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Richland, Kent L.
5900 Wilshire Boulevard
12th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone: (310) 859-7811
Fax: (310) 276-5261
Contact Us
Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland LLPWebsites associated with this firm:http://www.gmsr.com
http://www.greinesmartin.com
Summary
Current Employment Position(s)
- Founding Partner, since
1983
Lawyer Overview
Kent Richland has practiced appellate law since he graduated from UCLA School of Law in 1971. He has seen the appellate process from almost every angle: He prosecuted criminal appeals as a Supervising Deputy Attorney General, and he represented indigent criminal defendants on appeal as a Supervising Deputy State Public Defender; he served as Senior Staff Attorney to the late Justice Otto M. Kaus; and in 1983, he was a founding partner of Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland, now one of the two largest civil appellate specialty firms in California.
Kent has represented a wide variety of clients, including national manufacturers, national and international banks, small businesses, prominent entertainment figures, major motion picture studios, insurance carriers, hospitals and other healthcare providers, public entities and individuals. He has been counsel of record in over 100 published cases (and hundreds more unpublished ones) in such diverse areas of the law as torts, contracts, constitutional law, antitrust, bankruptcy, criminal law and procedure, probate, insurance coverage, corporate securities, intellectual property, State Bar admissions and family law.
In 2006, Kent gained national prominence for his United States Supreme Court argument in Marshall v. Marshall, in which he represented the late Anna Nicole Smith. The resulting unanimous opinion in favor of his client established important principles of federal jurisdiction. His achievement was recognized by California Lawyer Magazine, which named him a 2007 California Lawyer of the Year.
Kent is an active participant in the legal community. He is a former President of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He served as a trustee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and he has chaired a number of the Association's committees, including the Appellate Courts Committee, the State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee and the California Judicial Systems Committee. From 2001 to 2003, he chaired the Association's Judicial Appointments Committee, which evaluates and provides input to the office of the Governor of California on potential appointees to the bench in Los Angeles County. He currently serves as a member of the Appellate Advisory Committee to the California Judicial Council, which recently completed its oversight of a comprehensive revision of the appellate provisions of the California Rules of Court.
Since early in his career, Kent has been interested and involved in legal education. He has served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Southwestern University School of Law, where he taught a class on appellate practice, and he has been a guest lecturer on appellate law topics at UCLA School of Law, University of Southern California Law Center, and the University of West Los Angeles School of Law. He is a frequent continuing legal education lecturer to both lawyer and judicial groups, and since 1989 has been a presenter of CEB's annual program on "Recent Developments in Civil Practice," which summarizes the most important developments in civil law from the previous year. From 1999 until 2005, he served as President of the Board of Directors of the California Supreme Court Historical Society, an organization of more than 9,000 members that is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of the history of California's judiciary.
Kent has also been active in legal publication. He is a co-author, with Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline of the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, of West's California Litigation Forms Civil Appeals and Writs. From 1978 to 1988, he was on the Board of Advisors of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, and he served as Articles Editor and Managing Editor of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine. He has published a number of articles on appellate practice, including an article on California Supreme Court practice that was chosen and reprinted by California Litigation magazine as "one of the best articles of the decade."
Kent's hobbies are skiing, scuba diving, reading, cooking and video game playing. Kent has two children Justin, a Boalt Hall graduate and UCLA Ph.D. in linguistic anthropology who is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at UC Irvine, and Sara, a student in the UCLA School of Law class of 2007.
Areas of practice
- Appellate Law
- Anti-SLAPP Law
- Business Litigation
- Constitutional Law
- Entertainment Law
- Government Tort Liability
- Healthcare Law
- Intellectual Property
- Legal Malfeasance
- Probate and Trusts
- Punitive Damages
- Tort Litigation
Representative Cases
West Practice Categories
- Business & Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Entertainment, Trusts, Health & Health Care Law, Intellectual Property Law, Litigation & Appeals, Federal Appellate Practice, State Appellate Practice, US Supreme Court, Probate & Estate Administration
Qualifications
Bar Admissions
- California, 1972
U.S. Federal Court, 1975
U.S. Supreme Court, 1975
U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1972
U.S. District Court Central District of California, 1972
Professional Associations and Memberships
- California Academy of Appellate Lawyers,
1995
-
1996
(President)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1998 - Present (Trustee)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1989 - Present (State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 2001 - Present (Chair, Judicial Appointments Committee)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1992 - 1994 (Chair, State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1978 - 1999 (Appellate Courts Committee)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1985 - 1988 (Chair, Appellate Courts Committee)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1988 - 1990 (Chair, California Judicial Systems Committee)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1984 - Present (Judicial Evaluation Committee)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1977 - 1978 (Committee on Delivery of Legal Services)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1973 - 1978 (Board of Editors, Los Angeles Bar Journal and Los Angeles Lawyer)
Los Angeles County Bar Association, Lost Angeles Bar Journal and Los Angeles Lawyer, 1977 - 1978 (Articles Editor and Managing Editor)
American Bar Association, Torts and Insurance Practice Section, 1989 - 1990 (Vice-Chair, Appellate Advocacy Committee)
Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, 1978 - 1988 (Board of Advisors)
California Supreme Court Historical Society (Member, Board of Directors)
California Supreme Court Historical Society, 1999 - Present (President, Board of Directors)
American Bar Association National Institute on Medical Malpractice, 1989 - 1990 (Co-Chair)
California Judicial Council (Appellate Advisory Committee Member)
Honors and Awards
- Fellow, American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
- Named "A California Lawyer Magazine 2007 Attorney of the Year", 2007
- Who's Who in America, 2007
- Named in The Best Lawyers In America (Appellate Law), 2006 - 2008
- Southern California Super Lawyers (Appellate), 2004 - 2008
- Top 100 Southern California Super Lawyers, 2008
Classes and Seminars
- Recent Developments in Civil Practice, State Bar of California, State Bar of California, Continuing Education of the Bar, 1989 - Present
- Marshall v. Marshall, American College of Trial and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Fiduciary Litigation Committee, 2006
- Dean's Roundtable, UCLA School of Law, 2006
- Mastering Appellate Advocacy, The Rutter Group
- Mealey's Anti-SLAPP Statute Conference, 2003
- Mealey's Anti-SLAPP Statute Conference, 2004
- Making and Opposing Anti-SLAPP Motions, State Bar of California, Continuing Education of the Bar, 2004
- Ninth Circuit Practice, Federal Practice Institute, 1994 - 2000
- The Human Rights Act: The Practical Implications for British Policing - Learning from the U.S. Experience, London, England, 1999
- Views from the Other Side of the Bench, Appellate Courts Institute and California Judges Association Annual Meeting, 1996
- Extraordinary Writs, State Bar of California, Continuing Education of the Bar, 1987
- Extraordinary Writs, State Bar of California, Continuing Education of the Bar, 1991
- Adjunct Professor of Law, Southwestern University School of Law, 1986 - 1987
- The Court of Appeal Speaks, State Bar of California, Continuing Education of the Bar, 1987
- Step By Step: The Appellate Process, State Bar of California, Continuing Education of the Bar, 1983
- Guest Lecturer, University of Southern California Law Center, UCLA School of Law, and University of West Los Angeles School of Law
Past Employment Positions
- Horvitz & Greines,
1980
-
1983
Presiding Justice Otto M. Kaus, California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Five, Presiding Justice Otto M. Kaus, Senior Research Attorney, 1978 - 1979
California State Public Defender (Appeals), Supervising Attorney, 1976 - 1978
State of California (Appeals), Supervising Deputy Attorney General, 1972 - 1976
Education
- UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, California,
1971
Doctor of Jurisprudence
Honors: Moot Court Honors ProgramUniversity of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 1968
A.B.
Major: Speech and Rhetoric
Articles
Published Works
- Representing Anna Nicole, The Appellate Advocate, 2006
- Depublish or Perish: Why Depublication is Good for the California Judicial System, Los Angeles Lawyer, August-September, 1990
- Taming the Odds: Increasing the Chances of Getting Relief from the Supreme Court, California Litigation, Winter, 1992
- West's California Litigation Forms Civil Appeals and Writs (co-author with Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline)
Office Information
Address
- 5900 Wilshire Boulevard
12th Floor
Los Angeles, CA90036
Phones
- (310) 859-7811
Faxes
- (310) 276-5261