Kelly A. Woodruff

Kelly Woodruff is a seasoned appellate advocate, having represented clients and amici curiae in dozens of significant writs and appeals in the state and federal appellate courts in her 25 years of practice. Over the course of her career, Kelly has gained experience with appellate matters in nearly all subject areas related to business and civil litigation, including intellectual property, breach of contract, torts, probate, and trust matters. Recently, Kelly preserved a multi-million-dollar inheritance verdict, obtained a writ of mandate against a state government agency that misreported information on its website, and submitted a successful Ninth Circuit amicus brief related to internet law for large public interest groups.

Because the groundwork for any successful appeal is often laid in the trial court, Kelly also works closely with trial counsel in preparing dispositive pretrial motions, presenting oral argument, shaping the record and preserving key issues for appeal, drafting post-trial motions, and evaluating and initiating appeals. Indeed, Kelly clerked for both an appellate judge and a trial judge – James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and David A. Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii – giving her special insight into how an appellate lawyer can be a game-changing addition to a litigation team from very beginning.

Kelly regularly speaks and writes on topics involving appellate law and business litigation, and she co-authored a chapter on “Business Torts” in the California Business Litigation Handbook (2017 ed.). Kelly graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she served as Senior Executive Editor for the Hastings Law Journal. She is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in California, as well as the Ninth, Federal and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

Prior to joining California Appellate Law Group in early 2017, Kelly served as the head of Appellate Litigation for Farella Braun + Martel LLP in San Francisco.