Keker & Van Nest LLP is a premier litigation boutique located in San Francisco, California. For more than thirty years, Keker & Van Nest has tried and litigated complex, high-stakes civil and criminal cases throughout the nation. Areas of practice include intellectual property, professional liability, class actions, wrongful termination defense, general contract and commercial litigation, antitrust, white collar crime, and appellate.
The firm was founded in 1978 by Yale Law School colleagues John Keker and William A. Brockett, Jr. The firm was renamed Keker & Van Nest in 1994, reflecting the addition of Robert Van Nest to the firm's leadership.
Recognition and Rankings
On October 15, 2014, The Daily Journal recognized Keker & Van Nest as a Top Litigation Boutique in California.
American Lawyer recognized Keker & Van Nest as Litigation Boutique of the Year.
American College of Trial Lawyers recognized John Keker, Robert Van Nest, Susan Harriman, Elliot Peters and Jon Streeter as Fellows. Fellowship, extended by invitation only, is restricted to the top one percent of the trial bar.
John Keker has been named one of the National Law Journal's 100 Most Influential Lawyers in the United States since 2006.
Keker & Van Nest attorneys have consistently been included on The Daily Journal lists of the Top 100 Lawyers in California, the Top 75 Leading IP Litigators, and Top 75 Women Litigators.
Chambers USA lists Keker & Van Nest as a top firm in the areas of Intellectual Property: Patent; Intellectual Property: Trademark, Copyright & Trade Secrets; General Commercial Litigation; White-Collar Crime and Government Investigations; and Leading Lawyers. Individual attorneys John Keker; Robert Van Nest; Jeffrey Chanin; Jan Little; and Elliot Peters were all individually recognized for their achievements.
Legal 500: Top rankings for Leading Lawyers, White Collar Criminal Defense, Trade Secret and Patent Litigation. Legal 500 has said that Keker & Van Nest is "peopled with a preponderance of outstanding trial lawyers" and "a distinguishing feature of the firm is the ability to cut through to the essence of the case and empower juries and judges to decide complex issues." It has also written that "the firm has consistently recovered a high total value of claims for plaintiffs".
United States Department of Justice v. McKesson Corporation. Keker & Van Nest defeated the government’s six-year False Claims Act case against McKesson Corporation and one of its subsidiaries. The government had sought nearly a billion dollars in penalties and damages based on allegations that a McKesson subsidiary submitted "legally false" Medicare insurance reimbursement claims by violating Medicare supplier standards and charging less than fair-market value for billing services in exchange for product sales. In early 2010, Hon. Sharion Aycock dismissed the Qui Tam Relator who initiated this case, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the decision on appeal. In March 2011, Keker & Van Nest won summary adjudication on all claims relating to alleged violations of Medicare supplier standards. After a three-week bench trial, the court granted judgment in defendants’ favor.
Oracle Corporation v. Google, Inc.. Keker & Van Nest represented Google in a high-stakes patent and copyright infringement trial brought by the Oracle Corporation, billed as the "smartphone trial of the century." The case was a battle between two of Silicon Valley's most respected and powerful companies in which Oracle initially sought nearly $6 billion in damages and an injunction forcing Google to change the way it used and distributed the popular Android operating system, which powers more than 300 million smartphones and tablet computers. Following repeated rounds of motions and briefing, the judge dismissed the bulk of Oracle's copyright claims, and at trial the jury rendered a unanimous verdict rejecting all claims of patent infringement. Although the jury decided that Google infringed on Oracle copyright on nine out of millions of lines of source code, the case is considered a sweeping victory for Google, with zero damages.
State of New York v. Intel Corporation. Keker & Van Nest was lead trial counsel for Intel Corporation in a high-profile antitrust case. The New York Attorney General claimed Intel violated federal and state antitrust statutes by maintaining an illegal monopoly in the microprocessor market. Keker won several key motions near the start of trial that severely limited the scope of New York's case. The matter settled shortly thereafter with a payment by Intel of only $6.5 million in partial repayment of some of New York's costs.
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Brian Stoker. Keker & Van Nest defended former Citigroup executive Brian Stoker in one of the rare financial crisis cases to go to trial. Mr. Stoker, who worked on the structuring desk at Citigroup, was charged with securities fraud in connection with Citigroup’s 2007 marketing of a $1 billion collateralized debt obligation (CDO) backed by assets tied to the housing market. After a two-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York with Judge Rakoff presiding, the federal jury rejected the SEC’s case and found Mr. Stoker not liable on any of the SEC’s claims.
VS Technologies LLC v. Twitter Inc. By winning a defense verdict in this federal jury trial, Keker & Van Nest protected Twitter Inc. from a patent infringement suit and a $40 million damages claim.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company v. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation. Represented the world's leading semiconductor foundry TSMC against China's leading semiconductor manufacturer SMIC in the largest trade secret misuse case ever tried in which SMIC faced a damages claim of $2 billion. Following a jury verdict in favor of TSMC, TSMC settled with SMIC.
United States Department of Justice v. Major League Baseball Players Association. Represented the Major League Baseball Players Association in a high-profile battle with the U.S. government. In August 2009, an en banc panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the federal investigators unlawfully seized drug-testing records of more than 100 athletes. In September 2010, the court issued a revised opinion that upheld its ruling.
Apple Inc. v. HTC Corporation. Keker & Van Nest served as lead counsel for HTC in its battle with Apple over smartphone technology. Apple first sued HTC in district court and before the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), claiming HTC had infringed on 20 patents related to various computer-related technologies, including user interfaces, operating systems, power management and digital sign processing. The ITC hearing that went to decision resulting in a favorable ruling, and HTC obtained a settlement to become the first Android handset maker licensed by Apple.
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation v. Semiconductor Company. Representing a semiconductor company in a case where CSIRO asserted patent infringement claims against more than a dozen of the world's leading technology companies. CSIRO contended the defendants' Wi-Fi products infringed on CSIRO's patent, and sought nine to ten figure royalty payments. All parties settled a week into the jury trial.
John J. Tennison v. City and County of San Francisco. Representing John Tennison in his habeas corpus case where it was discovered that exculpatory evidence hidden by the police which proved Mr. Tennison's innocence-including a taped confession by another man. A civil rights claim was brought against the City and County of San Francisco, the police and prosecutor responsible for the wrongful conviction. The civil rights case was settled for $4.6 million. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, it was the largest amount the city has ever paid to a wrongly convicted person.
U.S. v. Swartz. Elliot Peters defended open access activist Aaron Swartz.
In 2014, Jon Streeter, Sharif Jacob and Benita Brahmbhatt secured the release of Roy Butler, who served 13 years beyond his base term. Butler’s case caused California to reform its parole system.
In 2014, Elliot Peters and Jo Golub were named Pro Bono Attorneys of the Year by California Lawyer for their work with the Northern California Innocence Project at the Santa Clara University School of Law exonerated Ronald Ross of attempted murder charge after serving nearly 7 years of his 25-to-life sentence.
In 2012, Dan Purcell and Eric MacMichael were named California Lawyer "Attorney of the Year" in the area of pro bono. They dedicated five years to exonerating Caramad Conley, a man who was wrongfully convicted of a double homicide and spent 18 years in prison.
In 2009, the Northern District and San Francisco Bar Association's Volunteer Legal Services Program gave Keker & Van Nest an award for its pro bono service, particularly for its representation of prisoners pursuing civil rights cases.
Overturned the murder conviction of Caramad Conley, wrongfully imprisoned for 17 years, by uncovering prosecutorial and police misconduct.
Represented John J. Tennison in his habeas corpus case and won an order reversing his conviction, after which he was set free. Keker then represented John J. Tennison in a civil rights claim for wrongful conviction against the City and County of San Francisco, the police and prosecutor involved in his criminal trial. Tennison settled the civil rights case.
