About Kirk Jenkins

I help clients by protecting the positive results they achieve in court or – when a trial has gone against the client – vindicating the client’s rights and getting them a second chance. High stakes litigation is like chess played in three dimensions. While the trial team works to win the case at trial, I focus on what will happen afterwards. Beginning even before the jury is chosen, I work to ensure that the clients’ themes and points are presented in the best way to persuade an appellate court, and that the client’s objections to any adverse decisions have been preserved, sometimes briefing and arguing key motions before the trial court myself. But just as importantly, I manage the client’s appellate strategy. I help the trial team craft the client’s arguments with an eye towards not just what the law is, but what the law may soon become because of not-yet-decided cases pending in the appellate courts. I’ve briefed and argued many post-trial motions in the trial courts, reducing adverse judgments and improving the record for appeal before the appeal ever begins. I have appeared before higher courts as amicus in cases presenting related issues, and helped move the law in a more beneficial direction before the client’s case was decided. In twenty years as a full-time appellate lawyer, I have litigated a broad range of issues, including Federal preemption; electrocution injuries; failure to warn and design defect; the admissibility of economic testimony; groundwater contamination; primary and exclusive administrative jurisdiction; alleged asbestos exposure; the extraterritorial application of Federal and state law, and the certification and decertification of consumer class actions. For further details of many significant matters, click my website biography above.