Naeun Rim

Rim describes herself as a trial attorney generalist. A former federal public defender, she has defended banks in fraud class actions and defended a film industry client against wire fraud charges. She has tried a case about an oil spill.

"My practice is essentially to become an expert in whatever problem area a particular client is facing," she said.

Current civil matters include defending a Korean American community bank against a putative securities class action over a $40.7 million loan and representing a health plan in litigation over physician reimbursements, which she managed to have sent to arbitration.

She has no current criminal cases that are public. In fact, since going into private practice six years ago, Rim has prevented any of her clients from being indicted.

But she has a few of case that border criminal law. She is leading a Manatt team defending a company that makes knee braces against a civil False Claims Act suit from the Minnesota U.S. attorney's office over alleged kickbacks. Rim transferred the case to Los Angeles. U.S. v. Vision Quest Industries Inc., 2:21-cv-05197 (C.D. Cal., filed June 5, 2021).

Working pro bono with the Prison Law Office and the ACLU, Rim brought a civil rights class action against the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc for grossly mismanaging its response to the pandemic. Torres v. Milusnic, 2:20-cv-04450 (C.D. Cal., filed May 16, 2020).

Around two-thirds of the prisoners tested positive at one point, and four people died within a month, Rim said. "We sued them, and since then, over 200 people have been placed in home confinement." After two years of hard-fought litigation, the parties are in settlement talks.

In another high-profile pro bono matter, Rim represents a young man who Spain wants to extradite from California for his role in helping a North Korean official try to defect by faking the man's kidnapping from the North Korean embassy in Madrid. U.S. v. Ahn, 2:19-cv-05397 (C.D. Cal., filed June 20, 2019).

"Luckily, we got him out on bail, which is very difficult in an extradition case," Rim said.

- Don DeBenedictis