Kimberly Donaldson Smith is a partner in the Firm’s Haverford office. Kimberly has been counseling clients and prosecuting cases on complex issues involving securities, business transactions and other class actions for over two decades.

Kimberly concentrates her practice in sophisticated consumer and securities class action litigation in federal courts throughout the country, and in shareholder derivative and direct actions brought under state fiduciary and corporate laws litigated in federal and state courts nationwide.

Cases in which Kimberly is and was instrumental in litigating and in achieving outstanding settlements for consumers and investors include the following:

• Kukorinis v. Walmart Inc., Case No. 8:22-cv-02402-VMC (M.D. Fla.) (On January 19, 2024, Judge Covington granted preliminary approval of the proposed $45 million settlement of this consumer class action against Walmart involving allegations of systemic overcharging for certain weighted goods. The final approval hearing is scheduled for June 2024.)
• Hughes, et al. v. UGI Storage Company, No. 0714-CV-2014 (Tioga Co., Pa.)(Representing individual and a proposed class of property owners who allege that their subterranean oil and gas rights were subject to an unlawful taking by UGI, which operates several underground gas storage facilities in Tioga County, PA)
• In re HomeAdvisor, Inc. Litigation,  Case No: 1:16-cv-01849-PAB-KLM (D. Colo.)(Representing home service professionals who allege unfair and fraudulent business practices by Defendants in violation of the Lanham Act and various states’ consumer protection and unfair competition laws).
• Orrstown Financial Services, Inc., et al., Securities Litig., No. 12-cv-00793 (M.D. Pa.)($15 million settlement secured on behalf of Orrstown investors, which included a monetary contribution from the defendant bank’s former outside auditor and represented a significant percentage of the shareholders recoverable damages.  The case is also noteworthy for spawning a landmark Third Circuit decision that upheld the district judge’s granting a motion to amend the complaint to rejoin the outside auditor and other defendants years after their initial dismissal, one of several reasons the district court’s settlement approval order commended CSKD for its “relentless” efforts in the more than decade-old case.)
• Ferrer et al v. CareFirst, Inc., et al, Case No. 16-cv-02162 (D. D.C.) (Landmark action and settlement securing monetary recovery and reimbursements for lactation support and counseling services, an ACA-mandated preventive benefit).
• Westmoreland County v. Inventure Foods, No. CV2016-002718 (Super Ct. Ariz.) (Settlement achieved that recovered over 35% of investors’ damages).
• Milliken v. American Realty Capital Hospitality Advisors, LLC et al., Case No. 18-cv-1757  (U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y) (Derivative settlement of over $15 million).
• Gamburg, et al., v. Hines Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc., et al., Case No. 24C16004496 (Cir. Ct. Baltimore City (Derivative and class settlement securing a cash payment representing recovery of over 20% of contested fees paid to affiliates.
• Trumbo et al. v. The Inland Group, et al. (Circuit Court of Cook County, IL Case No. 13-CH-07790) (Derivative settlement of $11.1 million).
• Roth v. The Phoenix Companies, Inc. and U.S. Bank National Association, in its capacity as Indenture Trustee, Index No. 650634/2016 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.) (Secured settlement on behalf of bondholders in connection with a 2015 going-private merger.  Within seven days of the Firm filing a complaint seeking injunctive relief, the Firm secured material benefits for Bondholders, including, most significantly, ongoing access to material financial and corporate information which increased the value of the Bonds by $17.5 million and secured ongoing liquidity for the Bonds. In approving the settlement, the Court stated that “I think the plaintiffs were successful in getting everything they could have gotten …. I think it’s a great settlement.”)
• W2007 Grace Acquisition I, Inc., Preferred Stockholder Litigation, Civ. No. 2:13-cv-2777 (W.D. Tenn.) (Settled state law securities and common law claims against the company failing to provide preferred stockholders with critical financial information and liquidity after the company went private. After ten months of hard fought-litigation, the Firm secured a settlement, which was approved on December 4, 2015, that secured $76 million in cash consideration and liquidity for the preferred stockholders.);
• In re Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. Investor Litigation, Case 650607/2012, NY Supreme Court (Secured a $55,000,000 cash settlement fund and $100 million tax savings for the Empire investors).
• CNL Hotels & Resorts Inc. Federal Securities Litigation, Case No. 04-cv-1231 (M.D. Fla.) (Secured a $35,000,000 cash settlement fund and a $225 million savings for the CNL shareholders);
• Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust, Inc., et al. Litigation, Case 07 C 6174 (U.S.D.C. N.D. Ill) (Secured a $90 million savings for the Inland shareholders subjected to a self-dealing transaction); and
• Wells REIT Securities Litigation, Case 1:07-cv-00862/1:07-cv-02660 (U.S.D.C. N.D. GA) (Secured a $7 million cash settlement fund for the Wells REIT investors).
• In re DVI, Inc. Sec. Litig., 2:03-CV-05336-LDD (USDC E.D. Pa.) (Secured a $23 million recovery from multiple defendants during the 10-year, hard-fought litigation).
• Shelter Properties II Limited Partnership, National Property Investors III, US Realty Partners Limited Partnership, Shelter Properties IV Limited Partnership, Fox Strategic Housing Income Partners Investor Litigation, Case Number: 2011CV5225 (Dist. Ct. CO) (Settlement of breach of fiduciary duty claims that substantially increased – on average, across the five partnerships, an increase in excess of 100% of – the Merger Consideration paid to the investors.)

Notably, Kimberly was an integral member of the trial team that successfully litigated the In re Real Estate Associates Limited Partnership Litigation, No. CV 98-7035 DDP (CD. Cal.) through a six-week jury trial that resulted in a landmark $184 million plaintiffs’ verdict, which is one of the largest jury verdicts since the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Real Estate Associates judgment was settled for $83 million, which represented full recovery for the Class (and an amount in excess of the damages calculated by Plaintiffs’ expert).

Kimberly is a Board Member (as of June 2024) of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts (PMC). PMC, a nonpartisan nonprofit, works to educate all Pennsylvanians about our courts and how to navigate them with confidence, provide resources to make that possible for all residents of the Commonwealth, and advocate for judicial reforms that promote inclusion and access to justice.  Currently a Keystone Member, for many years Kimberly served as an active member and Board member of The Saturday Club, a non-profit women’s volunteer and philanthropic organization established in 1886, supporting and executing on the Club’s mission of improving the lives of women, children and families in the greater Philadelphia region.

Since 2006, Kimberly has been recognized by Law & Politics and the publishers of Philadelphia Magazine as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer or Rising Star, as listed in the Super Lawyers’ publications.