Kimberly Donaldson Smith is a partner in the Firm’s Haverford Office. Kimberly, having joined the Firm upon graduating from law school, has been counseling clients and prosecuting cases on complex issues involving securities, business transactions and other class actions for over a decade.

Kimberly concentrates her practice in sophisticated securities class action litigation in federal courts throughout the country, and has served as lead or co-lead counsel in over a dozen class actions. She is very active in investigating and initiating securities and shareholder class actions. Kimberly is currently prosecuting federal securities claims on behalf of investors in the Wells REIT Securities Litigation, Case 1:07-cv-00862 (U.S.D.C. N.D. GA) and Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. Securities Litigation, 1:07-cv-02660 (U.S.D.C. N.D. GA).  Kimberly was instrumental in the outstanding settlements achieved for the investors in the CNL Hotels & Resorts Inc. Federal Securities Litigation, Case No. 04-cv-1231 (M.D. Fla.) and the Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust, Inc., et al. Litigation, Case 07 C 6174 (U.S.D.C. N.D. Ill), which settlements included a $35,000,000 cash settlement fund and a $225 million savings for the CNL shareholders and a $90 million savings for the Inland shareholders. Notably, Kimberly was an integral member of the trial team that successfully litigated the In re Real Estate Associates Limited Partnership Litigation No. CV 98-7035 DDP (CD. Cal.) through a six-week jury trial that resulted in a landmark $184 million plaintiffs’ verdict, which is one of the largest jury verdicts since the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Real Estate Associates judgment was settled for $83 million, which represented full recovery for the Class (and an amount in excess of the damages calculated by Plaintiffs’ expert).

Kimberly’s pro bono activities include serving as a volunteer attorney with the Support Center for Child Advocates, a Philadelphia-based, nonprofit organization that provides legal and social services to abused and neglected children. Since 2006, Kimberly has been recognized by Law & Politics and the publishers of Philadelphia Magazine as a Pennsylvania Rising Star, as listed in the “Pennsylvania Rising Stars Super Lawyers” publication. Only 2.5 percent of the total lawyers in Pennsylvania are listed in Rising Stars.