The Daily Journal has named John Keker, Robert Van Nest, and Elliot Peters among the 2017 Top 100 Lawyers in California.
The Daily Journal called John Keker "a giant among litigators," who "has never been afraid to take on big cases -- or towering figures." He argued on behalf of the County of Santa Clara in a case that led to a preliminary injunction against Trump’s executive order that would have precluded sanctuary cities from receiving some forms of federal funding.
"We won it early on and a lot of other courts have followed that ruling since," Keker said. "We established that the president does not have the power to control the purse outside of congressional authorization."
The report noted Bob Van Nest's recent high-profile trial victories for Arista in a case in which Cisco Systems Inc. accused the company of improperly copying its command line programming interface for networking products, and for Google against a lawsuit filed by Oracle Corp. about Java, a programming language developed by a company Oracle acquired. He's also defending Qualcomm's patent licensing practices.
"The plaintiffs are challenging this practice as a violation of the Sherman Act," Van Nest said. "They’re claiming this is improper even though it’s been in place for many, many years and the whole industry has been aware of it and accepted it."
The Daily Journal wrote that "Peters has repeatedly proven he belongs in the upper echelon of the litigation field," by representing high-profile cases like defending the late Aaron Swartz, a computer programmer beloved by internet activists and techies for helping to form social media/news site Reddit, or representing massive law firms in legal malpractice cases that the public never hears about."
Peters has been representing Lance Armstrong since 2011 and will defend him in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Postal Service in May. The agency contends that Armstrong defrauded the federal government by allegedly using steroids while accepting a sponsorship.
"It’s so easy to vilify Lance and the case against him we’re going to try...is so bereft of any merit, but there’s a lot on the line for him," Peters said.
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