Kieve Law Offices


Headquarters: San Francisco, California

1 The Best Lawyers in America® award

Best Law Firms Edition 14 National Badge Visit Best Law Firms profile for Kieve Law Offices Visit Website

Loren Kieve is a first-chair trial lawyer with a demonstrated record of resolving challenging, high stakes disputes. He has repeatedly been selected for inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America in commercial litigation and his firm has also repeatedly been commended as one of the Best Law Firms (Tier 1) for commercial litigation. For eighteen years in a row, he has been named as a top “Super Lawyer” in business and commercial litigation. He is rated a “10” (the highest rating) by Avvo. When he practiced in Washington, The Washingtonian magazine listed him among the city's top lawyers.

He has represented and advised major U.S. and foreign companies and individuals in a broad variety of complex, jury and judge trials, appeals and settlements, including securities, insurance coverage, construction, environmental, derivative, financial services, commodities trading, antitrust, contract, RICO, insurance sales practices, products liability, defamation, personal injury, employment, discrimination, real estate, mine disaster, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other commercial cases.

His cases have involved complex foreign parties and issues, major government contract matters, including civil and criminal false claims act cases, and formal and informal administrative proceedings and other inquiries.

He is valued by his clients as a creative, hands-on problem solver. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in nationwide class actions, and arbitrated both international and domestic cases.

He has been honored for his longstanding record of public service to the legal profession, civil rights and higher education.

Representative Matters

Internet Software Provider Litigation

Represented a Canadian online retailer in litigation against a major U.S. internet business solutions provider for alleged fraud.

Breach of Contract Litigation

Represented a nationally recognized educator in litigation against her former employer for breach of its agreement to promote the acclaimed system of curriculum courses she designed.

FDIC Litigation

Represented the bankruptcy trustee of a bank holding company in litigation against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation arising out of the FDIC’s takeover of the holding company’s subsidiary bank and the transfer of $127 million from the holding company to the subsidiary bank prior to the FDIC’s takeover.

American Frontier (Marine), Inc. Litigation

Represented a ship brokerage company in litigation against William Koch’s Oxbow Carbon company over shipments of petcoke and other commodities to Asia.

Parmalat S.p.A.

Represented Dr. Enrico Bondi, the Italian extraordinary commissioner for Parmalat S.p.A., in the U.S. courts against Deloitte and Grant Thornton for accounting malpractice and other claims arising out of the $14 billion bankruptcy of the company, the largest in European history and referred to as the “Enron of Europe.”

Also represented Dr. Bondi in two separate U.S. suits against Citigroup and Bank of America for fraud and other claims arising out of the company’s bankruptcy.

Mobil and Mobil Oil

Regularly represented and advised Mobil Corporation and Mobil Oil Corporation on a broad range of complex foreign and domestic issues in some of the companies’ most important matters, including in the Exxon-Valdez oil spill cases.

Education

Oxford University
(M.A., 1975)

University of New Mexico School of Law
(J.D., 1972)

Editor, New Mexico Law Review

Editor, Natural Resources Journal

Teaching Assistant in Constitutional Law

National Moot Court Competition (best brief and best oral argument)

Oxford University
(B.A., Jurisprudence, with honours, 1971)

Stanford University
(1965-68)

Prior Associations

Partner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLC, 2002 - 2008

Assistant General Counsel, Manager of Legal Department and Head of the Litigation and Claims Group, Bechtel Group, Inc., Feb. 2000 - March 2002

Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton, 1987 - 2000

Associate, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson, 1974 - 1987

Law clerk to Hon. Oliver Seth, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 1973 - 74

Law clerk to Hon. Edmund L. Palmieri, United States District Judge (S.D.N.Y.), sitting by designation on the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico and on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1973, 1974

Bar Admissions

California

The District of Columbia

New York

Virginia

New Mexico

U.S. Supreme Court

Nine federal circuit courts

Ten federal district courts

Professional Activities

American Bar Association:

Coordinating Committee on Civil Justice Reform, 1990-93

Founding Member, Standing Committee on Gun Violence, 1993-94

Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements, 2008-2011

Commission on Immigration, 2011-13

ABA Litigation Section (selected positions):

Co-chair, Federal Procedure Committee, 1989-92

Special Review Committee on the Federal Civil Rules, 1990-92

D.C. Circuit Member, Task Force on District Court Advisory Groups under the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990, 1991

Co-chair, Task Force on the Justice System, 1994-95

Council Member, 1996-99

Liaison, Federal Judicial Conference, 1996-99

Liaison, Civil Rules Advisory Committee of the Federal Judicial Conference, 2000-01

Federal Practice Task Force, 2002-2015 (co-chair, 2002-2009)

Co-chair, Working Group on U.S.-Canada Cross-Border Class Action Protocols, 2008-2011.

Representative to the Civil Rules Advisory Committee on restyling the Fed. R. Civ. P., 2002-2005

Regional co-chair, Judicial Intern Opportunity Program, 2014-21

California State Bar:

Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates, 2009-2013

Member, Board of Trustees, District Four (San Francisco and Marin Counties), 2010-2013

National Native American Bar Association:

Board of Directors, 2014-2015

Other Professional Associations:

District of Columbia Federal Court Advisory Committee under the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 (Chair, Trial Practice Subcommittee), 1992-94

District of Columbia Circuit Judicial Conference, 1998

Honorary Member, COMBAR, the Commercial Bar Association, London, U.K., 1999-present

Founding Member, American Constitution Society (Northern California Chapter), 2004-present

Transition Team, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, 2010-11

Affiliations and Awards

Trustee, Chair (1997-2001, 2007-2011, 2011-2021) and Executive Committee member (1997-2021), Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development (“IAIA”), Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1994-present (U.S. Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation). The IAIA is one of three congressionally chartered institutions of higher learning (along with Howard and Gallaudet Universities) and oversees four- and two-year degree programs for Native Americans and Alaska Natives as well as the Museum of Contemporary Native American Art. In 2015, President Obama nominated him to another term.

Member and Executive Committee Chair (2016-20), National Advisory Board, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (“CCSRE”), Stanford University. CCSRE is the umbrella organization for Stanford’s African and African-American, Latin/x, Native-American and Asian-American Studies Programs, as well as its interdisciplinary undergraduate major in and graduate research center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, 2002-present.

University of New Mexico, Bernard S. Rodey Award (to an individual who has “devoted an unusual amount of time in a leadership capacity and whose efforts have contributed significantly to the field of education”), 2017.

Stanford University “Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame”, 2012.

“Living the Dream” award, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the Bay Area, 2011.

Member and audit committee member, National Board of Directors, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, 2007-present.

Member, director (2004-present) and co-chair (2005-2007), Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the Bay Area, San Francisco, California, 2003-present.

Management & Demographics
Management & Personnel
Principal
Clients
Clients
  • American Frontier (Marine), Inc.
  • Lynn Schoenmann, Bankruptcy Trustee, Synergy Acceptance Corp.
  • Lynn Schoenmann, Bankruptcy Trustee, UCBH Holdings, Inc.
About Our Clients
Kieve Law Offices represents a broad cross-section of corporate, bankruptcy trustee and individual clients.

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  • Commercial Litigation

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Publications

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