Kim Sim Sandell

Kim Sim Sandell handles all aspects of complex business litigation. She has represented individual and institutional clients in contract disputes, misappropriation of trade secret and unfair competition cases, insurance coverage issues and protection of intellectual property rights in both state and federal court.

Kim also regularly counsels clients on all matters affecting their business, including worldwide brand protection, insurance, and labor and employment matters. Kim provides guidance to clients on regulatory and statutory compliance with consumer protection statutes, advertising laws and regulations including Proposition 65. She has participated in mediation and arbitration proceedings and has also served as an attorney mediator for the Los Angeles Superior Court. Kim is a regular presenter on legal and regulatory compliance topics for the personal care products industry, including legal insight through the Beauty Industry Market Access Program (BIMA) and Personal Care Products Council (PCPC).

Prior to joining Conkle, Kremer & Engel, Kim served as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Whitney Rimel, United States Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of California.

Experience, Presentations and Publications

Representative Engagements

• Obtained favorable monetary settlement in action for bad faith breach of insurance contract against insurance company that had failed to defend client against intellectual property infringement claims.
• Jury trial resulting in $6.2 million judgment for sales representative who was refused his commissions. Judgment upheld on appeal in the first California precedent confirming right to treble damages for breach of sales commission contract.
• Represented a financial institution and its officers and directors in a complex action involving missing funds from electronic fund transfer transactions by a third-party payment processing company, resolving the claims using insurance proceeds.
• Obtained dismissal of a False Claims Act case against our client, a Medicare fiscal intermediary.
• Defended clothing wholesalers and resellers against claims of copyright infringement in fabric designs, resolving them at nuisance value.
• Defended institutional investors in action by Small Business Administration as federal court-appointed receiver of a small business investment company related to the investment of capital. Successfully negotiated resolutions that ended investors’ commitments to fund failing partnerships, drastically reducing the amounts claimed by the SBA, and obtained a refund of several hundred thousand dollars overpaid by a client on the demand of the SBA.
• Represented a manufacturer and distributor of personal care products against a model’s claim for image misappropriation from use of his photograph on product packaging. After forcing the matter into arbitration and preventing costly discovery, damages were limited and a favorable settlement was obtained.
• Resolved false advertising claims threatened by a putative class action plaintiff against our client, a manufacturer and distributor of hair care products, without any payment or change to advertising.
• Prepared a comprehensive product liability risk management assessment, including a product recall plan, for a manufacturer of commercial equipment in response to concerns about product safety.
• Obtained a preliminary and permanent injunction against a competitor’s sale of a similar product in action for trademark infringement, trade dress infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition.
• Defended a manufacturer of specialized heating and cooling lubricants and its employee against a competitor’s claims that hiring the employee violated a non-compete agreement. Negotiated a settlement that broadly enabled the employee to continue to work for our client and perform all of the employment duties he was hired to perform.

 Presentations

• “Navigating Civil Regulatory Issues,” Beauty Industry Market Access (BIMA), Center for International Trade Development, 2014-2015
• “Emerging Legal Issues,” Personal Care Products Council, 2014
• “Collecting from Principals,” Electronics Representatives Association Southern California Owner’s Forum, 2014
• “Introduction to Judicial Clerkships,” UCLA School of Law, 2012

Publications

• Featured in “Fallout from an Oral Contract,” Agency Sales Magazine, January 2014
• “Breach of Oral Contract, Treble Damages,” Los Angeles Daily Journal, August 13, 2013
• “Punitive Damages:  A Fork in the Road?,” International Bar Association Negligence and Damages Newsletter, 2006 (co-author)

Education

• University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, J.D., 2007
  • Moot Court Award for Best Oral Advocate
  • Managing Editor of the UCLA Entertainment Law Review
  • Judicial extern for the Honorable Maria Rivera (Justice California 1st District Court of Appeal)
•  University of Southern California, B.A. (Journalism), with honors, 2004

Professional Associations

• American Bar Association
• Los Angeles County Bar Association

Admissions

• State Bar of California, 2007
• All Federal Courts in California
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit