Karen Cooke graduated from the Albany Law School of Union University in Albany, New York, in 1993 after receiving her Bachelor's Degree cum laude in 1990 from Canisius College in Buffalo. Karen practiced law in western New York for seven years, becoming an experienced trial attorney while representing both plaintiffs and defendants. She moved to Baltimore and joined Moore & Jackson, where she has specialized in all aspects in the defense of civil litigaton.

Karen and her husband, an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have two little girls.