Law360 notes its Rising Star awards “recognize attorneys under 40 who have demonstrated outstanding career accomplishments,” and will publish short profiles of all the honorees in the coming weeks.

More than 1,400 submissions were reviewed for this year’s Rising Star awards. The publication selected 180 attorneys from over 80 law firms across 38 different practice areas “whose legal accomplishments transcend their age.”

Congratulations, Katie and Kevin!

About Katherine Lubin Benson

A partner in Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco office, Katherine Lubin Benson specializes in securities and derivative suits and antitrust class actions. She was one of the firm lawyers heading the shareholder derivative action against Wells Fargo’s current and former officers and directors arising from the bank’s massive illicit sales practices scandal, which settled for a $240 million cash payment and corporate governance reforms in late 2018. The settlement received final approval in April 2020, and represents the largest insurer-funded derivative settlement in history. Lieff Cabraser’s work on the case was recognized by the American Antitrust Institute, which honored the firm with the 2020 Outstanding Private Practice Antitrust Achievement award. Katherine was awarded AAI’s Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement by a Young Lawyer award for her contributions to the case.

Katherine was recently named as one of six lawyer representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Counsel for the 2020-2023 term, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Northern District Practice Program, which provides continuing legal education programing for judges and practitioners in the district. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the East Bay Community Law Center, a non-profit affiliated with Berkeley Law providing free legal services to low-income communities.

About Kevin Budner

A partner in Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco office, Kevin Budner specializes in consumer protection and personal injury law. His successes at the firm include representing vehicle owners in the Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” multidistrict litigation, in which plaintiffs allege that Volkswagen intentionally and systematically cheated its customers, lied to the government, and misled the public about the emissions of its diesel engine vehicles. The Court granted final approval to a partial class settlement worth $10.03 billion in 2016, and a second partial class settlement valued at between $1.2 billion and $4.1 billion in 2017. The team won the California Daily Journal’s “California Lawyer of the Year” award, was honored as finalists by the Consumer Attorneys of California for their prestigious Consumer Attorney of the Year award, and continues to prosecute claims under the Lanham Act on behalf of competitor dealerships that allege they lost sales as a result of Volkswagen’s fraud.

Kevin also helped secure settlements for dozens of personal injury and wrongful death victims related to the General Motors Ignition Switch Defect and the Medtronic Infuse litigation.

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