Kelly Kaufman represents clients in all facets of commercial litigation. Prior to joining Keker, Van Nest & Peters, Kelly served as a law clerk for Judge Scott M. Matheson, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and for Judge Sara L. Ellis of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She also served as a litigation associate for an Am Law Top 10 law firm.
Kelly earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and her B.A. in English Literature with minors in business and legal studies from Washington University in St. Louis. While in law school, she served as a law clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and a judicial extern for Judge Virginia M. Kendall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
We represent the SVB Liquidating Trust in a lawsuit that seeks the return of deposit funds held by the FDIC in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
We secured the release of Gennel Miles, Jr., who had spent 16 years in prison on a life sentence without parole on a murder conviction obtained under California’s former felony-murder law. As part of Keker’s Felony Murder Resentencing Project, which was initiated after California reformed its felony-murder law in 2019, we pursued a new evidentiary hearing for Gennel, ultimately uncovering evidence undermining the original conviction and obtaining a plea agreement for his release.
We represented Black Knight in a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission attempting to block Intercontinental Exchange’s acquisition of Black Knight as allegedly anticompetitive. Intercontinental Exchange (the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange) entered into an agreement to acquire Black Knight, which provides software, data and analytics to the real estate and housing finance markets, for $13.1 billion. Following certain divestiture agreements, we convinced the FTC to drop its suit and allow the merger to proceed.
We represent the Pac-12 in challenging poaching penalties imposed by the Mountain West Conference as anticompetitive and unlawful, in violation of both federal and state antitrust laws. The Pac-12, which lost 10 member schools to competing conferences, alleged that the Mountain West coerced the Pac-12 into agreeing to unlawful poaching penalties as a condition of setting football schedules with the two remaining schools.
We represented Commercial Real Estate Exchange, Inc. (CREXi), a fast-growing online commercial real estate marketplace, in competitor litigation against industry giant CoStar. After CoStar filed a complaint against CREXi alleging copyright violations, we asserted antitrust counterclaims–—supported on appeal by the FTC—alleging that CoStar is an unlawful monopolist. We convinced the Ninth Circuit to reverse its dismissal of our antitrust claims in a unanimous, published opinion.
A man imprisoned for 16 years under California’s former felony murder rule has been ordered released following a successful resentencing effort by Keker, Van Nest & Peters’ Felony Murder Resentencing Project, a pro bono initiative that has helped seven individuals reduce or overturn their life sentences to date since criminal justice reforms were enacted in California in 2019. Read more
On behalf of the Pac-12 Conference, Keker Van Nest & Peters attorneys defeated a motion to dismiss its antitrust lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference for "poaching fees" imposed by the MWC related to conference realignment. Read more
Keker, Van Nest & Peters filed a proposed amicus brief on behalf of a group of distinguished former federal judges, urging U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho to consider whether an improper quid pro quo arrangement exists before dismissing the indictment against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Read more
In celebration of National Pro Bono Week, we highlight the firm’s Felony Murder Resentencing Project, which has helped at least six incarcerated individuals overturn their life sentences. Read more
“The Long Road to Hyatt III: What Happened to Full Faith and Credit,” 108 Calif. L. Rev. (December 2020)