Kathleen
Smalley
Binding and non-binding arbitration, consulting on dispute resolution and expert testimony.
A Focus on Efficient and Fair Results
Kathleen Smalley brings 40 years of experience – in business roles as a corporate officer, general counsel, director, and trustee; in transactional practice; in trial and appellate litigation; and in government service – to an ADR and consulting practice focused on resolution without the delay, expense, and inconvenience inherent in litigation.
WORTHY OF NOTE
LAW PRACTICE
- 5+ years on AAA panel
- Elected to the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals
- Member of American Law Institute, with roles in advisory or members’ consultative groups on topics ranging from the Restatement of Property to sexual assault to economic injury
- Law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, US Supreme Court
- Law clerk to Judge John Minor Wisdom, US Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Photo by Don Liebig/UCLA Photography
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
GRADUATE UNIVERSITY PROGRAMS & PRIVATE SECTOR
Kathleen Smalley has taught several courses at each of Harvard Law School and UCLA’s Law School and Anderson School of Management and one course each at Stanford Law School and Yale Law School. She has been a frequent speaker in other academic and professional settings as well as a leader of custom private educational experiences.
REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
Developed for Harvard Law School and given at Stanford, Yale, and UCLA, this course introduces second- and third-year students to transactional practice through the lens of real estate, reviewing each stage of value creation.
PROBLEMS OF CORPORATE COUNSEL
Developed for Harvard Law School, this seminar explores the special problems facing the lawyer employed by an organization and the lawyer, whether inside or outside, charged with the general counsel role.
RECOGNIZING & RESOLVING LEGAL ISSUES IN REAL ESTATE BUSINESS
Developed for UCLA’s MBA program in conjunction with the Ziman Center for Real Estate, this course is designed to help executives understand the legal issues they will face and how best to resolve them, with or without the assistance of lawyers.
INTRODUCTION TO REAL ESTATE; INTRODUCTION TO VARIOUS ASPECTS OF TRANSACTIONAL PRACTICE; ETHICS AND SPECIAL ISSUES FOR THE IN-HOUSE LAWYER
Custom classes for family offices to educate the next generation about the source and management of the family’s wealth, for in-house legal departments, or for new legal or real estate professionals
Forty years of working with businesses, family business-owners, and consumers have taught me that litigation often doesn’t work very well – it’s slow to get on the docket, it’s slower to pursue to resolution, it’s expensive, and it interferes unnecessarily with the business operations and lives of the parties involved. Arbitration, well managed, can solve all of that.
ADR Services
In dispute resolution, Kathleen Smalley calls on her experience as a partner in law firms; as general counsel of a major private company, of a family office, and of a public company; as a pension fund trustee; and in business roles. She has executive experience in real estate (at Trammell Crow Company, Crow Holdings, and Catellus Development Corporation (NYSE: CDX)), family governance, and executive compensation. Practicing in multiple states, she was engaged in problems of national and international scope. She has served as a director of a public company (Quality Care Properties (NYSE:QCP)), a trustee of a public pension fund (CalSTRS), and on boards of several nonprofits.
As a panelist or chair, Kathleen Smalley has resolved cases involving a broad range of substantive law, including partnership and governance matters, real estate finance, executive compensation, construction, telecommunications, appeal, consumer finance, general contract interpretation, and others. She has also served in an appellate panel reviewing the outcome of a sole arbitrator determination.
As an advocate, she designed creative cost-effective contractual procedures tailored for individual proceedings. As a neutral, she understands the value of creative, tailor-made approaches. She seeks to streamline the process, limiting motion practice to situations where it truly expedites and narrows the issues, furthering a fair resolution of each case.
BINDING ARBITRATION
Serves as a solo neutral, panel member or panel chair in reaching binding resolution in a speedy, cost-efficient, and fair adjudication of rights.
NON-BINDING ARBITRATION
Provides an arbitrator’s view of the likely outcome in a binding arbitration or court proceeding, based on a process designed by the parties to replicate as much of the actual arbitration process as is productive to their resolution plan.
DISPUTE RESOLUTION CONSULTATION
Advises on strategy in negotiation, mediation, litigation, or arbitration, as a resource to lead counsel or their clients; brings the experience of a general counsel in delivering the advice of expert outside counsel in a manner accessible and useful to the ultimate client; advises on the design of arbitration clauses and agreements.
EXPERT WITNESS
Consults and testifies based on experience in real estate transactions, governance, and family-owned businesses where the context for business and family wealth disputes can be helpful to a generalist factfinder.
GOVERNMENT SERVICE
Kathleen Smalley began her career with the broad experience of serving in the federal courts, as law clerk to Judge John Minor Wisdom of the US Court of Appeals and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the US Supreme Court. The caseload covered everything from capital criminal cases to federal tax; First Amendment to civil procedure; bankruptcy to block grants to states. She later served as a trustee of CalSTRS.
Experience
CORPORATE
After leaving the government, she served as general counsel of Trammell Crow Company; of Crow Holdings, the family office of the Trammell Crow family; and Catellus Development Corporation (NYSE: CDX). At both Trammell Crow and Catellus, she undertook significant business responsibilities, including brownfield redevelopment initiatives with risk-based environmental remediation, negotiation of major financings, debt restructures, and design of investor portfolios, along with the risk tolerance and management functions of a general counsel. She was responsible for executive compensation, equity participation arrangements (in both privately held and publicly held enterprises), and employment contracts for senior management, and she managed various employee benefit and labor issues for all employees. Her capital markets experience includes initial public offerings, compliance, reporting, and follow-on public offerings as well as private placements and venture capital transactions.
LAW PRACTICE
Returning to private practice, she represented select clients on high-stakes litigation and administrative appeals; matters relating to family wealth; internal investigations; and governance arrangements. Initially in her own practice, and then at national law firms, she appeared before administrative agencies and trial and appellate courts and negotiated transactions ranging from financings to leases to corporate acquisitions.
Her preferred case areas include:
Real Estate (Valuation, Landlord-Tenant, Development, Finance, Land Use)
Fiduciary Duty
Corporate Governance
Financial Transactions
Business Torts
Executive Compensation & Employment
Partnership
Creditors’ Rights
Estate Issues
High Asset Divorce
Tax
Capital Markets
Nonprofits
Libel & Slander
Unfair Competition
Consumer Finance
Consumer Protection
Professional Negligence
Telecommunications
Complex Transactions
Mergers & Acquisitions
Fee Schedule
AAA ARBITRATIONS
In matters administrated by the American Arbitration Association (AAA), fees are published or set by the relevant rules. All invoicing will be handled by an AAA case manager.
PRIVATE ARBITRATIONS
For private arbitrations, whether non-binding or binding, please contact my office directly for my fee schedule.
Contact Kathleen Smalley
I am located primarily in California but travel throughout the country and internationally. If I can help, please give my California office a call or send me a note directly.
Email: [email protected]
Office: 213.297.5701