Karla L. Palmer

With over 30  years’ experience as a litigator, Karla Palmer’s focus at Hyman Phelps is on DEA and FDA enforcement and litigation matters.  Ms. Palmer advises clients throughout the supply chain – from manufacturers and distributors to outsourcing facilities, pharmacies and doctors – on a range of issues including DEA and FDA regulations and guidance, government inspections (including Form 483s) and investigations, warning letters, recalls, consent decrees, and administrative and federal proceedings.  She has also handled administrative proceedings at DEA involving, but not limited to, registrant revocation actions, including the appeal of those matters in federal courts throughout the country.  She also regularly represents clients in board licensing actions throughout the United States.  In addition, she has written about and addressed industry audiences across the country on all aspects of the passage and implementation of the 2013 Drug Quality and Security Act including both compounding and supply chain issues, its guidance documents, and implementing regulations.  She is well-versed in compounding laws, regulations and guidance, and regularly counsels clients on these topics.

Over the course of her career, Ms. Palmer has also been involved in all aspects of general commercial litigation matters. She has served as trial counsel in federal, state, and administrative courts in the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Virginia, and before the Court of Federal Claims, the U.S. Tax Court, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). She also has significant arbitration and mediation experience.

Before joining Hyman, Phelps & McNamara in 2010, Ms. Palmer was a partner at a large international law firm where she was head of the Washington, D.C. trial department and co-partner-in-charge of its national recruiting program. Following law school, Ms. Palmer clerked for the Honorable Claude M. Hilton, former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division. She has served as both lead and local counsel in the Eastern District of Virginia.

While in law school, Ms. Palmer was an associate editor of The University of Richmond Law Review, a member of the McNeill Law Honor Society, and a legal writing teaching assistant.

Ms. Palmer currently serves on the Board of Governors, Health Law Section,  of the Virginia State Bar.