Robert L Lieff

Early life

Lieff was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on September 29, 1936. He has resided in California since 1963.

Education and early career

Lieff attended Cornell University (1954-1956) and received a B.A. degree from the University of Bridgeport in 1958. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1961. He earned a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Columbia Graduate School of Business in 1962. Lieff first worked as an attorney at Chadbourne & Parke, LLP in New York.

Legal career

Lieff worked as an associate and then partner at the law firm of Belli, Ashe, Ellison, Choulos & Lieff from 1965 to 1972. After leaving the Belli Firm, he was the founder, principal architect, and visionary of Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein, LLP. Under his direction, Lieff Cabraser became one of the largest plaintiffs' firms in the world, with 100 lawyers and 200 employees in San Francisco, New York City, and Nashville. Lieff Cabraser has been recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the top plaintiffs firms in the country for the last 10 years, one of only two such firms to be so honored. Lieff became “Of Counsel” to the Firm in 2007.

Lieff was a key player in landmark cases including Exxon Valdez, Holocaust litigation, and the National Tobacco Settlement. Lieff managed the mass torts practice at Lieff Cabraser which has litigated such cases as Sulzer hip and knee implants, Fen Phen, silicon breast implants, Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra, and cases relating to certain Guidant medical devices. During the last eight years, he has led the Firm’s aviation disaster and foreign exchange litigation practices.

Lieff created the Global Justice Forum and the Global Justice Network, an international network of lawyers which meets semi-annually. The Forum, which brings together international attorneys, has been held in London, Paris, Rome, and New York, co-sponsored by Columbia Law School and the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy at Columbia University. More than 300 lawyers from 30 countries have participated or attended.

Through a gift of all the attorneys' fees from the firm's Holocaust litigation, Lieff endowed the Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein Clinical Professorship of Human Rights Law at his alma mater, Columbia Law School. Lieff has endowed a second chair at Columbia Law School as the Robert L. Lieff Professor in Law Director of the Center for Chinese Legal Studies.

Personal life

Robert Lieff has a history in the vineyard and winery business going back to 1966. He was a founder of Far Niente and Vichon wineries in the Napa Valley and produced Lieff Wines from Rutherford. Lieff and his wife Gretchen reside in Montecito (Santa Barbara), California. They own Lieff Wines, LLC, producing wine and operating vineyards at Lieff Alamo Creek Ranch, their property in San Luis Obispo County, California. At the Ranch, they have created a conservation easement with the San Luis Obispo Land Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Board of California. The easement protects 1,860 acres of undeveloped land in perpetuity. They have also created other conservation easements in San Luis Obispo and Napa counties.

They are also involved in the development of a play based on the story of the Belli Law Firm dealing with the lives and law practices of Melvin M. Belli and Robert L. Lieff in the years 1965-1972. Lieff has been a Board member of various non-profit organizations, including The Napa Land Trust and Napa Legal Aid Society and the Bellosguardo Foundation in Santa Barbara. He is also a member of the Board of Visitors and the Dean’s Council at Columbia Law School.