Kenneth L. Rosenfeld is an American criminal defense attorney. He is known for representing several high-profile clients in court, including Roni Lynn Deutch and Dana Stubblefield. He is the founder of The Rosenfeld Law Firm, which is based in Sacramento.
Early life and education Rosenfeld was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Rosenfeld began studying criminal law in Sacramento. He also went on to study law at American University in Washington, D.C. He graduated from law school in 1996 and was admitted to the State Bar of California in December 1996. He was also licensed to practice law in the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Northern Districts of California.
Career
Rosenfeld began his career practicing law in areas such as criminal defense, juvenile defense, white-collar crime, mental health defense, and appellate law.
Rosenfeld successfully defended Sara Jane Olson, a former Symbionese Liberation Army member arrested in 1999 after 20 years as a fugitive, by humanizing her story and contextualizing her radicalization, ultimately securing a plea bargain that reduced her potential 20-year sentence to 14 years, of which she served 7 before being released on parole in 2009.
In 2001, Rosenfeld won the second-largest child sex case in California history after successfully defending his client, Patrick O’ Neal.
When fraud charges were brought against former tax attorney and television personality Roni Lynn “The Tax Lady” Deutch, Rosenfeld was chosen to lead the defense team. All charges against Deutch were dropped in 2015.
In 2014, Rosenfeld was involved with a Sacramento probate case in which attorney Clark Head, came forward with new evidence from a psychologist who had examined the deceased, James O'Brien, two days before his death and found him mentally incompetent, testimony that led to a successful retrial and the invalidation of O'Brien's contested will.
Rosenfeld served as lead defense counsel for former NFL player Dana Stubblefield when he was accused of rape in 2016. Stubblefield was acquitted of two of the charges against him and his conviction was eventually overturned after Rosenfeld argued that the trial had been subject to racial biases, which violated the California Racial Justice Act of 2020.
Rosenfeld also served as lead counsel in the case of Sharon Simas, who was accused of embezzlement while serving as executive assistant to former Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva. In 2019, Simas's case was dismissed after Rosenfeld argued that the evidence was insufficient to establish probable cause.
In 2024, Rosenfeld successfully overturned a 'no bail' ruling for client Jesus Cortes-Padilla, a Mexican national deemed a flight risk, by arguing that key phone conversations had been taken out of context or mistranslated from Spanish, ultimately persuading the court to reassess the evidence and order his client's release.
From 2019 to 2025, Rosenfeld was named Litigator of the Year by the American Institute of Trial Lawyers.
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