Howard K. Stern

Howard Kevin Stern (born November 29, 1968) is an American attorney based in California.

He was the domestic partner, attorney and agent of the late model Anna Nicole Smith.

He graduated with a B.A. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990 and received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Stern's law firm first handled Anna Nicole Smith's modeling contracts in the mid-1990s.

He was admitted to the State Bar of California on February 25, 1994.

Stern met Anna Nicole Smith in 1998, after the death of her husband J. Howard Marshall.

Stern was co-counsel in her litigation regarding the Marshall estate, he presented Smith direct examination at the trial.

He became known as a co-star on Smith's 2002–2004 reality television series The Anna Nicole Show.

He currently works with the Los Angeles Public Defender's Office.

Stern was born to a Jewish family and raised in Los Angeles.

Stern's law firm was dissolved around the time he became a co-star on The Anna Nicole Show (2002 - 2004).

Stern maintained an apartment in Santa Monica, California, from which he operated a business called Hot Smoochie Lips, Inc., a talent agency that had Anna Nicole Smith as a client.

On September 10, 2006, Stern was with Smith when her son, Daniel Wayne Smith, died in Nassau, Bahamas, while visiting his mother and newborn half-sister Dannielynn.

Bahamian Police and the Inquest declared Daniel's death as an accidental overdose on antidepressants and methadone.

No foul play was involved.

On September 28, 2006, Stern and Smith exchanged wedding vows in a legally nonbinding ceremony in Nassau, Bahamas.

The ceremony was officiated by a Baptist minister.

In September 2006, Stern claimed in an interview with Larry King on CNN that he was Dannielynn's father; celebrity photographer Larry Birkhead also claimed that he was Dannielynn's father.

Anna Nicole named Stern as the father on the Bahamian birth certificate and the daughter's name was listed as Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern.

Smith died on February 8, 2007, less than five months after Daniel.

According to the Florida court overseeing her estate, Smith left everything to Daniel in a 16-page will that named Stern as executor of the Estate.

On February 21, 2007, hearings commenced in Florida's Broward County Circuit Court over the disposition of Smith's remains.

Denying motions by Smith's mother and Stern, the judge awarded custody of Smith's body to her infant daughter, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern via attorney whom the judge also appointed the baby's guardian ad litem.

Smith was buried next to Daniel in the Bahamas.

After the death of Anna Nicole Smith in February 2007, it was revealed that Stern had custody of Smith's child, Dannielynn.

Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, the husband of the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor alleged he could be the father of Smith's daughter and threatened to file a lawsuit for custody.

In April 2007, a Bahamian court determined from DNA evidence that Larry Birkhead was the father of Dannielynn.

Stern announced that he would not contest the ruling and would help Birkhead obtain sole custody.

They were not accused of causing Smith's death in 2007.

The suit, filed in federal court in 2007 in Florida, alleges John O'Quinn, attorney for Virgie Arthur, defamed Stern in statements made on television after Smith's death.

On March 13, 2009, the California Attorney General and Los Angeles County District Attorney announced that they would be charging Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich of conspiring to "commit the crimes of prescribing, administering and dispensing controlled substances to an addict."

The trial began August 4, 2010, in Los Angeles.

Stern, Dr. Eroshevich, and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor pleaded not guilty.

On October 28, 2010, Stern and Dr. Eroshevich were found guilty, but Kapoor was acquitted.

In 2011, judge Robert Perry dismissed Stern's conviction, indicating there was no evidence brought forth to prove Stern had intended to break the law by using assumed names to protect Smith's privacy.

The single conviction which remained standing, a felony charge of fraud against Dr. Eroshevich, was reduced to a misdemeanor.

In 2015, Perry dismissed the felony conviction against Stern for the second time.

In his ruling, Perry exclaimed, "this case reeks of unfairness", adding he believed the prosecutors "seemed to have unfairly targeted Stern because he was a public figure" and noting that the trial had already cost the taxpayers in an excess of $500,000.

"Howard Stern simply has been through enough ... I find there is no reason to permit this case to go forward," Los Angeles Superior Court judge Robert J. Perry told reporters.

Powell Goldstein LLP represented Stern in the libel lawsuits against Rita Cosby; lawyer John O'Quinn who represented Smith's mother Virgie Arthur.