PRESENTER BIO

Lawrence P. Riff

Judge Lawrence P. Riff, Supervising Judge, Family Law Division, Los Angeles Superior Court.  Judge Riff was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2015. His assignments have included criminal misdemeanors, civil trials, and family law “home court” and long cause trial departments.

Before judicial service, Judge Riff was a partner of the international law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP where he served as the firm’s Managing Partner for its Los Angeles office for 17 years and Practice Group Leader for the firm’s U.S. Toxic Tort and Environmental Litigation Practice Group.

Judge Riff is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (with 40+ Superior and U.S. District Court jury verdicts) and is currently on the Board of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers.

In his practice, Judge Riff was a five-time recipient of the Daily Journal’s Top Defense Verdicts and recognized as a “Top 100 Attorney” by Southern California SuperLawyers from 2009-2014 and a “Top 10” in 2015.

Judge Riff writes frequently on issues of evidence, procedure and family law, mostly recently: Expert Testimony: The Different Rules on Direct and Cross; The Kennemur Quagmire; Hey Judge, Did You Happen To Notice (on judicial notice); Judging On The Graveyard Shift (on judicial night duty for emergency protective orders, search warrants and bail deviation requests); Family Law Court: Stop In and Visit for An Hour (on what one might observe in an hour in family court); Navigating the New Rules of Evidentiary Hearings in Family Law; Marriage Story: Fact-Checking the Movie; and Reflections on the Other Pandemic: Intimate Partner Violence.