Ward Penfold

Ward Penfold is a member of the firm’s Litigation & Trial Department. He represents clients across a variety of industries in both complex commercial litigation and white collar defense and investigations matters.

Mr. Penfold is an experienced litigator who has represented clients at all levels of the state and federal courts, including authoring merits briefing in several cases before the US Supreme Court. He has argued dispositive motions, obtained temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions, served as first chair in numerous administrative trials and evidentiary hearings, and presented oral argument in the California Courts of Appeal and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Mr. Penfold has also represented clients in high-stakes internal and government investigations initiated by federal, state, and local enforcement agencies. These investigations have covered a broad range of issues such as antitrust, anti-money laundering, wire fraud, options backdating, privacy, and consumer protection under California’s Unfair Competition Law.

In recognition of his work in private practice, Mr. Penfold was named to the Northern California Rising Stars list by Super Lawyers Magazine from 2016 to 2019, when he transitioned to a role in government.

When counseling clients on state and local enforcement matters, Mr. Penfold draws heavily on his experience as a former civil enforcement attorney in the Santa Clara County Counsel’s Office, where he worked on public nuisance, consumer protection, and public health order enforcement actions. Mr. Penfold also represented the County of Santa Clara in writs and appeals and complex tax matters, successfully defending millions of dollars in tax assessments and handling constitutional challenges to California’s utility property taxation system.

Mr. Penfold devotes substantial time to pro bono matters, where he has represented survivors of domestic violence in multiple appeals overturning unfavorable family court decisions, challenged a decision of the California Parole Board by filing a successful habeas corpus petition in the California Court of Appeal, and co-authored an amicus brief with the Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic that was filed in the US Supreme Court on behalf of ten current and former Members of Congress regarding the proper scope of mandatory detention in immigration removal proceedings.

In his free time, Mr. Penfold serves on the Board of Directors of Dolores Street Community Services and as a member of the New Leadership Council for the Family Violence Appellate Project. He also served previously as a member of the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court and the Executive Committee of the Barristers Litigation Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

After law school, Mr. Penfold served as a law clerk to Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.