Kimberly Pallen

Partner | San Francisco


Secretary Barbara Lodovice

 

Track record

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
  • '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
  • 'Art planning for the collector,' Deutsche Bank/ Withers event (Frieze London) - October 14, 2021, moderator

  • '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

  • 'Effective Witness Preparation Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide,' Knowledge Group (Webinar) - April 8, 2020, speaker

  • 'How art can (not only) be an investment,' Withers/ Deutsche Bank event (Los Angeles) - February 12, 2020, moderator

  • 'Fresh Perspectives on Collecting: What New Collectors Need to Know,' UNTITLED Art Fair, January 18th 2020, speaker

  • '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

  • 'Art transactions: Hidden risks,' Withers event (New York) - January 24, 2019, speaker