McGuireWoods LLP announced Nov. 19 that Sidney K. Kanazawa, a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office, has been inducted into the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA), a trial lawyer honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers.
Membership into the LCA is by invitation only and is limited to 3,500 fellows, who are selected based upon effectiveness and accomplishment in litigation, both at the trial and appellate levels. For more information about the LCA and its fellowship selection process, visit www.litcounsel.org.
Kanazawa, who was formally inducted at LCA’s 2012 Fall Conference and Induction of Fellows in Tampa, Fla., is also a member, by invitation, of the Product Liability Advisory Council Inc., Maritime Law Association, and American Law Institute. He defends clients facing high-stakes litigation in the areas of product liability and mass torts, class-action litigation, environmental litigation, financial services litigation, food safety law, and health-care litigation.
Having served as an instructor at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, Kanazawa has lectured and published articles on various subjects, including trial tactics and trial advocacy in Japan. He serves as general counsel to the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and is a former chairman of DRI’s Trial Tactics Committee and the State Bar of California’s Committee on Administration of Justice.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Kanazawa graduated from the University of Hawaii and worked as an elementary school teacher, adult education teacher, outreach counselor, and body-fender mechanic before coming to Los Angeles to attend USC School of Law. His intent was to finish law school and return home to Hawaii, but he got summer jobs in L.A., stayed to take the bar, and ended up practicing in L.A. for a couple of years before returning home to Hawaii for a couple of years.
He came back to L.A. when his mentor, Ken Chiate, called on him to join in a regional counsel effort in the defense of a Detroit automaker faced with mass litigation across the country.
Kanazawa’s wife, Millicent Sanchez, is also from Hawaii and a lawyer. She went to UCLA School of Law and has a boutique labor and employment practice.
McGuireWoods LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 900 lawyers in 19 offices worldwide. The firm’s Los Angeles office is located at 1800 Century Park East. For more information, visit www.mcguirewoods.com.