Kenneth K. Lee
Kenneth Kiyul Lee (Korean: 이기열;[1] born August 30, 1975)[2] is a South Korean-born American lawyer and jurist who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Kenneth K. Lee
I Gi Yeol
I Ki Yŏl
Early life and education[edit]
Lee was born in 1975 in Seoul, South Korea. Lee's family immigrated to the United States when he was four years old, following the 1979 military coup in South Korea.[3] Lee grew up in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles.[4] His father operated a spray paint equipment repair shop, and his mother was a pharmacist and acupuncturist; neither spoke English, so they insisted that he understand the language and did not allow him to attend a Korean church.[4]
After high school, Lee studied government at Cornell University, where he wrote for the conservative and libertarian campus newspaper The Cornell Review.[3] He graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude and membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Lee then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 2000 with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude.[5][6][7]
Early legal career[edit]
After graduating from law school, Lee served as a law clerk to Judge Emilio M. Garza of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 2000 to 2001.[7] Lee then worked as an associate at New York City law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz from 2001 to 2006.[4][7] At Wachtell, following the September 11 attacks, Lee served as second chair, deposed witnesses, and wrote briefs as part of the legal team representing real estate mogul Larry Silverstein, whose 99-year lease of the World Trade Center provided a $3.5 billion insurance policy for an act of terrorism. The court ruled that the separate plane crashes in the World Trade Center represented 1.4 occurrences of terrorism.[4]
In 2005, Lee served as a special counsel on the United States Senate Judiciary Committee. From 2006 to 2009, Lee was Associate Counsel and Special Assistant to President George W. Bush.[7] After Bush left office in 2009, Lee joined the Los Angeles office of the law firm Jenner & Block as a partner.[6] From 2010 to 2011, Lee served as an adjunct faculty member at Pepperdine University School of Law.[7]
Lee has litigated consumer class action lawsuits across the U.S. in the food, technology, and health care sectors. He has argued appeals before a number of federal circuit courts. In his pro bono practice, Lee has represented a number of indigent and incarcerated individuals. He is a member of the Food Law Committee of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of California.[8] In 2018, Lee was named one of the "Most Influential Minority Attorneys" by the Los Angeles Business Journal.[9]
Memberships[edit]
Lee is listed as an expert for the Federalist Society and has been a speaker and panelist on the topics of Food & Drug Law, Class Action lawsuits, and the Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.[8]