Litigation
Jun. 1, 2001
Malibu 'Rancher'
It would be wrong to think of Pillsbury Winthrop's Kenneth R. Chiate as a typical rainmaking law firm partner.
It would be wrong to think of Pillsbury Winthrop's Kenneth R. Chiate as a typical rainmaking law firm partner.
He's a rainmaker, but he's certainly not typical.
"As a child, I wanted to be a farmer or rancher, but my father's bad luck in farming caused me concern," Chiate says. "Later, I hoped I could be both a successful lawyer and a gentleman rancher. Or at least live far from the city."
Today, Chiate has fulfilled part of his childhood dreams. He is not a rancher yet, but he and his wife of 36 years live in the rural environs of the Malibu Mountains, among the deer, coyotes and raccoons.
Instead of full-time farming, Chiate dove into the law.
"I decided to become a trial lawyer in high school after seeing television programs and movies and reading books about trial lawyers like Melvin Belli and Louis Nizer," Chiate says.
Chiate graduated from Claremont Men's College in 1963, and had to select a law school. One of his professors persuaded Columbia University Law School to offer him a scholarship.
"I would not otherwise have had any interest in going to New York," Chiate says, "or been able to afford a private law school."
When Chiate arrived at Columbia for his first year of law school, it was his first visit to New York.
"Even then," he says, "I was a counselor in the men's dormitory on campus in exchange for room and board."
Chiate had planned to Phoenix to clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Walter E. Craig after law school, but a job offer from Lillick, McHose & Charles led him to Southern California. Chiate returned to Phoenix in 1970 to clerk for Craig while on sabbatical from Lillick.
Lillick changed its name several times, and merged with Pillsbury Madison & Sutro in 1991.
Chiate attributes much of his success at the firm to approaching his relationships in the courtroom the same way he approaches them on the outside.
"[I try] to humanize my client, and myself, with an appropriate dose of levity and good humor, while at the same time trying to convince [the judge or jury] of my and my client's sincerity and our position," Chiate says.
Litigators find his style appeals to the important decision-makers in court.
"Juries like him," Larry Feldman of Santa Monica's Fogel, Feldman, Ostrov, Ringler and Klevens says. "Ken has a sophisticated sense of humor and knows what he's doing."
Feldman has known Chiate for more than 30 years and they have opposed each other in the courtroom. All of those cases eventually settled, however.
"He's a great lawyer and he's very smart," Feldman says.
"[Chiate] has a hunger to win and will do everything in his power to win. He's very competitive," Feldman says
Of course, Chiate knows how to relax, too.
"I actually try to steal time from work to play with my family," he says.
Chiate and his wife, Jeannette, have two children, Gregory and Carlee, neither of whom "had any interest in working as hard as they saw their father [work]."
Neither chose to follow in Chiate's footsteps and pursue a career in law. Gregory is an investment banker and Carlee is a human resources director for an Internet startup.
Every year, Chiate and his son go fly fishing in Alaska, Montana or Mexico. He also plays golf weekly with family, friends or clients. He currently is teaching his daughter how to play so she can participate in the family's golf trips.
SNAPSHOT
Kenneth R. Chiate
Law school: Columbia University Law School
Career highlights: Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop (formerly Pillsbury Madison & Sutro and formerly Lillick & McHose), 1966-present; law clerk, U.S. District Judge Walter E. Craig, 1970
Case types: Complex civil tort and business litigation
Christopher Duenas
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