PARTNER
Christopher G. Kerr
Christopher G. Kerr has tried cases in superior courts throughout Southern California and has argued at the California Court of Appeal and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His primary expertise is in property disputes, having handled easement, encroachment, boundary line, quiet title, trespass, and nuisance lawsuits between neighboring property owners. He also has experience in landlord/tenant, personal injury, and homeowner’s association law. In addition to his trial advocacy, he has obtained favorable results pre-trial, and has successfully negotiated settlements for his clients, including navigating coverage disputes and exclusions, to protect against adverse or excess judgments.
Before becoming an attorney, Mr. Kerr joined HSSA as a law clerk during his second year of law school in November 2006. He has been a partner since January 2018.
Prior to law school, Mr. Kerr interned for two years with the corporate legal department of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in Menlo Park and London while completing his undergraduate studies. Following his first year of law school, he returned to London and completed a summer internship with a small practice focused on corporate compliance and data protection.
Mr. Kerr is a car enthusiast, an amateur photographer and DJ, and an avid snowboarder. He also previously sat on the board of his prior building’s Homeowner’s Association in various roles including as President, during which time he helped successfully navigate the association through a complex construction defect litigation and various contentious disputes between individual homeowners.
Select results:
In March 2024, Mr. Kerr was lead trial counsel in Rodriguez v. Paz, a landlord-tenant dispute in which the plaintiffs’ last settlement demand before trial was $155,000. Following a 10-day jury trial, defendants were found only 30% liable on a $16,500 verdict in favor of plaintiffs. That verdict failed to exceed defendants’ prior Code of Civil Procedure section 998 settlement offer, allowing defendants to recover costs in excess of the verdict, resulting in a $60,000 judgment in favor of defendants.
In December 2024, Mr. Kerr obtained a unanimous defense verdict from a Bakersfield jury in Jones v. Henden, a premises liability lawsuit in which the plaintiff sought damages from a property owner after he sustained burn injuries while trying to start a non-running RV by pouring gasoline into its carburetor. Judgment was entered in favor of Defendants in the amount of $42,000.
Mr. Kerr was lead counsel in Weiser Law Firm PC v. Hartlieb, a case which arose from several shareholder derivative lawsuits after the plaintiff law firm was found to have engaged in questionable billing practices which included the use of a disbarred attorney to support an attorney’s fees award that a court in Kansas cut by 90%. The defendant was accused of abuse of process by the plaintiff law firm for communicating with various courts about that result in subsequent cases where the law firm sought to be appointed as counsel. The district court granted defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion and awarded attorney’s fees. In December 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in full. Judgment was entered for Defendant in the amount of $60,000.
Mr. Kerr was one of the trial attorneys in the matter of Gdowski v. Tsang, a complex contract dispute related to drainage on two properties in the city of Palos Verdes Estates, California. The Court granted a nonsuit on all claims brought by the plaintiff in February 2020 and awarded the Tsangs $164,150 on their cross-complaint following completion of a remote trial in February 2021. Mr. Kerr defended the judgment on appeal, which was affirmed in full by the California Court of Appeal, Second District.
In November 2018, Mr. Kerr was one of the trial attorneys in the matter of Sager v. J-Mar Investment Co., in which the plaintiff claimed significant physical and mental health symptoms were the result of exposure to mold following water leaks at an apartment in Long Beach, California. After a three-week trial, the jury returned a defense verdict on all claims, resulting in a judgment in favor of defendants in excess of $100,000.
Education
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OF LAW
Juris Doctor, 2008
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ
B.A., Film and Digital Media, 2005
Bar Admissions
• State Bar of California
• United States District Court for the Central District of California
• United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit