John W. Keker

Partner

Practice Areas

Antitrust, Consumer & Class Actions, Contract & Commercial, Intellectual Property, Professional Liability, Securities, White Collar Criminal

John W. Keker

Partner

Practice Areas

Antitrust, Consumer & Class Actions, Contract & Commercial, Intellectual Property, Professional Liability, Securities, White Collar Criminal

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. Five decades of jury trials in white collar criminal cases, complex commercial and intellectual property cases, antitrust and securities cases, establish him as the lawyer clients turn to for their most important and high-profile litigation problems.

The American Lawyer described him as “a giant of the IP trial bar.” The California Lawyer said he was “the lawyer other attorneys would turn to if they were in trouble.” The San Francisco Chronicle called him “the Number One Lawyer in the Bay Area,” and the California State Bar inducted him into its “Litigation Hall of Fame.” The National Law Journal named him as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in the United States.”

Cases of Note

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  • Kirkpatrick v. The City of Oakland

    We represented former Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick in a wrongful termination and retaliation lawsuit following her termination by the City of Oakland. For nearly three years, Chief Kirkpatrick raised…

  • San Diego County Water Authority v. Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

    For more than a decade, we have represented the San Diego County Water Authority in litigation against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the regional water wholesaler for…

  • United States v. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., et al.

    As lead counsel for McGraw Hill and its Standard and Poor’s division, we defended our client from the government’s suit which sought at least $5 billion in penalties under the…

  • San Jose, et al. v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball and Allan Huber “Bud” Selig

    The city of San Jose sued our client, Major League Baseball, alleging antitrust violations and various state law claims related to the Oakland Athletics possible relocation to San Jose. The…

  • Securities and Exchange Commission v. Executive

    We defended a former Citigroup executive in one of the rare financial crisis cases to go to trial. Our client worked on the structuring desk at Citigroup and was charged…

  • Former Employees v. Lucasfilm Ltd.

    We advised Lucasfilm Ltd. in an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and then represented Lucasfilm in a series of antitrust class actions brought by former employees of Lucasfilm,…

  • United States v. Lance Armstrong

    We represented American cyclist and seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong in connection with the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into professional cycling, which terminated on February 3, 2012…

  • Televisa v. Univision Communications

    We represented Univision, the country's leading Spanish language television network, in a breach of contract jury trial. Televisa, a Mexican multimedia conglomerate which supplied Univision with its most popular Spanish…

  • United States v. Bruce Karatz

    We represented the former CEO of a public company in a criminal stock options backdating trial. Following a six-week trial in Los Angeles federal court, jurors acquitted our client on…

  • Cadence Design Systems, Inc. v. Avant! Corporation

    We secured an injunction, restitution and settlement monies totaling $460 million for our client Cadence Design Systems, Inc. in a trade secret misappropriation suit against Avant! and its founders. After…

News & Events

Publications & Speaking Engagements

Effective Direct and Cross Examination, California Continuing Education of the Bar, John Keker and William A. Brockett

Frequent lecturer on litigation to professional groups, including the State Bar Litigation Section; National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Patent Law Institute; Securities Law Institute; Association of General Counsel; American Bar Association Litigation, White Collar, and Business Law Sections; California Continuing Education of the Bar; California Attorneys for Criminal Justice; Mississippi Bar Association; Nevada Trial Lawyers Association; Texas General Counsel Association; Hawaii Continuing Education of the Bar; and American Board of Trial Advocates.