Practice Areas · A Field Guide
Our expertise reflects mastery of a process: achieving the optimal result for our clients in any legal dispute, at any stage of the litigation process.
Jenkins Kayayan LLP is not a general services firm. We are litigators, specialists who understand that a lawsuit is not a routine transaction but a high-stakes contest in which the skill, preparation, and judgment of counsel often determine the outcome.
We have honed our unique blend of experience, tactical insight, and dedicated advocacy across a diverse range of subjects, representing Fortune 500 corporations, financial institutions, mid-sized companies, partnerships, and selective individual clients in complex and class action litigation in state and federal courts nationwide.
Seasoned veterans of top national law firms, bringing major‑firm experience and dedication to every matter.
We represent corporations, partnerships, and financial institutions in high-value business disputes in state and federal courts nationwide. Our attorneys are veterans of nationally recognized firms and bring the resources and rigor of major-firm practice to boutique-firm responsiveness and rates.
We represent banks, thrifts, mortgage producers, and other financial entities in litigation arising from their core business activities, including loan origination disputes, regulatory matters, and institution-to-institution litigation. Managing Partner Lara Kayayan served as General Counsel and EVP at Home Savings of America, giving the firm deep institutional knowledge of how lenders operate.
The firm has developed a nationally recognized practice in mortgage repurchase litigation. Jonathan M. Jenkins pioneered a strategy of massive resistance and represents mortgage producers in repurchase demands brought by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and private investors.
IP litigation including copyright, trade secrets, and licensing disputes, together with art collection disputes and entertainment industry matters. Coverage has included the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Fox News, and the Hollywood Reporter.
We defend corporate clients against consumer and employment class actions. Our attorneys bring experience from major national law firms, understanding both the procedural mechanics of class certification and the substantive defenses that determine outcomes at trial and on appeal.
Jonathan M. Jenkins is admitted in the Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals and has briefed and argued appeals in federal and state courts across the country.
We devise the optimal strategy in every case, and pursue it relentlessly.
We represent property owners, developers, and commercial entities in real estate and land use disputes, including contract disputes, title matters, and complex real estate litigation.
We have represented subsea cable companies, data centers, and hyperscalers internationally in high-stakes, “bet the company” lawsuits and arbitrations. As the digital infrastructure sector expands, the firm brings its hallmark combination of litigation skill and strategic insight to disputes in this rapidly evolving space.
We handle arbitrations and mediations for clients across multiple jurisdictions. Our attorneys bring extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, managing complex cases in forums nationwide and achieving favorable outcomes through strategic advocacy and skilled negotiation.
We represent individuals and families whose lives have been permanently altered by catastrophic injuries, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, severe burns, amputation, and wrongful death. The firm pursues full and just compensation against responsible parties and their insurers.
We litigate insurance coverage disputes and bad-faith claims against carriers that refuse to honor their contractual obligations. The practice covers first-party property, life, and disability claims as well as third-party liability coverage disputes. We pursue the full range of common-law and statutory remedies against insurers that have unreasonably delayed, denied, or underpaid valid claims.
Engagement
We represent Fortune 500 corporations, financial institutions, and selective individual clients in complex litigation across California and nationwide.
Representative Matter · Complex & Commercial Litigation
No. 13-cv-3451 (SRN/JJK/HB), U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota
Jenkins Kayayan LLP zealously represented Sierra Pacific Mortgage Company, one of the nation’s largest mortgage banks, against approximately $9 billion in securitized putback claims brought by the RESCAP Liquidating Trust.
Jonathan M. Jenkins and Lara Kayayan also served for three years on the Joint Defense Steering Committee, helping to formulate the legal defenses utilized by hundreds of financial institutions that faced crushing liability for subprime mortgages extended in the leadup to the Great Recession of 2009.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Representative Matter · Mortgage Repurchase Defense
No. 4:15-cv-01242-MTS, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
Representing defendant Platinum Home Mortgage Corporation, Jonathan M. Jenkins and Lara Kayayan prevailed on summary judgment in 2017, becoming the first lawyers in history to defeat CitiMortgage at the Rule 56 stage in a securitized mortgage putback case.
The decision broke CitiMortgage’s thirty-six-to-zero record on dispositive motions in this category of litigation against correspondent lenders.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Representative Matter · Intellectual Property
No. 30-2010-00426733-CU-NP-CJC, Superior Court of the State of California, County of Orange
The Firm successfully represented the plaintiff in a multi-year battle over ownership and control of a 120-piece art collection by Salvador Dalí, specially designed for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 film Spellbound.
Several of Mr. Dalí’s original works from the collection adorn one of the Firm’s conference rooms today.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Representative Matter · AI & Data Centers
No. CPF-21-517383, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco (Complex Division)
Jonathan M. Jenkins and Lara Kayayan successfully resolved a multi-year complex dispute between the owner and operator of a trans-Pacific subsea cable (designated U.S. National Security Infrastructure) and the landing stations and data centers where the cable connects with terrestrial infrastructure.
Subsea cables carry an estimated 99% of all international internet traffic, making them among the most strategically significant pieces of commercial infrastructure in the world.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Representative Matter · Alternative Dispute Resolution
Arbitration No. 21-0272-A, Dispute Prevention and Resolution, Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii
Jonathan M. Jenkins and Lara Kayayan prevailed in both phases of a monthlong arbitration concerning access to and ownership of a critical, content-neutral data center and cable landing station in Guam.
The high-tech proceeding was conducted entirely by Zoom, with a panel of three arbitrators in Hawaii hearing live testimony from witnesses located in California, New York, Japan, Singapore, Guam, and Australia.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Representative Matter · Appellate Practice
2025 WL 3265964 (Cal. Ct. App. 2d Dist. 2025) (unpublished)
The Firm represented the appellant, a former owner and employee of The TCW Group, Inc., who claimed he was unlawfully denied his contractually-vested Tag-Along Rights, depriving him of the ability to participate in the multi-billion-dollar sale of TCW to outside investors.
After the trial court initially dismissed the complaint without leave to amend, the Firm obtained a complete reversal on appeal in the California Court of Appeal, Second District.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Representative Matter · Catastrophic Personal Injury
No. 2:17-cv-2911, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
A close friend of the Firm was severely injured at a five-star hotel in Tokyo, Japan, after tripping and falling over the mounting base of a famous statue in the lobby. She was initially unable to retain personal injury counsel given the jurisdictional hurdles and the limited damages available under Japanese law.
Recognizing that recent Ninth Circuit authority opened a path for recovery in the United States, Jenkins Kayayan LLP filed a federal lawsuit in California. Days later, the case settled for policy limits.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Representative Matter · Class Action Defense
No. BC517633, Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles
The Firm defended Fantasy Activewear, Inc., a Vernon-based clothing manufacturer, against a wage-and-hour employment class action.
Over a three-and-a-half-year period, Jenkins Kayayan LLP disqualified one proposed class representative after another until plaintiffs abandoned the action for lack of an adequate named plaintiff.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Representative Matter · Insurance Coverage
No. SACV 11-950-JVS(MLGx), U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
The Firm filed an insurance bad-faith action on behalf of a financial-institution client based on the insurer’s failure to reimburse legal fees paid to Latham & Watkins under a standard directors and officers (D&O) policy.
After several years of contentious litigation, the case settled on favorable terms on the eve of the client’s motion for partial summary judgment.
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.