Carolyn P. Short

Carolyn P. Short is a Reed Smith trial lawyer focusing on commercial and employment disputes. She was declared by American Lawyer Media to be one of the 50 most influential women lawyers in Pennsylvania and was described in that article as "one of the most feared civil defense lawyers, especially in employment law." She was featured in Forbes Magazine as one of the most sought-after civil defense lawyers in Philadelphia.

Ms. Short has extensive experience in defending federal and state class action matters, including antitrust, employment discrimination, securities fraud, and medical device cases, as well as various commercial class action matters. She also has extensive experience in the defense of civil rights class action claims.

From January 2005 until March of 2006, Ms. Short left her partnership at Reed Smith to become General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for the nomination proceedings of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. She returned to Reed Smith immediately thereafter and is currently Reed Smith’s co-lead partner of the Business and Commercial disputes division of the Complex Litigation Group. Early in her career, she was a homicide prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and a Federal Public Defender in Minnesota. She clerked immediately after law school for the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.