Karisa D. Johnson is a partner at Koukol Johnson Schmit & Milone, LLC. Karisa’s primary practice areas are family law, mediation, estate planning, and civil litigation matters.

Karisa believes that taking a holistic approach to representing her clients results in better outcomes. She applies this philosophy in both her advocacy on behalf of her clients, as well as her role as neutral when mediating disputes between parties. This philosophy extends to her pro bono work, which she regularly performs to improve access to justice for underrepresented people in our community.

Karisa is licensed to practice in both Nebraska and Colorado, with a focus on finding problem-solving approaches to dispute resolution. She offers a spectrum of services to bring about the best possible outcome for each client, including joint-session mediations in estate disputes and family law matters, caucus and videoconference mediations in high-conflict disputes or those between parties whose relationship includes power and control dynamics or domestic violence, collaborative practice in dissolution of marriage matters, and traditional advocacy in a litigation context.

Karisa received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing prior to attending Creighton University School of Law, where she received her Juris Doctor in 2004. She is a Basic Trained Mediator, an Approved Parenting Act Mediator and Nebraska ODR Mediator, a Specialized-ADR Trained Mediator, a Restorative Justice Trained Mediator, and a Special Education Trained Mediator.

She is a member of the American Bar Association, the Nebraska State Bar Association, the Colorado Bar Association, the Larimer County, CO Bar Association, the Omaha, NE Bar Association, the Nebraska Mediation Association, the Nebraska Academy of Collaborative Professionals, and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.

Karisa works with the Nebraska State Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project as a Self-Help Center Volunteer Lawyer, is involved with the Nebraska State Bar Association Legal Services Committee, is Finance Chair, Treasurer and Co-Chair of the Nebraska Academy of Collaborative Professionals, is a performance judge for the Judge Lyle Strom High School Mock Trial Program, and is a mediation coach for the Creighton University School of Law.

She has been awarded the Nebraska Lawyer’s Foundation Visionary Award (2016) and the Alfred G. Ellick Lawyer Referral Service Award (2019).

In her free time, Karisa enjoys board and card games, travel and home improvement projects.