Sarah Karpinen

Judge Karpinen was appointed in July 2023. She began her legal career with Region 7 in Detroit, where she was a trial attorney for thirteen years. From there, she spent five years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan, where she worked in the civil rights and defensive litigation units, and three years at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel’s Midwest Field Office, where she investigated whistleblower retaliation and other federal employment complaints. She then briefly worked as an Associate General Counsel for the UAW before returning to federal service. Judge Karpinen received her bachelor's degree from Hampshire College, her master's degree in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and her Juris Doctor summa cum laude from Wayne State University Law School, where she was the editor-in-chief of the Wayne Law Review.