Partner

Kevin W. Harris, Esq.

Kevin W. Harris joined Pacifica Law Group in 2026, bringing nearly four decades of California litigation experience to the firm. His practice focuses on employment and labor law, civil rights, administrative law, personal injury, immigration, forfeiture actions, and appeals.

Kevin’s courtroom work began before he was admitted to practice. As a certified law student with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, he prosecuted misdemeanor cases and reviewed police brutality complaints — an early education in how government power works from the inside.

Admitted to the California Bar in 1988, he began in civil litigation at McKenzie & Brody. He then joined Mastagni, Holstedt & Chiurazzi, where through 1992 he represented public safety officers in employment matters and administrative proceedings, and afterward handled workers’ compensation defense at Mullen & Filippi. Those years gave him experience on both sides of the employment relationship, a perspective that still shapes how he evaluates a case.

Three decades in his own practice

In 1993 Kevin opened his own practice and ran it for the next three decades, including as a member of Harris & Brixie from 1995 to 2003. He represented employees, public workers, and individuals in disputes against employers, agencies, and county governments — the kind of case where one person stands against an institution with far deeper resources. His work in this period extended to serious criminal defense as well; in one trial his client faced three counts carrying life imprisonment and was convicted on none of them.

Throughout those years Kevin regularly associated as co-counsel with other litigators, among them Martin F. Jennings, Jr., Steven Mandel, and Leo Donahue. The approach let him take on matters larger and more complex than a solo practice would ordinarily support, and it reflects how he prefers to work: collaboratively, measuring success by the client’s result rather than by whose name sits on the letterhead.

He later worked alongside Ryan Friedman of the Friedman Law Firm, Inc., a relationship that began when Kevin represented Friedman himself in a wrongful termination action against the County of Glenn and its former District Attorney (Superior Court of California, County of Glenn, Case No. 13CV01133), which settled for $300,000. Kevin went on to litigate numerous matters in association with the Friedman Law Firm that resolved for six figures or more.

The full arc of a case

Kevin’s work spans trial and appeal. He has tried matters in California superior courts and the federal district courts, argued before administrative tribunals, and briefed and argued appeals in the state and federal appellate courts. He also served the judiciary directly as an Attorney IV with the San Joaquin County Superior Court from 2007 to 2008, experience that gave him an inside view of how judges read briefs and weigh records.