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- Gustavus Adolphus College, B.A., 2005
- William Mitchell College of Law, J.D., 2008
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- State of Minnesota
- U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Rule 114 Qualified Mediator
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- Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Minnesota Chapter
- Minnesota Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- Minnesota Women’s Lawyers
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- Children’s Law Center, Volunteer Attorney
- Tubman Family Alliance, Volunteer Attorney
- Hennepin County Volunteer Lawyers Network
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- Honoree, Minnesota Super Lawyers, 2024-present
- Top Lawyers in Minnesota, Minnesota Monthly, 2023-present
- Honoree, Minnesota Rising Stars, 2015-2023
- Top Women Attorneys in Minnesota, 2016-present
- North Star Lawyer, Minnesota State Bar Association, 2015-2017
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My most rewarding/fun/exhausting job is being a mom, and chauffeur, to three boys. I am also an avid runner, and I enjoy traveling, trying new restaurants, and spending time with my family.
Karolina M. Brekken-Hoerl is an attorney at Best & Flanagan whose practice centers on family law — the kind of work where legal outcomes and personal ones are almost never separate. Her clients are people in the middle of something hard: a divorce, a custody dispute, an adoption, a question about what their family is going to look like on the other side. Karolina approaches that work with both clear-eyed practicality and genuine care, and she takes the time to understand who a client is before she starts working on what they need.
Her family law practice is broad. Karolina handles everything from prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, complicated custody matters, divorces, parental relocation, post-decree work, and step-parent adoptions. She finds meaning in representing kids in foster care through the Children’s Law Center, and through her pro bono work. Karolina brings the same directness and attention to all clients that she brings to everything else.
Karolina is also a trained family law mediator. For clients who want to reach a fair resolution without the full weight of litigation, she helps them work toward outcomes that reflect their actual goals, not just positions they’ve staked out in the early days of a dispute.
She is known as a fierce advocate. She is also known as someone approaches her cases with understanding and kindness. Those two things are not in tension in her practice — they’re the reason it works. Clients leave not just with legal resolution, but with the knowledge and tools to move forward in life.