Best Lawyers, the oldest peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named Bob Van Nest as the “San Francisco Best Patent Lawyer of the Year,” John Keker as the "San Francisco Best Intellectual Property Lawyer of the Year," and Susan Harriman as the "San Francisco Best Legal Malpractice Lawyer of the Year."
The 2012 edition of The Best Lawyers in America is based on more than 3.9 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers. The lawyers honored as “Lawyers of the Year” received particularly high ratings by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism, and integrity.
Since founding the firm with law school classmate Bill Brockett in 1978, John Keker has built a reputation as one of the country's top trial lawyers. Four decades of jury trials in white collar criminal cases, complex commercial and intellectual property cases, antitrust and securities cases, even palimony cases, establish him as the lawyer clients turn to for their most important and high-profile litigation problems.
Bob Van Nest is a nationally recognized trial lawyer who frequently handles high-stakes cases for clients such as Intel, Google, Medtronic, Broadcom, and American Honda. His practice ranges widely over the field of complex business litigation and intellectual property. He has tried cases involving patent infringement, securities fraud, trademarks, commercial contracts, RICO, partnership disputes, real estate, insurance bad faith and mail and wire fraud.
Since joining the firm in 1985 and becoming a partner in 1989, Susan Harriman has handled a wide range of complex business litigation. She has tried state and federal cases involving legal malpractice defense, commercial disputes, real estate, and wrongful termination. She has also arbitrated cases before the American Arbitration Association and the National Association of Securities Dealers.