Luis represents clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies in all facets of commercial litigation. He has experience in state and federal courts at the trial and appellate levels, and has arbitrated cases before JAMS and AAA. Prior to joining Keker, Van Nest & Peters, he served as a judicial law clerk to Judge Edward M. Chen of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Chief Judge Mary H. Murguía of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Judge George B. Daniels of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Luis was formerly an associate with the San Francisco office of an Am Law Top 40 law firm, where he litigated commercial and intellectual property disputes, including those involving trade secrets, employee mobility, breach of contract and fraud, copyright and trademark infringement, privacy issues, false advertising, unfair competition, consumer and securities class actions, and white-collar criminal defense.
Luis maintains an active pro bono practice. Currently he is part of a team suing the state of Georgia seeking to enjoin its racially discriminatory voting laws. Luis also regularly represents undocumented immigrants and indigent criminal defendants at trial and on appeal. He successfully obtained asylum and special immigrant juvenile status for several immigrants fleeing persecution in their countries of origin on account of their gender identity, sexual orientation, and political affiliation. Luis also serves on the Board of Directors for Centro Legal de la Raza, a legal services agency protecting and advancing the rights of low-income immigrant, Black, and Latinx communities through bilingual legal representation, education, and advocacy.
Luis earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School, his H.Soc.Sci. degree in gender and transformation from the University of Cape Town, and his B.A. from Vassar College. During law school he served as a Legal Intern for the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT Rights Project, a Teaching Assistant to Professors Robert Scott, Alexandra Carter, and Bernard Harcourt, and President of the Columbia Latinx Law Students Association.
Broadcom v. Netflix
We are defending Netflix against a 12-patent case Broadcom filed in the Central District of California. We successfully transferred the case to the Northern District of California, where it is pending before Judge James Donato. We successfully obtained rulings dismissing six of the patents as abstract under Alice, with an additional patent invalidated during inter partes review proceedings before the PTAB. We are also defending Netflix against a separate 5-patent case originally brought by Broadcom in the Eastern District of Texas. A three-judge Federal Circuit panel ordered the district court to transfer the case to the Northern District of California where it is now proceeding before Judge Edward Chen. After the transfer, the firm achieved a stay of all district court proceedings pending inter partes review proceedings before the PTAB.
Jawbone v. Google
We defended Google in a patent case involving audio signal processing software brought by Jawbone in the Western District of Texas. After obtaining a Markman order that disposed of four of the nine patents, we successfully appealed the denial of Google's transfer motion to the Northern District of California. Shortly after the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the case transferred, a favorable settlement was reached.
The Brandr Group v. Electronic Arts
Representing Electronic Arts, we secured the dismissal of a lawsuit by The Brandr Group, which claimed EA was circumventing its agreements with dozens of Division I schools by offering group name, image, and likeness licensing deals directly to football players. After we defeated a TRO petition, The Brandr Group withdrew its lawsuit, paving the way toward a summer 2024 release of a new college football video game for the first time since 2013.
Immigration Matter
We represent a family of Guatemalan refugees who fled to the United States to escape traumatic domestic and family violence. We have successfully secured asylum for two of the family members, and are now preparing our third client for her asylum trial.
Taking Offense v. State of California
We represented a consortium of law professors, including Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of Berkeley Law, in filing an amicus brief before the California Supreme Court, which argued that a statute prohibiting assisted living facilities from misgendering LGBTQ+ seniors does not violate the First Amendment.
SF Gay Men’s Chorus v. Individual
Representing the iconic San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, we obtained a restraining order against a harassing and potentially dangerous individual.
Plaintiff v. Aeronautics Company
We represented a Bay Area aeronautics company developing small electric air taxis in an arbitration with a former employee. The employee, an operations manager, gave up his unvested stock options in a prior employer when he came to work our client. When the project he was working on was terminated, the plaintiff sued our client in an attempt to recoup the value of his foregone equity. On the eve of trial the plaintiff asked to walk away and dismissed the suit with prejudice.