San Francisco lawyer Loren Kieve to receive ABA 2022 Pickering Award

Loren Kieve, the principal at Kieve Law Offices in San Francisco, is the 2022 recipient of the John H. Pickering Award of Achievement, presented by the American Bar Association Senior Lawyers Division. Kieve will be recognized at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6, at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago as part of the ABA Annual Meeting, which will be held August 3-9.

The award honors the life and accomplishments of John H. Pickering, co-founder of the Washington, D.C., law firm formerly known as Wilmer, Cutler, & Pickering (now WilmerHale), who was involved in a variety of pro bono activities and law-related societal issues affecting older adults. It recognizes lawyers or judges who demonstrate outstanding legal ability and have compiled a distinguished record of service to the profession and their communities, resulting in significant contributions to improving access to justice for all.

Kieve has represented and advised Fortune 500 U.S. and major international companies in complex trial, class action and appellate litigation in the United States, the UK and Australia, among other venues. He also has expertise in international and domestic arbitration and internal investigations. Prior to forming his own firm, he was a partner with Quinn Emanuel, Debevoise & Plimpton and Steptoe & Johnson.

For the 20th year in a row, Kieve has been named a Bay Area “Super Lawyer” in commercial litigation. He is also listed as a “Best Lawyer” in commercial litigation. His firm is listed as a tier-one “Best Law Firm.” Kieve is a former member, appointed by the State Bar of California, of the ABA House of Delegates and has held numerous ABA presidential appointments and leadership positions in the ABA Section of Litigation. He is a director and audit committee member of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He is also a past co-chair of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, which gave him its “Living the Dream” award (for sustained service to civil rights). He is a founder and sustaining chair of the San Francisco Bay Area Judicial Intern Opportunity Program of the Section of Litigation. He is also a former elected member of the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of California.

Since 1994, Kieve has been a trustee and three-time chair of the Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development (IAIA), a U.S. presidential appointment with Senate confirmation. The IAIA is chartered by Congress and provides undergraduate and graduate degree programs for Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Kieve was inducted into Stanford University’s Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame for his service to education and the legal profession. The University of New Mexico honored him with its Bernard S. Rodey Award (to an individual who has “devoted an unusual amount of time in a leadership capacity and whose efforts have contributed significantly to the field of education”). He is a member and former Executive Committee chair of the National Advisory Board of Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.

Kieve attended Stanford University and has law degrees from Oxford University and the University of New Mexico. He clerked for two federal judges on three courts.