Elliot R. Peters joined John W. Keker's powerhouse boutique in 1991. Robert A. Van Nest affixed his name in 1994. Keker & Van Nest made it Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP in 2017. Over three decades, Peters has litigated some of the nation's highest-stakes white-collar criminal cases along with marquee commercial matters.
Peters' distinguished legal lineage began with a clerkship for U.S. District Judge Whitman W. Knapp of New York, a Thomas E. Dewey protégé whose Knapp Commission famously probed New York City police corruption. Peters then served as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York for five years.
"I had two great mentors," Peters said. "Judge Knapp was a funny, down-to-earth guy who handled the big cases. And then I was lucky enough to meet John Keker, who taught me how to try cases from the defense side."
Peters describes Keker, a former Marine with a Purple Heart who clerked for the retired Earl Warren and prosecuted Oliver North, as a fearless advocate. It was that attitude that led the Keker firm to blast back at President Donald Trump's executive actions targeting law firms this spring.
"President Trump's new directive underscores how far removed this president, attorney general and administration are from our nation's Constitution and bedrock values," read part of the statement Peters drafted. "Our liberties depend on lawyers' willingness to represent unpopular people and causes, including in matters adverse to the Federal Government. An attack on lawyers who perform this work is inexcusable and despicable."
Peters contributed to an Op-Ed for The New York Times, appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper and spoke with several national, state and local newspapers and radio programs. The firm was honored by the California Senate on May 1, Law Day, for standing up to the president to defend the rule of law.
"Our posture has been a huge boon for recruiting talent, and not a single client has deserted us," Peters said. "Turns out that people with big legal problems want lawyers who will actually fight."
In a new case, Peters is seeking to quash a subpoena from the Trump Department of Justice demanding information on a prominent children's hospital's gender-affirming care program — part of the administration's attack on gender dysphoria and the transgender community.
"It was filed for an improper purpose, to intimidate," Peters said. "It's cruel to take aim at this small, suffering minority."
In June, Peters won a jury's full acquittal of prominent Coachella Valley real estate developer, John Wessman, on charges of bribing the mayor of Palm Springs, following an eight-year prosecutorial saga.
Peters successfully hammered Wessman's key accuser, the alleged bagman, who detailed a specific night at a cocktail lounge when the bribery scheme was hatched — only to have Peters demonstrate that the bar had first opened for business five months after the witness swore the deal went down. An incriminating text from the bagman demanding a shakedown payment from Wessman sealed the defense. People v. Wessman, INF1901460 (Riverside Co. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 15, 2019).
"I was tense, but the jury said 'not guilty' 10 straight times," Peters recalled.
Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal. ©2025 Daily Journal Corporation. All rights reserved. Reprinted by ReprintPros 949-702-5390.
