Kelly Woodruff is certified by the California State Bar as an appellate law specialist and has been lead counsel in over 70 appeals and writs in the state and federal appellate courts.
She has more than 30 years of experience handling significant appeals and writs in a wide range of areas including commercial disputes, business divorces, intellectual property, real estate, trade secrets, family law, and trust and estate litigation.
Kelly was named one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers and one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Northern California by Super Lawyers.
And she has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer for appellate law and listed in Best Lawyers in America in appellate practice every year since 2018.
She has expertise in assisting trial counsel with post-trial motions and navigating the statement of decision process.
She also often works with trial counsel in securing writs to obtain interlocutory review of an order before final judgment or to stay a damaging order pending full appeal.
Kelly is active in the appellate and broader legal community.
Kelly was a founding member of the Bay Area Appellate Inn of Court (founded in 2025) and is currently serving as its Vice President. She is a member of the California Lawyers Association Litigation Section Executive Committee and the Committee on Appellate Courts, and was the Chair of the CAC in 2022-2023. She was Co-Chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Appellate Section from 2017-2020 and continues to serve on the Executive Committee of the Section. She is the immediate Past President of the UC Law San Francisco (formerly Hastings) Alumni Board of Governors. Kelly was named by California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye to the Appellate Caseflow Workgroup led by First District Presiding Justice Jim Humes to study and recommend solutions to systemic delays impacting the speedy resolution of appeals in some of California’s appellate courts. In addition, Kelly acts as a panel attorney representing indigent criminal defendants in their appeals, and she has succeeded in overturning death sentences in two capital cases.
Kelly graduated magna cum laude from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings College of the Law), and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
She received numerous awards for her law school academic achievements and served as Senior Executive Editor for the Hastings Law Journal. After graduating, she clerked for James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and David A. Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.
Clerkships
Judge James R. Browning
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Judge David A. Ezra
- U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii
Law School
U.C. Hastings College of the Law
Awards
California Litigation Star Benchmark Litigation
Best Lawyer Best Lawyers Magazine
Super Lawyer Super Lawyers Magazine
Bar Admissions
California
U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth, Ninth, and Federal Circuits
U.S. Supreme Court
Certifications
Appellate Law Certified Specialist, State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization
California Court of Appeal
Hadar v. Luria
Prevailed on appeal of order granting summary judgment in partition of real property arising from statutory right to end co-tenancy through partition by sale.
California Court of Appeal
In re Marriage of Kelpe
Defended a trial court’s ruling that the benefits from a retirement plan in which husband became eligible to participate only after separation when he became a partner in his firm were entirely his separate property.
California Court of Appeal
Geear v. Pulliam
Defended a trial court’s ruling in a probate case that a marital trust had been revoked upon the decedent’s divorce from his ex-wife, and decedent died intestate requiring his mother’s petition for letters of administration to be granted.
California Court of Appeal
Venuti v. Venuti
Obtained reversal of an order denying an accounting by the trustee and denying petitioners leave to amend their petition for an accounting in a probate case.
California Court of Appeal
Raynor v. Lipton
Obtained a writ of supersedeas staying a trial court’s order denying petitioners a preliminary injunction barring petitioners’ neighbors from continuing construction on their property that was causing damage to petitioners’ property, and reversing the denial of the injunction.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Degamo v. Bank of America
Obtained a Ninth Circuit decision vacating the district court’s dismissal of a putative class action brought by Hawaii homeowners to challenge Bank of America’s foreclosure practices during the 2007 mortgage crisis. The ruling gives the homeowners a new opportunity to show the bank discouraged competition at foreclosure sales so it could buy homes at depressed prices and resell them for a larger profit.
California Court of Appeal
In re Marriage of Ciprari
Spousal support reversed as not comporting with marital standard of living. Child support reversed. Denial of attorney fees reversed because financial disparity between parties made fee award mandatory. New standard created for tracing commingled property.
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