Rebecca Kruse is an associate in the Litigation Department of Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office. Her practice focuses on complex civil litigation spanning diverse areas of substantive law. Ms. Kruse has particular experience defending insurance companies in a variety of matters including: defending multiple class actions and individual suits related to annuity sales practices; defending an insurance company investor in a dispute with other shareholders; defending an insurance company in a trade secret dispute with an administrator; and representing an insurance company in a dispute over ownership of life insurance policies.

Beyond the insurance industry, Ms. Kruse has represented a variety of companies in unfair competition, antitrust, fraud, and contract disputes.

Ms. Kruse maintains a consistent commitment to pro bono work. She has represented individuals struggling with a variety of issues, including political asylum, wrongful conviction for murder, reproductive rights, access to education, and victimization by an entity fraudulently impersonating legal aid. In addition to representing individuals, Ms. Kruse contributed a chapter on Equal Access to Justice for a report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and has worked with Election Protection, most recently as a trainer and hotline captain for the 2008 presidential election.

Ms. Kruse received a B.S.S. in Writing, with honors, from Cornell College in 1995 and an M.A. in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College in 1996. She earned her J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) School of Law in 2000. While at Boalt, Ms. Kruse served as Articles Editor of the California Law Review. Following law school, Ms. Kruse clerked for the Honorable Emily C. Hewitt in the United States Court of Federal Claims.

Ms. Kruse joined the firm in 2002. She is admitted to practice law in the state of California, all United States District Courts in California, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She is a member of the American Bar Association and Bar Association of San Francisco and has served as a BASF delegate to the Conference of Delegates of California Bar Associations since 2006.

Ms. Kruse is the author of “The Truth in Masquerade: Regulating False Ballot Proposition Ads Through State Anti-False Speech Statutes,” 89 Calif. L. Rev. 129 (2001); “Luck and Politics: Judicial Selection Methods and Their Effect on Women on the Bench,” 16 Wis. Women’s L.J. 67 (2001); and co-author with Peter Stern of “Rule 703 Requires Attention to Experts’ Underlying Sources,” San Francisco Daily Journal, January 29, 2003.