Raoul Dion Kennedy

Raoul Dion Kennedy
01/25/2026
Long time Bay Area Trial and Appellate attorney, Raoul D. Kennedy, died following an over 20-year battle with Parkinson's Disease.
A hugely successful trial lawyer, Kennedy was known for entertaining judges and juries as he convinced them of his clients' positions. Once after a very long trial, he was the last of dozens of lawyers to present their closing argument, Kennedy began with, "I feel like Zsa Zsa Gabor's sixth husband. I know what I'm supposed to do, but I don't know how to make it interesting."
His friends and colleagues considered him the ideal dinner companion. He loved good food and wine, and could regale his companions with jokes, magic tricks and stories from his numerous trials. He was a highly sought after mentor to young lawyers and always found time to advise them. He would amaze them with his photographic memory of case law and citations - saying something like, "Check Smith vs. Jones, 27 Cal App 3d 245, right around page 256 or 7." One could not work with Raoul for very long without being introduced to Arthur Conan Doyle's story, "The Silver Blaze." There, Holmes solved the case on the basis of something that did NOT happen: the watch dog did not bark, meaning the crime must have been committed by someone familiar to the dog. Raoul urged his associates to pretend the opposite position was correct and ask whether there was anything that should have happened that did not. Were there any dogs that didn't bark?
He was the son of Ralph Craig Kennedy, an electrical engineer who worked for RCA, and Maxine Thelma Shoemake. Although born in San Jose, California, he grew up in New York until his father's death in 1962, when he returned with his mother to California.
At age 12, after reading a Life Magazine profile about Melvin Belli, Raoul decided to become a lawyer. In 1964 he graduated from the University of the Pacific where he and his team partner won the 1964 National Debate Tournament at West Point.
Subsequently, he attended Boalt Hall, the University of California Berkeley School of Law where he was the school's 1967 Moot Court Champion. He then practiced law for over 50 years, initially handling civil cases in subject matters ranging from dog bites, intersection collisions, and slip and fall accidents to, in later years, product liability, intellectual property, and antitrust.
For the last 20 years of his career, he was a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom where he specialized in class actions and mass torts. The publication "Best Lawyers in America" listed him in five categories: Appellate Practice, Bet the Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Insurance Law and Mass Tort Litigation.
While he usually defended large corporations, he also did plaintiffs' work. In one of his last cases, he represented a class comprised of all California State Court Judges and Justices in an unpaid wages action against the State, ultimately recovering over $40 million for the class.
Raoul was a member of the by-invitation-only American College of Trial Lawyers, The American Board of Trial Advocates, and was a past President of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. In 2005, he was chosen as the California Trial Lawyer of the year and inducted into the California Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame. He was active in law related activities and was a Ninth Circuit Lawyer Representative, a member of the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE) and was the co-author of the California treatise, The Expert Witness Guide. He spoke or lectured at more than 150 continuing legal education programs, where he was known for his stylish and humorous delivery and ability to present complex topics in simple terms. His colleagues referred to him as the "Master of Analogy." He had an uncanny insight into how people thought, and he felt that part of his success was being able to relate to a jury and
the courtroom in a way that highlighted the logic of the situation. Raoul was the wise man and counsellor for many of his colleagues, but he also had his "Rabbi" or mentors: Edwin Heafey, Ed Lascher, Shiela Birnbaum to name a few.
Outside of work he had lengthy and assorted interests including following the New York Yankees, Country Music, Stock Car Racing, eating at Le Central in San Francisco, London Theatre, Venice, Italy and other travel, T.S. Eliot, New Wave Cinema, Ronald Reagan, sketching and walking. He collected Modern Art and served on the Boards of The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, and the California College of the Arts. He was predeceased by his first wife, Patricia (née) Bilbrey. He is survived by his wife, Martha (née) Nolte and her three children: Harold, Kalina and Theodore King.
Raoul requested that there be no flowers, services or contributions