Of Counsel

Kris S. LeFan, an attorney skilled in advanced and creative dispute resolution (including crisis management) with an emphasis on entertainment and business law, has been with the firm since 2012.

Mr. LeFan was raised in San Francisco’s Mission District. He received his bachelor’s degree from the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University in Chicago, where he went on to perform at the Tony Award-winning Steppenwolf and Chicago Shakespeare theaters, among others.

Mr. LeFan earned his Juris Doctorate at the accelerated SCALE® Program at Southwestern Law School, where he founded the Student Mediation Association and lead the Trial Advocacy Honors Program team to 1st place in an ABA mock trial competition. After graduating, Mr. LeFan received his mediation certification from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine School of Law.

Since graduation, Mr. LeFan was a Certified Law Clerk for the Hardcore Gang Division, the Preliminary Hearing Unit and Major Crimes division of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, winning over a dozen preliminary hearings for the office. As a Reserve Deputy City Attorney for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office Criminal Division, Mr. LeFan negotiated plea deals and conducted domestic violence jury trials.

Mr. LeFan’s cases at Lowe & Associates include:

Mr. LeFan’s other notable clients include a state Supreme Court Judge, blockbuster movie star James Marsden, multi-platinum selling West Coast rap icon, Warren G, preeminent talent agency Rebel Entertainment Partners, hip hop originators Kurtis Blow, Gizmo (later “You-Can-Ask-Giz”) and Positive K, historic recording studio Hollywood Sound Recorders, street artist Louis Carreon, and living legend tattoo artist, Mark Mahoney.

Along with judging local law school moot court and mock trial competitions, Mr. LeFan is a professor of entertainment law at Relativity Film School and has been a legal commentator on NBC Sports Radio. Mr. LeFan’s pro bono work includes parole board hearings for a “lifer” in Corcoran State Prison and defending evictions of vulnerable tenants.

Mr. LeFan is also a member of the prestigious California Society of Entertainment Attorneys (CSEL), whose work includes United States Supreme Court amicus briefs, statewide legislative activities, and the strategic leveling of the playing field between artists and multinational conglomerates.

Prior to becoming an attorney, Mr. LeFan was a Special Program Director for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where he directed a program with Sudanese refugees (“the Lost Boys”) at Sherkole Refugee Camp in Ethiopia’s Blue Nile region on how to avoid landmines and other unexploded ordinances during their repatriation. He has been cultural attache to the late Professor Donald N. Levine of the University of Chicago on peacebuilding missions in the Middle East, Africa and South America. Mr. LeFan also co-founded the Awassa Youth Campus and Peace Dojo, a community center in Southern Ethiopia, dedicated to grassroots HIV/AIDS education, gender equality and peace studies through the practice of aikido.


Recommendations

Donald N. Levine, PhD, Peter B. Ritzma Professor Emeritus of Sociology and former dean of the College, University of Chicago
As an accredited expert on conditions in an important region of the world, over the past 20 years I have been involved in numerous cases involving Americans who come from that region. In my work, I have had occasion to collaborate with some two-dozen lawyers from all over the U.S. Mr. LeFan ranks with the very best of these, including several who are his senior by decades. Given a choice, I would pick LeFan over any of them. He is sharp, quick, alert, knowledgeable, and congenial. At present, Mr. Le Fan has taken on a criminal case that has perplexed a number of attorneys over the course of several years. Not long ago he joined me on a visit to the client in prison. Although I have previously visited the client a number of times, LeFan found ways to expedite the admissions process, of which I had not previously known. Once there, I found it comforting to see how quickly and competently he moved to take charge of the case. During a two-hour visit at the prison, he gained the confidence of the inmate, and assembled a good deal of pertinent information, which led him to develop a scenario for securing the client’s parole beyond which I had realized was possible. I heartily recommend this energetic, smart, and promising young attorney.

– Donald N. Levine, PhD, Peter B. Ritzma Professor Emeritus of Sociology and former dean of the College, University of Chicago

Nicholas Rosenberg Criminal Defense Attorney
Kris Le Fan is a dynamic and knowledgeable lawyer who fights for his clients and forges relationships that benefit his clients. I recommend him as a criminal defense attorney who also practices Entertainment Law, a field in which he is a vigorous advocate and polished negotiator.

– Nicholas Rosenberg Criminal Defense Attorney