The Honorable Kenneth R. Freeman (Ret.) joins JAMS following a distinguished career of over 35 years on the bench, including 14 years overseeing individual calendar cases and 13 years as a complex civil litigation judge in Los Angeles County—one of only 10 judges entrusted with that role across the Los Angeles Superior Court system.

Judge Freeman managed some of California’s most significant and challenging litigation. His docket included mass torts—from wildfire claims to pharmaceutical and data breach cases—alongside wage and hour and consumer class actions, toxic contamination lawsuits and complex insurance coverage disputes involving multiple layers of liability.

Judge Freeman served for two years as the assistant supervising judge of the Complex Courts, where he designated cases for complex treatment and served as the Los Angeles Superior Court Judicial Council coordination motion judge (California Rule of Court 3.501(9)) as well as JCCP coordination trial judge.

Judge Freeman served as chair and vice chair of the Los Angeles Superior Court Technology Committee and a member and subcommittee chair of the Judicial Council Court Technology Advisory Committee. He was a member of the Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Committee. He also served as chairperson of the LASC/LACBA Annual Walk-Through Program for new bar admittees. He was a member of the LASC Court Commissioners’ Evaluation Committee and a member of the Judicial Orientation and Continuing Education Committee.

Prior to his service on the Superior Court, Judge Freeman served on the Los Angeles Municipal Court, including an assignment as supervising judge of the San Fernando Branch. He presided over civil and criminal jury and court trials, felony preliminary hearings, law and motion matters, and mandatory settlement conferences.

Before ascending to the bench, Judge Freeman was a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County, last assigned to the Special Investigations Division, where he prosecuted cases involving bribery, corruption, official misconduct and crimes committed by police officers. Previously, he specialized in prosecuting child physical abuse and sexual assault cases for six years. He tried over 70 jury trials to verdict, including a 15-month trial involving 141 witnesses. This was the first case in the United States where child victims testified via closed-circuit television.

Following that trial, Judge Freeman was nominated and served between 1986 and 1987 as a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ)/U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Afterward he served on the NIJ peer review committee, evaluating proposals submitted for justice research.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Freeman handled civil litigation, including administrative, contract, real property (including landlord-tenant disputes), corporate (including nonprofit corporations), and tort matters. His firm formed a major independent taxicab corporation and represented individual licensees before what was then called the Board of Public Utilities (BPU).  

ADR Experience and Qualifications

• Over 31 years on the Los Angeles County Superior Court
• Served on the Judicial Education Seminars (JES) Committee; planned, taught and wrote on best practices for mandatory settlement conferences
• Conducted settlement conferences as both an individual calendar judge at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse and for the Spring Street Complex Panel.

Representative Matters

The experience list below is compiled from cases handled as a judge.

• Business Commercial
• Breach of contract and commercial torts disputes, as well as disputes over business purchases, sales and intellectual property
• Trade secrets, unfair competition, partnership and corporate governance disputes
• Mass tort claims involving dockworkers injured by toxic fumes from yard tractor vehicles
• Class Action & Mass Tort

Class Actions

• Wage and hour class actions, including California Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claims
• Class certification and arbitration motions
• Oversaw hundreds of preliminary and final settlement hearings
• Consumer privacy and data breach class actions
• COVID-19-related claims involving health care workers, students and inmates
• Sexual assault claims involving university physicians and private practitioners

Mass Tort and Judicial Counsel Coordinated Cases (JCCP)

• Petition for coordination motions
• Complex designation issues
• Application of Complex and JCCP tools for active judicial management of cases complex coordinated cases
• Wildfire with inverse condemnation and subrogation issues
• Toxic site and groundwater contamination cases
• Pharmaceutical cases, including negligence and failure-to-warn issues
• Construction Defect
• Cases involving commercial and residential developments, school districts and tract housing
• Eminent Domain and Inverse Condemnation
• Claims for business goodwill losses in transportation projects
• Regulatory takings and inverse condemnation claims
• Employment Law
• Wrongful termination and discrimination suits
• Wage and hour class actions with and without PAGA allegation
• Employment claims involving meal and rest breaks, employee misclassification and other Labor Code violations
• Insurance
• Disputes between multiple primary insurance carriers and extended-coverage carriers
• Complex environmental insurance coverage disputes
• Insurance bad faith claims
• Wildfire subrogation claims
• Sexual Abuse and Misconduct
• Mediated cases ranging from minor exposure to severe sexual abuse
• Experience as a sex crimes and physical abuse prosecutor
• Sexual abuse settlement allocation and mediations against private universities and health care providers

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

• Completed virtual ADR training conducted by the JAMS Institute.
• Visiting Fellow, National Institute of Justice/U.S. Department of Justice
• Certificates of Appreciation for Service as a JES Faculty Member, Executive Committee Member and Court Operations Planning Committee
  
  

Articles Published

• Testifying as an Expert Witness. Evaluation of the Sexually Abused Child. Heger, A. and Emans, S.J., Editors. Oxford University Press. New York. 1992.
• Using Dolls to Interview Child Victims: Legal Concerns and Interview. American Justice Siegel, L.J., Editor. West Publishing Company. St. Paul, MN. 1990 [T. Estrada-Mullaney, co-author].
• Trial Considerations in the Investigation and Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse Cases National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, D.C. 1991.
• Filing Child Sexual Abuse Cases: Tips, Techniques, and Problems. Prosecutor's Brief (Winter, 1988), pp. 23-26 [T. Estrada-Mullaney, co-author].
• Using Dolls to Interview Children: Legal Concerns and Interview Procedures. NII Reports (1988, January/February) U.S. Department of Justice/National Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C. [T. Estrada-Mullaney, co-author].
• Pre-Filing Interviews of Young Child Witnesses. Prosecutor's Brief (Spring, 1987), pp. 14-17 [T. Estrada-Mullaney, co-author].
• Interviewing Children Using Anatomical Dolls: Tips, Techniques, and Problems. Prosecutor's Brief (Summer, 1987), 24-27 [T. Estrada-Mullaney, co-author].
• Interviewing the Child Witness. Prosecution of Child Sexual Assault Conference Manual (March, 1986). Sacramento, CA: California District Attorneys Association.
• Should the McMartin Children Testify on Closed-Circuit TV? The Daily Breeze (October 12, 1984), p.All.
  
  

Lectures and Papers Presented

• "Medical Evidence." Prosecution of Child Abuse Training Seminar, sponsored by the National Center of the Prosecution of Child Abuse (Alexandria, Virginia), California District Attorneys Association. Nov. 21, 1987.
• "Legal Perspective on Child Abuse Cases." Municipal Court Judges Seminar on Child Victims and Witnesses, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Municipal Court Judges' Association. Nov. 21, 1987. La Canada, California.
• "Uses and Abuses: Experts and Their Testimony in Child Sexual Abuse Cases." In Search of Truth: The Child Sexual Abuse Expert in the Courtroom, sponsored by Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower Medical Center and American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. Oct. 29, 1987. Rancho Mirage, California.
• "Reliability of Evidence in Child Abuse Cases." Judicial State of the Art Conference, sponsored by the National Institute of State Courts and National Institute of Justice (Washington, D.C.). Sept. 21, 1987. Tempe, Arizona.
• "Problems Faced by Prosecutors in Child Abuse Cases." Office of Justice Programs Seminar, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice. June 24, 1987, Washington, D.C.
• "The Judicial Process: Reporting Laws and the Use of Psychologists in Child Abuse Cases." Southern California Association of Black Psychologists' Professional Workshop. Dec. 13, Los Angeles, California.
• "Interviewing Children: Prosecutor's Perspective." Mental Health Network, sponsored by the California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. Nov. 21, 1986. Los Angeles, California.
• "Investigation and Prosecution of Child Abuse Cases.” Child Abuse Workshop, sponsored by Plumas 'County. October 4, 1986.  Plumas County, California.
• "Working With Child Victims." Governor's Training Conference on Crime Victims, sponsored by the California Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning. April 7, 1986. Anaheim, California.
• "Medical Examination of Child Abuse Victims: A Prosecutor's View." Child Abuse Invitational Conference, sponsored by the California Medical Association. May 1985. Palm Springs, California.
• "The Child and the System: Legal Considerations." Child Abuse Seminar, sponsored by the Little Company of Mary Hospital and the Los Angeles County Medical Association, Southwest District Nine. Dec. 5, 1984. Torrance, California.
• "Child Sexual Accommodation Syndrome and Expert Testimony." Sexual Crimes Seminar, sponsored by the Arizona Prosecution Attorneys Advisory Counsel. November 1984. Scottsdale, Arizona.
• "Child Abuse Prosecution." AAUW Annual Conference, sponsored by the American Association of University Women. California State University at Los Angeles. Feb. 2, 1985. Los Angeles, California.

Background and Education

• Judge, Los Angeles County Superior Court, 1994–2025
• Judge, Los Angeles Municipal Court, 1990–1994
• Deputy District Attorney, County of Los Angeles, 1981–1990
• J.D., University of West Los Angeles School of Law, 1975
• B.S., Applied Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1964