Ms. Kinney is a partner at LeClairRyan and Chair of the Firm's Entertainment Industry team. Spearheading the entertainment division in the Los Angeles office, Ms. Kinney’s practice focuses on entertainment transactions, including the drafting and negotiation of film, television and music contracts and licenses, and application of new technology relating to music, including online music distribution and Digital Millennium Copyright Act issues. She also handles intellectual property litigation matters, and frequently advises entertainment clients on right of publicity, false light, defamation and related issues. Ms. Kinney, a musician herself, is a member of ASCAP and a voting member of the Recording Academy.
Her labor and employment practice focuses on defending companies and individuals in wrongful termination cases, whistleblower actions, and discrimination and harassment claims of all types, as well as the enforcement of arbitration provisions within employment contracts.
Within her first three years of practice, Ms. Kinney successfully briefed and argued an issue of first impression in the Ninth Circuit, resulting in a published opinion which has garnered attention in six law review articles and five maritime treatises. As a result of that case, she had the notable distinction of receiving her United States Supreme Court certificate before the age of 30.
In 2002, Ms. Kinney co-founded a non-profit organization called Hearts Giving Hope Foundation, Inc., which brings music and art programs to at-risk youth throughout Southern California. As a result of her leadership and charitable endeavors with that organization, she was featured in Glamour Magazine’s December 2005 Women of the Year issue, and received Toyota’s Moving Forward Award. Because of the nature of her work with Hearts Giving Hope, she also defends other non-profit children’s organizations under a variety of situations.