When Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison partner Karen Dunn arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this week, she had a few initial items to check off her list.

One was to visit the major locations where white supremacists marched more than four years ago at the deadly “Unite the Right” rally, the subject of the civil jury trial that Dunn and others will argue over in the coming weeks. Another was to check in with the lawyers on her trial team. “I just said to them and acknowledged out loud that these are hard circumstances. Not only is the subject matter very difficult, but we’re still in the world of trying cases during COVID, which can be very challenging,” Dunn said in an interview.