Karen E. Terry

KAREN E. TERRY is a Shareholder at Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A. in West Palm Beach and has been with the firm close to 28 years.  Ms. Terry is Florida Bar Board Certified in civil trial law as well as in health care and medical malpractice, which are the highest honors one can achieve. For the last 10 plus years in a row, she has been named as one of The Best Lawyers in America. Recently honored as one of the top-rated lawyers in health care in the United States, Ms. Terry also was selected as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in the country and Top 10 Best Female Attorneys in Florida.

Courtroom View Network recognized Ms. Terry for Top Plaintiffs’ Verdicts in 2015 and the Daily Business Review recognized her for Top Plaintiffs’ Verdicts in 2019 and 2022.  She received the highest honor awarded by the Daily Business Review as its 2016 Product Liability Litigation Lawyer of the Year. Ms. Terry was selected as The Lawyer of the Year, 2017, in Mass Torts Litigation/Class Actions by Best Lawyers in America. In 2018, she also became a Supreme Court Certified Circuit Mediator in Florida.

Ms. Terry has tried many big cases, but in August 2007, she received a jury verdict of over $25 million in Polk County, Florida against Walgreens for misfiling a prescription. In 2013, she also received a jury verdict of over $12 million in Palm Beach County, Florida and was inducted into the Florida’s Verdicts Hall of Fame for this case. She achieved the first verdict in the U.S. against a medical concierge company for the negligence of its doctor in causing catastrophic consequences for a woman.

Ms. Terry has been selected as one of the top five litigators by Florida Trend magazine and the South Florida Legal Guide. For the past 27 years she has been a member of the Florida Justice Association and the Palm Beach County Justice Association and has been active in her community. She recently was selected into the prestigious organizations the International Society of Barristers and the American College of Trial Lawyers. Ms. Terry is past President of the Palm Beach Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates and in 2022 received a very high honor of Trial Lawyer of the Year. 

Before joining Searcy Denney, Ms. Terry clerked for former Chief Judge Walter Colbath of the 15th Judicial Circuit. A native of South Florida, she graduated cum laude from Duke University in three years.  She then graduated with honors and earned a master’s degree simultaneously from the University of Florida College of Law.