About Carla
Carla Keehn studied history at Princeton University and earned her J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco. She moved quickly into public service after law school, joining the County of San Diego as a deputy public defender in 1990. That early courtroom experience set the tone for a career spent largely in trial work and public prosecution.
Her military legal service began in the mid-1980s. Keehn served as a captain in the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps in 1986 and later held the rank of captain in the California Army National Guard in 1991. Those roles involved military legal responsibilities and added a disciplinary edge to her litigation training.
Keehn joined the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1995 in the Southern District of California. She later returned to the Department in 1999 as a trial lawyer in the Environmental Crimes section. There she handled federal prosecutions and complex investigations tied to environmental law, courtroom proof, and evidence-intensive litigation.
In 2013 she took a turn toward legal education and taught at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Her academic work drew on decades of trial practice and federal prosecution; she brought practical courtroom insights into the classroom and helped prepare students for litigation and public-service careers.
Keehn’s professional affiliations reflect the directions her practice has taken. She is active in the Southwest Riverside Bar Association and the San Diego Bar Association, where she serves on the executive committee of the Trusts and Estates Section. She belongs to the California Lawyer’s Association sections for trust and estate and elder law and is a member of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, Consumer Lawyers of San Diego, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. These associations underscore a sustained engagement with elder law, probate issues, and consumer protections.
Today she practices as a trial lawyer at Keehn Law. Her work combines litigation experience from public prosecution and defense with an emphasis on matters affecting older adults, estate disputes, nursing home care and consumer-related litigation. She represents clients in court and in alternative dispute settings and continues to split time between trial work and consulting on trust and estate issues.
She now practices at Keehn Law, handling elder law, trust and estate matters, and litigation involving nursing home care and consumer protection.
