William Gordon Kaupp
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Gordon Kaupp is a founding partner of Kaupp & Feinberg, LLP. Since becoming an attorney in 2003, Mr. Kaupp has successfully litigated a wide range of matters at the trial and appellate levels involving employment discrimination, wage and hour violations, personal injury, prisoners’ rights and police and government misconduct. Recently, Mr. Kaupp obtained a $2.5 million dollar verdict on behalf of a bartender who was sexually assaulted by her boss and subjected to a sexually hostile work environment.
Mr. Kaupp has also established himself as a successful appellate lawyer with significant victories in both California and New York appellate courts. In Salemi v. Gloria’s Tribeca, Inc., Mr. Kaupp argued and won an appeal that upheld a $1.6 million verdict for sexual orientation-based discrimination that resulted in the largest punitive damages award upheld against an individual employer in New York. Mr. Kaupp also authored the appellate briefs for Seymore v. Metson Marine, Inc., which resulted in a published decision reinforcing the protections of California’s labor laws for overtime and premium pay.
Mr. Kaupp has made key contributions in the civil rights arena. He was part of the trial team that won a jury verdict on behalf of logging protestors against the Humboldt County Sheriffs’ deputies for excessive force for their use of pepper spray against nonviolent protestors. He acted as lead counsel in a five month trial in People v. Broderick Boys, a case challenging the imposition of a permanent gang injunction that significantly curtailed constitutional freedoms of alleged gang members and stigmatized the largely Latino working-class neighborhood of West Sacramento. Mr. Kaupp also won a FOIA lawsuit against the United States Department of Defense and United States Central Command that resulted in the release of documents related to the United States’ siege on Fallujah, Iraq and the shooting of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena by U.S military.
Mr. Kaupp has also defended low-income families facing eviction, represented criminal defendants in trial and on appeal, and represented prisoners in civil rights cases, at their parole suitability hearings, and on appeal. He has also represented numerous protestors pro bono in criminal court for acts of civil disobedience through his work with the Demonstrations Committee of the National Lawyers Guild.
Mr. Kaupp was admitted to the California Bar in 2003 and the New York Bar in 2013. He is a member of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, the California Employment Lawyers Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association of New York, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the National Lawyers Guild. He has also served on the Executive Board of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter.
Education:
Admissions:
- California State Courts
- New York State Courts
- New Jersey State Courts
- United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
- United States District Court, Northern District of California
- United States District Court, Eastern District of California
- United States District Court, Southern District of New York
- United States District Court, Eastern District of New York
Professional Associations/Memberships:
- National Lawyers Guild, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (Executive Board, Demonstrations Committee)
- National Employment Lawyers Association/New York
- California Employment Lawyers Association
- San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association
- The Bar Association of San Francisco
- National Lawyers Guild
- Federal Defender California Eastern District, Criminal Justice Act Panel Attorney
- First District Appellate Project, California Courts of Appeal, (former) Panel Attorney
- Central California Appellate Program, California Courts of Appeal, (former) Panel Attorney
