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Kimberly Pallen is a partner in the litigation and arbitration team and is the Office Managing Director of the San Francisco office.
Kimberly is a first-chair trial lawyer with a record of securing high-stakes victories in complex commercial disputes. She has led numerous matters through trial and arbitration, representing clients in complex, high-exposure disputes across California state and federal courts. Most notably, she served as lead trial counsel in a five-week Silicon Valley real estate fraud jury trial, securing a complete victory and a $23 million judgment—including $8 million in punitive damages—on behalf of a limited partnership and its investors. She also secured a headline trial win for cryptocurrency exchange Kraken in a wrongful termination case, a result recognized by the Daily Journal as one of the “Top Verdicts of 2024.”
Her practice focuses on complex civil litigation, including trade secret misappropriation, fraud, breach of contract, and fiduciary duty disputes. Kimberly is also at the forefront of emerging disputes in the digital asset and fintech sectors. She advises and represents leading participants in the blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem in litigation involving novel regulatory, employment, and commercial issues.
In addition, Kimberly maintains an art law practice, representing collectors, artists, dealers, appraisers, and auction houses in litigation and transactional matters. She has handled disputes involving authenticity, copyright, and secured lending. As lead counsel in a coordinated series of lawsuits, she successfully recovered damages for works by artists including Marc Chagall, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Jeff Koons that had been fraudulently conveyed following a gallery default. Kimberly is also deeply engaged in the San Francisco art community as the founder and Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Art Law Section.
Kimberly regularly handles employment litigation for both employers and employees, with experience in discrimination, harassment, retaliation, disability, and FMLA claims. She also advises on and litigates matters involving restrictive covenants, including non-competes, and non-solicitation and non-disparagement provisions.
Recent recognition
Track record
Real estate fraud dispute
Secured a complete victory including a $23 million judgment, following a five-week jury trial concerning a Silicon Valley real estate fraud dispute, on behalf of a limited partnership and its limited partners for the years-long fraud by the partnership’s general partner. For more information on the trial and the verdict read more here.
Complete defense victory after month long jury trial
Secured defense verdict for digital asset exchange Kraken after a month-long jury trial, defeating plaintiff's whistleblower claims against the company and securing verdicts that plaintiff misappropriated trade secrets from the company and breached his confidentiality obligations and duty of good faith and fair dealing to the company. Kraken stated “We're pleased with the outcome and thankful to testimony from happy Kraken employees and advocacy from our counsel at Withers.” For more information on the trial, the verdict, and Withers' and the client's reaction, please read more here.
Crypto fraud dispute
Secured jurisdiction in the US over a long-running cross border commodities fraud dispute involving a top digital asset exchange and secured a ruling that a former customer breached the arbitration agreement in the exchange's binding terms of service by threatening to and actually suing the exchange in the UK.
Financial fraud claims
Defeated financial fraud claims asserted by a former employee against a top digital asset exchange related to the exchange's allocation of company shares, and secured a judgment against the plaintiff for the costs of litigation.
Hotly-contested cryptocurrency lawsuit
Secured a precedent-setting decision that the physical address associated with our client's business – one of the top digital asset exchanges in the world – may qualify as a trade secret and a former employee may be liable under the Defend Trade Secrets Act for their public disclosure of the company’s address.
Motion to compel
Won motion to compel against Glassdoor, Inc., forcing Glassdoor to turn over identification information regarding anonymous individuals that posted reviews in violation of non-disparagement and confidentiality provisions in severance agreement.
Talks
- 'Crisis Management Playbook for a New Era: Navigating Investigations and Communications Under the Current Administration,' 4th Annual Women in Investigations Network (WIIN) Half-Day Retreat - May 21, 2025, speaker
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'Legal Framework for the Artist-Gallery Relationship and Art Walk,' The Bar Association of San Francisco - October 17, 2024, speaker
- 'Adapting to a New Art World in a Period of Accelerated Change,' Frieze LA - February 17, 2023, moderator
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'Art planning for the collector,' Deutsche Bank/ Withers event (Frieze London) - October 14, 2021, moderator
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'Protecting your art: What you need to know about copyright, restitution, money laundering and other art transactions,' American Society of Appraisers (Webinar) - October 20, 2020, speaker
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'Effective Witness Preparation Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide,' Knowledge Group (Webinar) - April 8, 2020, speaker
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'How art can (not only) be an investment,' Withers/ Deutsche Bank event (Los Angeles) - February 12, 2020, moderator
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'Fresh Perspectives on Collecting: What New Collectors Need to Know,' UNTITLED Art Fair, January 18th 2020, speaker
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'From Kanders to Contracts: Four Experts Discuss the Legal, Policy and Ethical Issues Confronting Museums, Dealers, Donors and Collectors,' ArtTable (San Francisco), October 3, 2019
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'Art transactions: Hidden risks,' Withers event (New York) - January 24, 2019, speaker
Insight
External publications
- '6th Circuit restores predictability to privilege and work product in 'In re FirstEnergy',' Westlaw Today - April 17, 2026, authored
- 'Verdict Against Meta, Google Raises Stakes in Pending Addiction Lawsuits,' Daily Journal - March 30, 2026, quoted
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'Jury orders Meta, YouTube to pay $6 million in landmark social media addiction trial,' LifeSite - March 27, 2026, quoted
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'Meta and YouTube Found Negligent in Landmark Social Media Addiction Case,' New York Times - March 25, 2026, quoted
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'Meta,YouTube found liable for woman’s debilitating social media addiction in $3M landmark trial,' New York Post - March 25, 2026, quoted
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'Mark Zuckerberg To Testify in Social Media Addiction Trial,' CNN Business - February 18, 2026, quoted
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'Mark Zuckerberg to face anguished parents at social media addiction trial: ‘It’s just getting worse’, New York Post - February 17, 2026, quoted
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'Zuckerberg Testimony Looms in Social Media Addiction Trial,' Daily Journal - February 17, 2026, quoted
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'Tough questions — and grieving families — await Mark Zuckerberg at social media addiction trial Wednesday,' CNN Business - February 17, 2026, quoted
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'Lamborghini Stole Steering Wheel Trade Secrets, Suit Says,' Law360 - April 22, 2025, mentioned
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'Top Verdicts of 2024,' Daily Journal - February 26, 2025, feautured
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'Employment Update: Recent Decisions and Agency Actions,' New York Law Journal - November 4, 2024, co-author
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'Kraken v. Former Employee,' Global Legal Chronicle - May 28, 2024, featured
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'Withersworldwide Secures Victory in Kraken's Gender Pay Bias Lawsuit,' Daily Journal - April 4, 2024, featured
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'Oscar statuette row highlights issues around resale rights,' The Art Newspaper - November 1, 2023, co-author
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'Silicon Valley Bank collapse: What you need to know,' Withers Insight - March 12, 2022, co-author
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'Unpaid art internships still rife,' The Art Newspaper - September 1, 2021, quoted
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'You're Fired! Arts Workers Face Legal Woes,' The Art Newspaper - March 3, 2021, quoted
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'Social Media Eyes Embeds as Courts Mull Copyright Limits,' Bloomberg Law - July 2, 2020, quoted
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'Instagram: copyright free-for-all?', World IP Review - June 17, 2020, co-author
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'Instagram: non potete usare le foto altrui senza permesso,' la Repubblica - June 5, 2020, quoted
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'Instagram Just Threw Users of Its Embedding API Under the Bus,' Ars Technica - June 4, 2020, quoted
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'New York court divided on Instagram sub-licence,' World IP Review - June 3, 2020, quoted
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'3 Things To Know About 2nd Circ.'s Big Graffiti Ruling,' Law360 - February 21, 2020, quoted
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'Why Art World Employment Agreements Are under Increasing Scrutiny,' Artsy - August 22, 2019, co-author
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'Artists vs.Influencers: Why That Street Art Selfie Could Get You Sued,' Hollywood Reporter - August 6, 2019, quoted
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'Even Grande-Sized Stars Are Not Immune to Copyright Infringement Claims,' The Recorder - March 4, 2019
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'9th Circuit Clarifies Statute of Limitations for Stolen Artwork,' Daily Journal - October 11, 2018
Admissions
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State of New York, 2008
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State of California, 2013
Education
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Bowling Green State University, BA History of Art
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Fordham University School of Law, JD
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St. Catherine's College, Oxford University, Visiting Student
Languages
- English
Memberships
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Founder and Chair of the San Francisco Bar Association's Art Law Section
Key dates
- Year joined: 2018