Kurt B. Oldenburg

Kurt has experience in all phases of civil litigation including fact and expert discovery, motion practice, oral argument, mediation, trial preparation, and appeals. He has litigated disputes involving breach of contract, products liability, employee and consumer class actions, federal securities law, and various business torts. Kurt has also overseen physical and electronic data retention, collection, and production in numerous matters. He has interviewed witnesses and collected evidence in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Middle East.

Kurt also maintains an active white collar practice, representing individuals and companies during internal investigations and proceedings before the DOJ and SEC. His work in this area has involved the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), antitrust laws, trade sanctions, and mail and wire fraud.

Kurt also dedicates significant time to pro bono legal assistance. He currently represents an Eritrean refugee who fled ethnic and religious persecution by a regime tied with North Korea as the third-worst human rights offender in the world.  Kurt and other Morgan Lewis attorneys secured a preliminary injunction staying the client’s removal to Eritrea while he pursues asylum in our immigration courts, Sied v. Nielsen, 2018 WL 1142202 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 2, 2018).  Kurt was also honored by Legal Services for Children for his pro bono defense of expulsion proceedings against a student in the San Francisco Unified School District. He also contributed to an appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals seeking habeas relief for the state’s longest-serving death row inmate, and obtained U-Visa residency status for a Bay Area victim of domestic violence. Prior to law school, Kurt worked with a San Francisco non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to justice among Californians by connecting and mobilizing stakeholders in legal services, courts, bar associations, law schools, and law firms.

Kurt received his J.D. from the UC Davis School of Law, where he graduated in the Order of the Coif. Kurt sat on the UC Davis Moot Court Board, was a National Finalist at the American College of Trial Lawyers’ National Moot Court Competition, and earned the Moses Lasky Antitrust Award and several Witkin Awards for Academic Excellence.

• Representing a Japanese infrastructure and telecommunications company in California products liability litigation involving SDRAM memory components.
• Representing a GPS technology manufacturer and parent corporation in jury trial appeal to US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit involving chipset development contract claims.
• Representing a European manufacturer of gadolinium-based contrast agents (MRI contrast dyes) in defense of federal and California civil suits alleging failure to warn of purported medical condition caused by dye injection.
• Representing underwriters in defense of federal and California securities class actions arising from IPO registration statements.
• Representing a petroleum and natural gas exploration and production company in high-profile federal and California lawsuits seeking public nuisance damages and injunctive relief in connection with global warming.
• Representing a financial services company in jury trial appeal to the California Court of Appeal involving alleged theft of trade secrets.
• Representing a Fortune 50 tech company in connection with multijurisdictional investigation by the SEC, DOJ, and UK Serious Fraud Office concerning accounting practices of company acquired by client and parallel criminal prosecution of former executive of acquired company.
• Representing a tech executive in connection with internal investigation and multijurisdictional investigations by the DOJ and state agencies involving FCPA, competition, and data privacy laws.
• Won dismissal of federal RICO, fraud, and contractual claims filed against a Japanese manufacturer in dispute arising from solar farm development project.
• Obtained favorable settlements for a publicly-traded manufacturer of precision testing and measurement equipment in litigation arising from industrial accident involving molecular beam epitaxy system manufactured by third party.
• Obtained take-nothing settlement during trial of executive compensation claims filed against a textile holding company.
• Represented a Japanese company and chief executive in high-stakes federal and Nevada litigation regarding corporate governance and shareholder rights.
• Defended private class actions for trustees of residential asset-backed securities and handled civil subpoena responses relating to other complex financial transactions.
• Conducted internal investigation for a Japanese gaming and entertainment company concerning foreign investments and handled parallel FCPA and accounting investigations before the DOJ and state and foreign regulators.
• Conducted internal investigations for the audit committee of a Silicon Valley tech company and handled related FCPA investigations before the DOJ and SEC.
• Conducted internal investigations for a drilling technology company and handled related FCPA and trade sanctions investigations before the DOJ, SEC, and Treasury.
• Represented pharmaceutical and food services executives in criminal investigations by Antitrust Division of the US DOJ.
• Counseled a major telecommunications company regarding Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking disclosure of government phone surveillance program records.