September 2025 — Kendall Brill & Kelly LLP Partner Robert E. Dugdale was honored among the Daily Journal’s 2025 list of the Top 100 Lawyers in California. The publication’s annual report highlights the most influential attorneys in California and their legal successes from the past year.
As a KBK Partner, one of the region’s leading trial lawyers, and a former federal prosecutor who specializes in white collar defense and government investigations, Mr. Dugdale has over 20 years of expertise in the federal system which has served his clients well, with a winning record of keeping clients free of prosecution and out of the headlines. In addition to this latest award, he has earned numerous accolades, including his ongoing Chambers ranking as one of California’s Top White Collar attorneys, recognition among the state’s Top White Collar lawyers by the Daily Journal for the past five years straight, and the CLAY Award.
Mr. Dugdale’s recent victories were highlighted in his Top 100 recognition, including the dismissal of a $75 million lawsuit in favor of USC in connection with the “Varsity Blues” admission scandal and the “non-prosecution agreement for the city of Los Angeles after the largest untreated wastewater discharge in city history at the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant.” The Daily Journal also noted his work defending the Metropolitan Transit Authority in a criminal investigation stemming from raids conducted by the Sheriff’s Department.
In his profile, Mr. Dugdale outlined his road to becoming a criminal defense attorney — beginning with his experience talking with lawyers as a caddie at Beverly County Club in Chicago. He also spoke to the changes he has seen in federal enforcement priorities, noting that “there has been a dramatic shift in the priorities of the Department of Justice under the second Trump administration, perhaps one of the greatest shifts the DOJ has ever seen.”
On being an attorney, Mr. Dugdale stated that “it’s frankly easy to be a lawyer when everyone is nodding in agreement with what you have to say…the more rewarding experience is finding a way to change someone’s mind, and when that someone is wearing a black robe and deciding the fate of your client’s case, that is all the sweeter.”
To read Mr. Dugdale’s full profile in the Daily Journal, please click here.