Dave McLane

Dave McLane is a partner in the firm Kaye, McLane & Bednarski, LLP. KMB was formed by the name partners in 2003, who are former federal public defenders.   Each partner has over 15 years experience in federal criminal court, and Mr. McLane has 20 years experience litigating federal criminal cases.  The partners formed the firm so that they could give clients the best criminal defense available in federal court.

Dave received his bachelor of arts degree Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1981, where he majored in Communication Studies. Dave received his law degree in 1986 from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law.  Knowing he wanted to be a trial lawyer, his emphasis in law school was clinical trial and appellate advocacy. While in law school, he worked with the Manhattan District Attorney as an intern, and externed for the Honorable Richard A. Gadbois, Jr., United States District Judge.

After law school, Dave was an associate in the law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton located in Los Angeles, California, where he practiced primarily business litigation.  In 1990, Dave joined the Office of the Federal Public Defender and headed the Federal Public Defender's Indefinite Detention Project.  The project resulted in over 300 detainees from numerous countries being released from immigration custody who were being unlawfully detained by the INS, some of them detained without any justification for several years.  When Dave left the Federal Public Defender, he had risen to Supervising Trial Deputy.

Dave has tried many cases in federal court obtaining acquittals in about half of his cases, including acquittals in  bank robbery cases, an SBA loan fraud case, a 10 kilogram heroin drug importation case, an interstate transportation of stolen property case, and an assault on a federal officer case. Dave has achieved many dismissals by suppressing illegally obtained evidence.  Dave has also argued numerous cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, with several published opinions.

Recently, Dave obtained a dismissal for a client at a bail hearing, where he was in custody, and facing a 10 year mandatory minimum in a drug case.  He obtained an acquittal him of all weapons charges in a methamphetamine case where the client was facing 25 years in prison, and reduced his sentence by over 15 years.  Repeatedly, Dave has received substantially lower sentences than predicted by the federal sentencing guidelines.  In particular, in the area ofchild pornography cases, where the clients were facing 10 years, Dave convinced the government to agree to a binding plea of 5 years, and in the other, the client received 3 years.   Iin a 40 million real estate fraud case, where the client was looking at over 5 years in jail, the Court sentenced the client to probation; and in a RICO/drug conspiracy case, where the client was facing 10 years, the client received probation.

Dave has also expanded his practice to the civil rights and personal injury fields.  In 2011, he was awarded for his achievements in civil rights cases by California Lawyer magazine, naming Dave McLane and Ronald Kaye as California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year.  Dave was co-counsel in a wrongful imprisonment case where the client received the largest pre-trial settlement in California history, 7.95 million dollars for 24 years in prison.  In a recent personal injury case, where Dave's disabled client was injured while riding in a school bus that was hit by a car, Dave's client had no visible injuries or structural brain damage.  Through neuropsychological testing it was established that she had a diminished IQ, and Dave achieved for his client a settlement of $475,000.  In a recent defamation and libel suit, where Dave's client was libeled in his work place, Dave obtained a judgment of over 1 million dollars.