McKool Smith Principal Kirk Dillman was honored with the 2018 Jim Robbie Award from the Litigation Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association during the Association’s 2018 “Bench Meets the Bar” luncheon on February 6, 2018. The award is given annually to the trial attorney in Los Angeles County that best exemplifies the qualities of professionalism and civility.
Mr. Dillman is a Principal in McKool Smith’s Los Angeles office. He specializes in complex commercial litigation and trial practice, primarily in the areas of finance, securities, energy, real estate, trade secrets, partnership, and healthcare fraud. Mr. Dillman has successfully tried numerous complex commercial disputes in both federal and state courts and before arbitrators and arbitration panels around the country. His clients include major regional real estate developers, technology companies, financial institutions, and high-net-worth individuals.
Most recently, Mr. Dillman served as lead trial counsel for The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles in securing a $5 million jury verdict followed by a $10 million jury verdict for punitive damages against developer Dana Hollister to recover legal fees stemming from a long running dispute in which Hollister attempted to interfere with the Archbishop’s $14.5 million deal to sell a former convent to international pop star Katy Perry and her company, The Bird Nest LLC. He also recently obtained a verdict in favor of various municipalities against J-M Manufacturing in a seven-week False Claims Act trial and successfully represented lenders in connection with claims arising out of the financial collapse of the Fontainebleau Resort and Casino project in Las Vegas, which resulted in settlements of $415 million from Bank of America as bank agent, and the directors and officers of Fontainebleau.
With more than 180 trial lawyers across offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C., McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America’s leading trial firms. Since 2006, the firm has secured ten nine-figure jury verdicts and twelve eight-figure jury verdicts. The firm has also won more VerdictSearch and The National Law Journal "Top 100 Verdicts" over the last ten years than any other law firm in the country. Courtroom successes like these have earned McKool Smith critical acclaim and helped the firm become what The Wall Street Journal describes as “one of the biggest law firm success stories of the past decade.” McKool Smith represents clients in complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy, and white collar defense matters.
