By Philip L. Levin, M.D.
Karen and David Sawyer have the unusual distinction of being a married couple both of whom are medical practitioners and both of whom are lawyers. They fell in love in Austin where David was doing his internship at the hospital where Karen worked as a nurse. They returned to David’s home here on the Mississippi Coast to marry, and David began his 40 years working at Memorial Hospital of Gulfport. Here they both attended law school and became certified attorneys.
Karen graduated with honors from the University of Texas in Austin in 1975 with a baccalaureate degree in nursing, and after migrating to our Magnolia State, she worked as an ob-gyn nurse practitioner for the Mississippi State Department of Health in public health clinics in Gulfport, Biloxi, Wiggins and Picayune. Although greatly enjoying this life, Karen recognized she had the skills and energy to start a second career, and the study of law beckoned. Karen received her juris doctorate with distinction (cum laude) from Tulane Law School in 1992 and was admitted to the Mississippi Bar that same year.
When you meet Karen, you’re immediately struck by her presence, her calm certitude that she can help you. Throughout her life she’s been the leader, the person who her colleagues recognized had the talent and drive to bring the best out of an organization. Among her many professional accolades, she served as president of the Harrison County Bar Association for five years, vice chair of the Mississippi Board of Bar Admissions, chairwoman of the Committee on Professional Responsibility, three years as chairwoman of the Women in the Profession Committee, and two terms on the merit selection panel for recommending lawyers to be U.S. Magistrate Court judges.
“It’s important for women lawyers to mentor younger lawyers,” Karen says. As president of the Russell Blass Walker American Inn of Court, a professional group devoted to promoting professionalism and congeniality among lawyers, she works to bring together new lawyers with more seasoned ones. “Being an aggressive advocate may not be the best way to solve a legal issue,” she explains, certainly a good lesson for any attorney. As a professional mediator, Karen believes, “Even though I’m an advocate for my client, it’s most important to find a solution that’s fair to everyone.”
Not satisfied to limiting her giving of her time to her law brethren, Karen has promoted multiple social causes with distinction, including serving eight years as a member of the board of directors of the South Mississippi Aids Task Force, holding membership on the League of Women Voters and the Mississippi Medical Alliance, and serving on the Board of Trustees of the Great Southern Club. She has been honored to receive The Alonzo Westbrook Public Service Award in 2008, named one of the Women Trailblazers by the Women in the Profession Committee in 2012, and received the Mississippi Bar’s Distinguished Service Award for 2012-2013. In July 2015, she was named the Susie Blue Buchanan Award winner by the Women in the Profession Committee.
Despite both Sawyers being duo professionals, their tidy home on a back street of Pass Christian shows their modest views. Childless, they shower their love on their rescue dogs, a poodle chihuahua mix and a poodle mix, often seen on those back streets where Karen is pushing them around in a stroller. Keeping in shape clearly has always been important to both Sawyers, so much so that Karen has run seven marathons. “Running the Boston 1989 marathon was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” she told me. Their vacations include hundred-mile bicycle rides through France and Spain, including Provence, Tuscany, and Barcelona. Even now she works out at least twice a week, practicing Selah Yoga, which she describes as “the gentlest type.”
Karen, still working as an attorney at Copeland, Cook, Taylor & Bush, P.A., enjoys her home time with David, now retired and doing the cooking. Karen reads a lot (her favorite author is John Irving), and leads the Coast County Alliance book club in her office. Asked what she likes best about living in South Mississippi, she replies, “I love the beach; it’s my therapy. I drive on Highway 90 every day to my office; that restful and restorative view can’t be beat.”