Biography:
Mr. Hufstedler, Senior Of Counsel to Morrison & Foerster, has had an active business, trial and appellate practice for over 50 years. Mr. Hufstedler has represented a broad range of clients in complex business disputes in various state and federal courts, and he has argued numerous matters before California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Two of his cases, Lewis v. Anderson, 615 F.2d 778 (1979) and Gaines v. Haughton, 645 F.2d 761 (1981), are the first two, and the leading Ninth Circuit cases on the role of independent special litigation committees in derivative lawsuits. Mr. Hufstedler also represented the California Commission on Judicial Performance in its televised investigation of the California Supreme Court. In the last few years, the majority of his practice has been in the appellate courts. In his last United States Supreme Court appearance, Mr. Hufstedler represented the Governor of Guam, and succeeded in reversing the Ninth Circuit by at 9-0 vote.
Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster’s Los Angeles office in 1995, Mr. Hufstedler was one of the founding partners (together with Charles E. Beardsley) of Beardsley Hufstedler & Kemble, more recently known as Hufstedler & Kaus.
Mr. Hufstedler has served as President of both the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles County Bar Association, as well as the American Bar Foundation. In addition, he has chaired the ABA Senior Lawyers Division, the ABA Action Commission to Reduce Court Costs and Delays, and the Los Angeles Public Commission on County Government. He received his B.A. in 1944 from the University of Southern California where he was Phi Beta Kappa, and his LL.B. in 1949 from Stanford University where he was Order of the Coif and Legislation Editor of the Stanford Law Review. Mr. Hufstedler is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Mr. Hufstedler has been named a 2007, 2008, and 2009 Best Lawyer in America in the fields of Bet-the-Company Litigation and Commercial Litigation, and in Appellate Law for 2009.
