Plaintiffs’ attorney Joshua M. Kimura likes to tell people he’s known his partner William O. London half his life.
“I actually met Bill on the very first day in the dormitories at [UC Santa Barbara] and we just hit it off,” Kimura said. “We ended up joining the same fraternity, and he was one of my roommates for two or three of the four years we were” at UC Santa Barbara.
Kimura met his other partner, Darrell P. White, on their first day at Chapman University School of Law, where they became fast friends.
“Both of these guys were in my wedding,” Kimura said.
Even so, the first time Kimura suggested that the three start a law firm together, London and White weren’t interested.
“It was my son’s first birthday, and I pitched both of them, saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to leave. Do either of you guys want to join me?’” Kimura recalled with a chuckle. “And they both actually said no.”
A few months later, however, London reconsidered, and in the fall of 2014, he joined Kimura to hang a shingle in Irvine. Kimura acknowledged it was a humble beginning.
“Bill and I actually shared a single office,” he said. “The joke was then that Bill and I were back to being roommates like we were in college, sharing a room. We just bootstrapped it. We knew how to practice law, but running a firm and business is completely different.”
The duo finally convinced White to come aboard in the summer of 2018, and Kimura said the firm’s trajectory has changed substantially since.
“Darrell’s a big vision guy,” Kimura explained. “He came in and reinvigorated us, saying, ‘Hey look, let’s build this thing. Let’s grow this thing.’ He really pushed us. … We had one part-time employee back then, and now we’re at 13, 14 employees.”
Still based in Irvine, Kimura London & White LLP is now home to seven attorneys and focuses on complex civil litigation — often involving business, real estate, employment and personal injury matters — as well trust and estate planning and corporate transactional work.
“Joshua focuses on personal injury, catastrophic injury as well as some other litigation matters. Bill is primarily our transactional attorney and estate planning attorney, and I lead our complex litigation practice group,” White explained. “The three of us are very tight knit, and I think that special bond we all have — actually as friends first before we became business partners — translates to a really unique, positive, tight-knit environment at our firm across the board.”
London agreed, saying the three friends and business partners have learned a great deal, but he noted that education hasn’t been without challenges.
“We didn’t acquire a firm. We didn’t merge with a firm. We started pretty much from the ground up,” he explained. “So we’ve learned everything that needs to be done — inside and out — and not always the easy way. … But to have done it together as a team — as three — really has created a bond. You really appreciate that when you’re in business together.”
The firm has also tried to take advantage of what makes its partners different. Kimura, whose father immigrated to California from Japan in the 1970s, speaks conversational Japanese, and the firm markets personal injury and business litigation services as well as estate planning to Japanese speaking clients.
London, meanwhile, studied abroad in Beijing and speaks fluent Mandarin, and he often provides trust and estate services for what he described as “high net worth, inbound, Chinese clients coming from abroad.”
“They’re coming from a completely different legal system and political system,” London explained. “And I find that I have a tremendous advantage, having lived there, knowing the language and having worked with Chinese clients over the years. I’m fairly uniquely situated to be a good bridge between the two cultures and legal systems.”
Kimura London & White has also had success in First Amendment cases. In 2020, it represented a USC student, who purchased a cat on a Mandarin language online forum, then posted details about her negative experience with the sale on that same forum and was subsequently sued by the cat seller, alleging trade libel. Xinyue Gu v. Yichen Sun, 20STCV40876 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 26, 2020).
“We brought an anti-SLAPP, won the entire case with one motion and recovered all of the attorney’s fees, which were paid in full by the other side,” White said. “This isn’t just a cat case. It’s something that applies to the types of disputes that can arise, and when folks want to air their grievances, the message was received on the other side that you’re free to do that.”
Irvine defense attorney Fang Li opposed Kimura in a wrongful death case tried last summer, and Li said he had a positive experience working with Kimura and his firm.
“As a litigator, you really don’t want to go to trial and have to face people you don’t want to be around,” Li explained. “We got along great. … Josh is someone you can trust. He’s a man of his word.”
Li also described Kimura as a formidable opponent.
“He had a really good closing argument,” Li said. “We were on the other side of the table, and we were worried he was going to convince the jury. … He had some problems liability wise in this case, but he just did everything he could. I think he did convince a few of the jurors to see it his way, but we still got a defense verdict. But that’s definitely something I remember — he just had a really good closing.”
Kimura noted the firm probably doesn’t have a great deal more growth ahead, saying that too many lawyers can become unwieldy. And while he conceded that the three partners may not always see everything eye to eye, they’ve never had to put any decision about their firm to a vote.
“If somebody feels very passionate about it, then the other two have said, ‘OK, if you feel that strongly about it, then it’s not that big of a deal,’” Kimura explained. “Having partners is a lot like a marriage. You’re going to have good days and bad days, but when you look at the whole, the good days should hopefully outnumber the bad days. … This profession can really be a dark place for some people. It can suck the life out of you, but it’s certainly life-giving to do it with two of your best friends.”