Experience
Kent W. Easter handles complex business litigation in federal and state courts, with a primary emphasis on securities litigation, including securities class actions, derivative claims, M&A litigation, and SEC enforcement inquiries and investigations, as well as general commercial disputes involving high-technology and emerging growth companies. He has also advised audit committees and boards of directors in internal investigations and corporate governance matters.

Mr. Easter is the chair of the firm's Recruiting Committee.

Mr. Easter’s most recent successes for his clients have included:

• Defeating attempts to preliminarily enjoin the sale of an Orange County public company to a private equity buyer, permitting the sale to close as scheduled
• Obtaining the complete dismissal with prejudice of federal fair credit act claims in a class action against an Orange County mortgage lender
• Representing several Orange County and Bay Area companies in SEC investigations which concluded without any enforcement action
• Successfully defending a Southern California company at trial in a dissenting shareholder appraisal action

Mr. Easter received his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Law in 1998 after graduating in three years with an A.B. with honors in history from Stanford University in 1995.

Reported Opinions
Kamen v. Lindly et al, 94 Cal. App. 4th 197 (2001)
Pirraglia v. Novell, Inc., 339 F. 3d. 1182 (10th cir. 2003)

Special Honors and Memberships
Mr. Easter is a member of the State Bar of California.

He was a member of the trial team that earned the 2001 Martin Luther King, Jr. Visionary Award from the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights for representing a class of minority- and women-owned businesses in a discrimination action. He also was the recipient in 2000, 2001, and 2002 of the John Wilson Award for outstanding service to pro bono clients, given by the firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he was an associate from 1998 to 2006.