Beverly Hills attorney Paul R. Kiesel is known for his innate ability to boil an idea down to its essence, a skill that paid off in recent class-action tort litigation involving leaky pipes.

BY LEONARD NOVARRO

 
Whether it's arguing before a jury or using the latest in computer technology to get a point across, Paul R. Kiesel has a knack for boiling an idea down to its essence.

"He is able to simplify complex data," mediator Ross Hart says. "He always knows where he's going with it and is able to captivate every audience he has."

Hart recently worked closely with Kiesel to resolve a mass tort claim involving leaky pipes in residential housing.

That audience sometimes can even be the governor of California.

"Paul is someone whose advice and judgment is greatly valued by the governor and me," Burt Pines, judicial appointment secretary for Gov. Gray Davis and former Los Angeles city attorney, says.

According to those who know him, Kiesel, 41, is a highly regarded practitioner who enjoys widespread respect among judges and lawyers. They say he is bright, formidable, articulate and tenacious. He is a board member of the Consumer Attorneys of California and Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles.

If he had to describe himself, however, compassion and honesty are foremost in his mind.

"I really live my life that way. My philosophy is that an honest man's pillow is his peace of mind," Kiesel says, quoting a line from a popular John Cougar Mellencamp song. "I truly believe that. "That sense of compassion has made him one of Southern California's foremost plaintiffs' attorneys. In 2000, the Daily Journal named Kiesel one of California's 100 most influential attorneys. Kiesel's colleagues understand why. "If you want something done, you can rely on Paul to follow through and get it done," Pines says. "He's a phenomenal attorney. His prowess as an attorney is well known.

"But he also gives a lot back to the community."

A New Jersey native, Kiesel says that in comparison to his current successes, 1982 was a time of rude awakening for him.

At the time, he was a history and government major at Connecticut College in New London, Conn.

"I expected to get into several law schools," Kiesel says. "By the spring of my senior year, I was nowhere. Then a friend told me about [Whittier College School of Law] in California."

Kiesel telephoned the school. When someone picked up the call, he asked for the dean's secretary.

"I'm the dean," the voice replied.

`"Can I have the dean's secretary?'" Kiesel says he asked.

"I AM the dean," the voice replied once more.

Kiesel related his grade point average and law school aptitude test score to the voice."

OK, you're in," the voice said.

After he confirmed that he couldn't get into a law school back East, Kiesel relocated to California. He enrolled at Whittier in 1982.

It turned out to be a great move for him.

"From that moment forward my attachment to the college, that law school, was sealed," Kiesel says. "Here was a school able to look beyond the superficial."

Kiesel ended his first year as one of the top five students in his class.

"I was not comfortable doing that well," he says. "All of a sudden, in a class of 175, I was on top. I said to myself, `I love this. This is what I wanted to be.'"

Today, Kiesel sits as a member of Whittier's board of trustees.

After graduating in 1985, he went to work for Los Angeles' Hoffman Slatter & Slatter, where he focused on personal injury claims.

In 1986, in one of his first cases, Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles , he made precedent in California.

In that case, an off-duty police officer in uniform raped a young woman. The city asserted it was not liable for the criminal act of an employee.

The jury found for the plaintiff, but the appellate court reversed. The case went to the California Supreme Court.

At the high court in 1989, Kiesel won a decision in favor of his client. The Supreme Court declared that a government entity can be liable where an off-duty police officer commits a crime.

Kiesel won another significant verdict in 1992. Three young Hispanic males were killed when a truck driver under the influence of alcohol ran into their car, which had broken down on the side of the road.

The trial judge nullified a jury's $3.2 million verdict in favor of Kiesel's clients, the surviving family members.

As a result, Kiesel reargued the case before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul Boland. The second jury decided in
favor of the plaintiffs, this time for $7.8 million.

"What struck me was his relationship with his clients," Boland says, citing Kiesel's compassion. "His courtroom civility was also truly exemplary. In the decade since, he has litigated other matters where the same qualities were clearly manifested.

"He is still a relatively young lawyer but enjoys a widespread reputation typically reserved for the gray eminences of the bar."

Kiesel enjoys achieving consensus and often will do so through his use of technology, as he did recently in the Galvanized Steel Pipe Litigation that case, he helped forge a $41 million settlement for a group of homeowners claiming damages from poor plumbing.

During the negotiating phase, which lasted more than a year, Kiesel convinced most of the attorneys involved in the case to communicate through e-mail and to use a Web site exclusively devoted to motions, responses and other procedures in the case.

It eliminated paperwork and speeded up the settlement, according to Superior Court Judge Peter Lichtman, who presided over the case.

"I love technology, and I love lawyers working together to promote collegiality, efficiency and justice," Kiesel says.

Although brimming with enthusiasm for his practice, Kiesel's seemingly boundless energies are not devoted solely to the law.

While in college, he ran a messenger service and a video pinball concession. During law school, he worked as a volunteer investigator for a public defender.

These days, he plays tennis whenever he can and compulsively works out in his backyard gym every day. He maintains this routine even if his work is not done until late at night.

Kiesel often provides commentary on legal issues for the media, having appeared on ABC's "20/20" show, the Cable News Network, Court TV and New York Public Radio.

He also writes for several national publications. When not leading the way in court, Kiesel enjoys sailing with his wife, Dana, 41, a clinical psychologist, and his children, Joshua, 9, and Lauren, 7.

Staying active keeps him sane, he says.

He was calling from Las Vegas, where he had just begun litigating another class-action defective pipe case.

His nickname throughout the Las Vegas court system: The plumber.