Kenzo Kawanabe is an acclaimed trial lawyer with substantial experience representing clients in high-stakes cases. In the firm’s first year alone, he tried three multi-week cases to judgment. Kenzo was one of the lead trial lawyers to obtain a groundbreaking $60 million trial victory against Mead Johnson, the maker of Enfamil (story here). And he co-led a trial team in Cook County, Illinois, against two makers of Zantac—GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim—for causing his client’s cancer, ultimately settling on confidential terms with GSK and trying the case against Boehringer Ingelheim to a hung jury (story here). It was the first trial against a Zantac manufacturer that did not end in a defense verdict.

Kenzo is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (former State Chair) and International Society of Barristers, and he teaches at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Kenzo has served as counsel for companies across industries and issues including intellectual property, real estate, construction, mass torts, and environmental matters. His prior trials included constitutional claims for equitable public-school finance, corporate fiduciary duty disputes, CERCLA claims, construction defects, trademark infringement, and refugees seeking asylum. Previously, Kenzo was a partner at a venerable, 100-year-old Denver law firm, where he practiced for 25 years representing clients from Fortune 500 companies to technology startups.

Kenzo has received widespread recognition for his experience including being named as one of America’s Top 200 Lawyers by Forbes Magazine. Chambers USA ranked him as a “Band 1” litigator in the region; Best Lawyers named Kenzo as “Lawyer of the Year for Bet-the-Company Litigation”; and Colorado Super Lawyers has listed him in the Top Ten for over a decade.

Kenzo was the first-ever General Counsel for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. He is a member of the American Bar Association (ABF Fellow), Colorado Bar Association (past board and Bar Fellow), Denver Bar Association (Executive Committee), and Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Colorado (past president and past foundation president). Kenzo’s awards include National Philanthropy Day (Colorado) Volunteer of the Year; PEBC Investing in Education Award; Colorado Education Association Coloradan Award; American Constitution Society Impact Award; Denver Mayor’s Pascoe Civic Leadership Award; and Denver Bar Association Richard Marden Davis Award.