Karen Dunn, a former associate White House counsel, last week took her first jump into private practice, joining Boies, Schiller & Flexner as a partner in the firm’s newly established crisis management and government response team.

“I like the idea of helping people who have big problems, figuring out how to confront them,” Dunn, 38, said in an interview. “It’s hard to imagine any massive enterprise-threatening problem that doesn’t have a Washington, D.C., component to it.”

Previously, Dunn prepared two of the highest ranking government leaders for nationally televised hot seats.