John S. Kiernan

Partner

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New York

Tel: +1 212 909 6692

Overview

John Kiernan has served on the firm’s Management Committee and as Co-Chair of its Litigation Department (2002–2017), and has been Chair of ... Read Full Biography

Publications

Handling State AG Parens Patriae Actions Now That the Supreme Court Has Rejected Federal Court Removal
21 January 2014

Mark P. Goodman
,
John S. Kiernan
,
Maura Kathleen Monaghan
,
Erica S. Weisgerber
Supreme Court to Review “Fraud on the Market” Presumption of Reliance in Securities Class Actions
21 November 2013

Mark P. Goodman
,
John S. Kiernan
,
Shannon Rose Selden
,
William H. Taft V
,
Edwin G. Schallert
,
Gary W. Kubek
,
Maeve O'Connor
,
Colby A. Smith
Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Provision And Court's Broad Interpretation
27 October 2012

The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Jyotin Hamid
,
Mary Beth Hogan
,
John S. Kiernan
,
Colby A. Smith
,
Jonathan R. Tuttle
,
Ada Fernandez Johnson
No Shortcuts to Class Notice: Third Circuit Orders Sprint to Spend More Time and Money Identifying More Potential Class Members
2 July 2012

Jeremy Feigelson
,
John S. Kiernan
,
Maura Kathleen Monaghan
"Multiple Indicia of Collusion" Doom Bluetooth Headset Class Settlement That Would Have Paid $800,000 to the Lawyers and Nothing to the Class
22 August 2011

John S. Kiernan
Sippy Cup Case Shows the Downside of Defeating Multi-State Class Certification: The Beast Just Grows Multiple Heads
6 July 2011

John S. Kiernan
,
Michael B. Mukasey
Supreme Court Adopts Rule Curtailing Private Securities Fraud Actions against Outside Advisors Who Assist in the Preparation of Disclosures
15 June 2011

Maeve O'Connor
,
Kenneth J. Berman
,
John S. Kiernan
,
Gary W. Kubek
,
Peter J. Loughran
,
Joseph P. Moodhe
,
Edwin G. Schallert
,
Colby A. Smith
Supreme Court Upholds Arbitration Clauses in Consumer Adhesion Contracts, Including Clauses Prohibiting Class Arbitration
27 April 2011

John S. Kiernan
,
David W. Rivkin
Mutual Fund Fees: The Supreme Court Adopts the Gartenberg Standard
1 April 2010

Kenneth J. Berman
,
Woodrow W. Campbell, Jr.
,
Marcia L. MacHarg
,
Gregory T. Larkin
,
John S. Kiernan
True to Word: AGs Curtailing Coupon Settlements
8 January 2010

Product Liability Law360

John S. Kiernan
,
Maura Kathleen Monaghan
True to Their Word: State Attorneys General Move to Block Another Class Action “Coupon Settlement”
4 January 2010

John S. Kiernan
,
Maura Kathleen Monaghan
Recent SEIU Demand Letters Concerning Executive Pay Raise Key Considerations for Responding Boards of Directors
22 April 2009

John S. Kiernan
,
Colby A. Smith
,
Bruce E. Yannett
,
Gary W. Kubek
Court Preemptively Denies Class Certification before Discovery
19 March 2009

John S. Kiernan
Courts Refuse to Give Full Faith and Credit to Nationwide Products Settlement
11 March 2009

Mark P. Goodman
,
John S. Kiernan

Upcoming Events

Recent Events

Welcome Address
25 October 2016

New York City Bar Association

Profiles of Leaders in the Law

New York, New York

Speaker: John S. Kiernan

Speaking Engagements

John Kiernan has served on the firm’s Management Committee and as Co-Chair of its Litigation Department (2002–2017), and has been Chair of its Ethics Committee since 1994. His representations have embraced a broad range of commercial disputes and internal investigations, including disputes relating to contracts, purchases and sales of businesses, corporate governance, derivative and class action claims, international treaties, securities claims, patents and other intellectual property, consumer fraud, accountant liability and mass torts. Mr. Kiernan is recognized as a leading litigator by numerous publications. According to Chambers USA, clients praise his “great judgment,” (2010) and recognize him as “technically excellent” (2009), “incredibly creative,” “great when put in front of a board of directors” (2012) and a “superb litigator” (2011), with peers describing him as “an extremely bright, first-class litigator, thinker and colleague” (2008) and a “superstar” who applies a “deft touch rather than a sledgehammer” in commercially sensitive contract disputes, international treaty claims and securities actions (2007). In addition, IFLR Benchmark Litigation Guide has ranked Mr. Kiernan in its top 100 commercial litigators in the United States and in New York each year since 2010 and notes “his extensive experience and breadth of knowledge.” He is also recognized as a leading securities litigator in The Legal 500 US (2017) and as a leading litigator for commercial litigation or alternative methods of dispute resolution in numerous other “Best Lawyers” publications.Mr. Kiernan is the Board Chair of Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York and Co-Chair of the Inner City Scholarship Fund, Lawyers Division. He has previously chaired the Boards of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR), Legal Services-New York City, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Volunteers of Legal Service, the Justice Resource Center and the New York City Bankruptcy Assistance Project (which he co-founded), and was the Mayor of Pelham Manor, NY from 1999-2001. He has also served as a director or trustee of the City Bar Justice Center, New York Alliance for the Public Schools, Practicing Attorneys for Law Students, United Way of Pelham, NY, the Pelham Art Center, the Federal Bar Council, the Village Board of Pelham Manor, the International Senior Lawyers Project and the Point O'Woods, NY Association. He served for 15 years as a volunteer coordinator for the AmeriCares/HomeFront home rehabilitation project, and for 28 seasons as a travel soccer coach. Mr. Kiernan is the immediate past President of the New York City Bar Association, where he previously served on the Executive Committee and chaired several other committees. He has also chaired numerous committees of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association and the Federal Bar Council. He is the Chair of the New York Chief Judge’s Advisory Committee on Alternative Methods of Dispute Resolution, and a member of the New York State Permanent Commission on Access to Justice and the Legal Services Corporation’s Disaster Task Force, and he has previously served as Co-Chair of the New York Chief Judge’s Task Force on Hurricane Disaster Relief and a member of Chief Judge’s Committee on Non-Lawyers and the Justice Gap. He was a speaker at annual ALI-ABA Seminars on Accountants’ Liability for 12 years, and has spoken at numerous other seminars and written numerous articles on substantive issues in litigation, approaches to resolving complex disputes, and discovery. He is the co-editor of The Litigation Manual (ABA, 3rd ed., 1999) and a contributing author of New York Business Litigation (ALM 2014) and Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts (Thomson Reuters, 4th ed., 2015), and has been an Adjunct Professor at New York University Law School.Mr. Kiernan joined Debevoise in 1981 and became a partner in 1988. He received his B.A. in 1976 magna cum laude from Harvard and his J.D. in 1980 magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. From 1980–1981, Mr. Kiernan served as a law clerk to the Hon. Walter R. Mansfield, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.