Paul Kiyonaga, a Harvard Law honors graduate, has a 30-year career litigating challenging and sensitive criminal, employment, constitutional rights and investigation-related matters for a broad array of clients – Members of Congress, prominent journalists, intelligence officials, foreign diplomats, physicians, senior business executives and law enforcement personnel, as well as the poor and marginalized. On the criminal defense side, Paul’s victories have included jury verdicts for MS-13 gang members accused of attempted murder and for a business executive accused of rape. On the civil litigation side, Paul has stepped in weeks before trial to secure victories in discrimination cases and has won reverse discrimination cases before the EEOC, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay and damages. With trademark steadiness and zeal. Paul has successfully represented, for example, Congressmen investigated for Foreign Agents Registration Act violations, executives investigated for alleged work misconduct, women subjected to egregious sexual harassment, whistleblowers who have stood up to federal agencies and journalists who have been retaliated against for their coverage of controversial stories.
Paul started his legal career at Arnold & Porter, a top DC large firm, before starting Kiyonaga & Soltis, P.C. with Debra. For years, Paul has been recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the best attorneys in Washington, D.C. in the areas of plaintiff-side employment law and criminal defense. He served as Co-Chair of the D.C. Bar’s Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section and was on the faculty at Georgetown Law for over 20 years where he and Debra Soltis taught a course of their own design on critical legal theory and film.
Paul was raised in Brazil, Panama and El Salvador and speaks Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese. He attended college at UNC/Chapel Hill where he was a Morehead Scholar. Paul is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and New York.
Paul appears regularly as a commentator on legal and social justice issues on CNN Español and other national media outlets.
