Removing Cases to Federal Court for Defendants: Tracing LLC Citizenship and Defeating Remand and Fee Motions

Kahn A. Scolnick, Partner | Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Kahn A. Scolnick is an appellate and litigation partner in the Los Angeles office of Gibson Dunn, where he serves as Co-Partner in Charge of the Los Angeles and Century City offices and Co-Chair of the firm’s Class Actions Practice Group. He specializes in class actions, complex commercial cases, and constitutional issues in the trial courts and on appeal. He has handled cases involving billions of dollars in potential exposure for clients in insurance, financial services, gaming, real estate, transportation, and consumer-facing businesses. He is especially well suited to this program: defense of class actions and complex commercial disputes in state and federal courts across the country, extensive Ninth Circuit practice, and published work and talks on civil procedure, bringing the perspective of a defense litigator who handles high-exposure cases from dispositive motions through appeal.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Scolnick graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law in 2003, where he was a lead articles editor for the San Diego Law Review and received the Outstanding Student in Constitutional Law award. He earned his B.A. in Public Policy Studies, with honors, from Michigan State University in 2000. He clerked for Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California from 2003 to 2005 and for Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2005 to 2006. He is admitted in California and before the Ninth Circuit and the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Scolnick has been recommended by The Legal 500 for Insurance, recognized by The Best Lawyers in America for Appellate, and named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America for Class Actions, Commercial Litigation, and Appellate. Los Angeles Magazine and Southern California Super Lawyers named him a Southern California Rising Star eight times.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Scolnick is the immediate past president of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, and a member of the Chancery Club in Los Angeles. He has published and spoken on class actions, trial practice, civil procedure, punitive damages, voting rights, and constitutional issues.

• Experience

At trial, Mr. Scolnick obtained a bench trial win vacating the California Insurance Commissioner’s record-setting $173 million penalty, won complete summary judgment for a major auto insurer in a certified nationwide class action seeking nearly a billion dollars, and was part of the trial team that represented Chevron Corporation in its RICO case arising from a fraudulently procured judgment in Ecuador. On appeal, he obtained a unanimous California Supreme Court decision in a Medicare Part C preemption case, a published Court of Appeal decision striking down a $100 million rate increase and refund order, and reversals of judgments totaling $295 million in three certified class actions.

P. Thomas DiStanislao, Counsel | Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP

P. Thomas DiStanislao is Counsel and Co-Leader of the Appellate Practice at Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP in Richmond, where he represents clients in complex matters before state and federal courts across the country. He has served as both embedded and independent appellate counsel in cases involving the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Fair Housing Act, the Class Action Fairness Act, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Second Amendment, among many others, and has been lead counsel at the trial level. He is especially well suited to this program: co-authorship of an American Bar Association article on pleading citizenship, clerkships on the Fourth Circuit and the Eastern District of Virginia, and successful defense motions on personal jurisdiction and transfer, bringing the perspective of a former federal clerk who now writes for defendants in federal court.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. DiStanislao earned his J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Richmond School of Law in 2016, finishing first in his class and serving as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Richmond Law Review. He earned his B.A., cum laude, from Wake Forest University in 2011. He clerked for Judge G. Steven Agee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Judge Henry E. Hudson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He is admitted in Virginia and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Second, Fourth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits, and the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. DiStanislao is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for Appellate Practice (2027), was named to Virginia Business Magazine’s Appellate Legal Elite (2025), and was named an Up & Coming Lawyer by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (2023).

• Professional Involvement

Mr. DiStanislao is a Permanent Member of the Judicial Conference of the Fourth Circuit, Treasurer of the John Marshall Inn of Court, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation. He is also a member of the Virginia Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Section, the Federal Bar Association, and the Richmond Bar Association. He taught Advanced Legal Writing as an adjunct professor at Washington & Lee School of Law in 2022 and has moderated and spoken on Fourth Circuit practice at the Virginia Bar Association’s Appellate Summit. His writing includes To Plead or Not to Plead Citizenship (American Bar Association, 2023) and 10 Tips From a Former Clerk: How to Become a Better 4th Circuit Practitioner (2023).

• Experience

Mr. DiStanislao secured unanimous decisions in McGinn v. Broadmead, Inc. (4th Cir. 2026), Ellis v. Jolley (Va. 2025), and Pandolfi v. AviaGames, Inc. (9th Cir. 2025). His appellate team also persuaded the Court of Appeals of Virginia to reverse $1.5 million in fraud liability on a new defense raised after trial. At the trial level, he drafted and argued successful motions to transfer, dismiss, and for default judgment in Orr v. Keystone RV Co. (E.D. Va. 2024).

SESSION 1 – Building a Diversity Notice of Removal That Survives the Court’s Citizenship Screening | P. Thomas DiStanislao | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session walks defense counsel through building a diversity notice of removal that survives a federal court’s first-week citizenship screen. Attorneys will learn what courts read in the notice and the Rule 7.1 disclosure, how to trace multi-tier LLC and fund ownership inside the 30-day window, how to plead negative citizenship after a documented inquiry when the plaintiff is the LLC, how to prove the amount in controversy when the complaint is silent, and how to cure defects under 28 U.S.C. § 1653 on a court-set deadline. Attendees will leave with an annotated notice of removal, an ownership-tracing worksheet, an amendment checklist, and a framework for deciding when an untraceable tier means forgoing removal or consenting to remand.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Deciding Whether to Remove and Defeating the Remand Motion and Fee Request | Kahn A. Scolnick | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session takes defense counsel from the decision to remove through the remand and fee fight that follows. Attorneys will learn how Enbridge Energy v. Nessel limits the 30-day clock to statutory routes, how to build the co-defendant consent record that satisfies unanimity, when snap removal and the forum-defendant rule allow an early filing, how Hain Celestial v. Palmquist changes the decision to remove on improper joinder and the steps that protect a defense verdict, and how to answer post-removal § 1447(e) joinder and Royal Canin amendments. Attendees will leave with a removal-decision checklist, a co-defendant consent form, and a pre-filing record that defeats a fee request under 28 U.S.C. § 1447(c).