Robert Lieff

Robert L. Lieff is an independently practicing attorney in Santa Barbara, California, who works with other law firms on contingent-fee class actions. His California bar registration is active. Medical malpractice matters and claims arising from fire and flood in Santa Barbara are also part of his case history.

The firm that bears his surname is no longer his professional affiliation. Lieff founded Lieff Cabraser in 1972, following litigation work with Melvin Belli in San Francisco at Belli, Ashe, Ellison, Choulos & Lieff. January 2007 marked his move from management to an of-counsel position; he continued to participate in cases and bring work to the firm in that role. His departure took effect on January 1, 2023.

Among the matters Lieff worked on were the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Holocaust litigation. In the national tobacco litigation, his role included leading the effort to reach the first settlement with a tobacco company, in 1996.

A Columbia Law School graduate, Lieff separately endowed a professorship bearing his name and associated with the directorship of the Center for Chinese Legal Studies. Another Columbia chair, a clinical professorship in human rights law, was funded by his former firm with all of its Holocaust litigation attorneys’ fees under his leadership.

Lieff also organized an international network of lawyers in the early 2000s. Its Global Justice Forum first convened in London in 2005, with subsequent gatherings in Paris, Rome and New York.