Kirsten Hicks Spira

Kirsten Hicks Spira is a partner and co-chair of the professional responsibility practice group at Jenner & Block LLP. She regularly litigates malpractice actions, disqualification motions, employment disputes and fraud actions. She is a certified specialist in the field of professional responsibility and is the former chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Professional Responsibility and Ethics Committee.

Spira has been lead counsel on several major matters, including a high-profile dispute, one of numerous lawsuits connected to an affair between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. In this case, Lauren’s brother, Michael, sued Lauren’s lawyers at Bird Marella, Boxer, Wolpert, Nessim, Drooks, Lincenberg & Rhow, P.C. for civil extortion for sending plaintiff a draft cross-complaint, which included certain explosive accusations. Michael Sanchez v. Lauren Sanchez, et al., 23SMCP00011, (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed Jan. 3, 2023).

In April 2023, Spira and a Jenner & Block team won an anti-SLAPP motion for the Bird Lawyers.

Judge Mark Young dismissed the civil extortion and emotional distress claims that Michael Sanchez brought against his sister and her lawyers. As the winning defendant, Spira and the team won an award of attorneys’ fees under the anti-SLAPP statute in the amount of $198,000. On September 26, 2023, the court denied plaintiff’s motion for reconsideration and entered judgment in favor of Bird Marella.

Spira is also defending Paul Hastings LLP in a cross-complaint arising from two separate merger agreements in the Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. etc. et al. v. Zhenwei Miao, Gang Chen, etc. et al, case. In their currently operative second amended cross-complaint, Drs. Miao and Chen seek over $40 million from Paul Hastings based on their allegations of negligence and fraud in connection with the two mergers. The case was recently stayed when Sorrento filed for bankruptcy. This case is expected to be tried before a jury sometime in 2024.

“I’ve been handling professional responsibility cases for 20 years, but over the past eight years, the work has largely taken over my practice,” Spira said. “I’m humbled by this, as I see it as a real honor to be asked by other lawyers and law firms to represent them. Although this is what I do pretty much all day, every day, the work remains varied, complex and interesting because issues arise in all types of situations (including ‘niche’ areas like patent prosecution or trusts and estates), and the claims range from malpractice to far less obvious claims such as fraud, defamation or even RICO. So no two cases are ever exactly alike.”