmental organizations that were objecting to harmful logging practices in the national forests. She also taught Environmental Law at Gonzaga University

From 2003 to the present, Ms. Lindholdt has dedicated a large portion of her time to representing indigent criminal defendants. She has been participating as a federal Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel lawyer, representing individuals charged with crimes in federal court, and most recently she had a contract to provide felony representation as a public defender in Grant County, Washington.

Ms. Lindholdt is currently focusing on consumer rights law where she represents people who are being harassed and sued by debt collectors. The economic downturn has increased the number of individuals who struggle to pay their monthly bills, and Ms. Lindholdt is striving to help these people. Ms. Lindholdt’s focus is litigation under the Fair Debt Collection Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act.