Naeun Rim 

Naeun Rim, who leads Manatt’s white-collar and investigations practice, describes herself as a generalist, first-chair trial lawyer. That means she tries any kind of litigation.

Currently, she is the lead trial counsel for a technology company in a hard-fought, multimillion-dollar contract dispute. She is part of a team defending a company under investigation for suspected espionage on behalf of the Chinese government. And she is fighting the extradition of a protester to Spain, where he fears the North Korean government might try to have him killed.

Recently, Rim successfully pushed a putative class action against a health care company into arbitration, which then was dismissed. She resolved a shareholder class action alleging securities fraud action against a publicly traded bank for a third of the money paid in most such settlements. And she wrapped up a civil False Claims Act case against a knee-brace manufacturer for a cost-of-litigation settlement that was less than 4% of the fine the government sought.

Going back a little further, she led a team of lawyers who won a preliminary injunction against federal prison officials that called for more prisoners to be transferred to home confinement during the pandemic. This past October, the court gave final approval to a settlement in which the prison accepted additional conditions and agreed to pay $375,000 in attorneys’ fees.

“We’re very happy that the case settled,” Rim said. “We didn’t think we would get the concessions we got, and then we did.” Garries v. Milusnic, 2:20-cv-04450 (C.D. Cal., filed May 16, 2020).

The case that has kept her busiest lately is the hard-fought contract dispute for a tech company she can’t name. Last month, she and her team concluded a bench trial that included expert testimony on how to interpret contract terms. “This is not just a trial where you’re reading the contract out loud, unfortunately, but also thankfully,” she said. Depending on the judge’s decision, the case may next go before a jury to set damages.

Interestingly, the trial team she put together for the case is all women. “It was just phenomenal,” Rim said. “We just happened to put on the people who would do the best for this particular case, and it was just a really gratifying experience.”

She suffered a loss of a sort in the extradition case that could prove to be a win. Rim is representing a young man from California who helped a North Korean official try to defect by faking the man’s kidnapping from the North Korean embassy in Madrid. In May, a magistrate judge issued a 60-page decision titled “Reluctant Certification of Extraditability” that argues why the law needs changing. U.S. v. Ahn, 2:19-cv-05397 (C.D. Cal., filed June 20, 2019).

“I actually think this was kind of a procedural blessing because there is no double jeopardy in extradition,” Rim said. “If she had denied certification of his extradition, the government could have just refiled and gotten a different judge.”

The case is now before the district court judge.

— Don DeBenedictis