The Daily Journal has named Keker, Van Nest & Peters partners Elliot Peters and Ben Berkowitz to its 2025 list of Top 100 Lawyers in California. John Keker and Bob Van Nest were also named as part of the publication’s Distinguished Counsel list, reserved for attorneys who have appeared on the list for more than 15 years.
For Peters and Berkowitz, the Daily Journal’s honor highlights the high-stakes trial and litigation work that the firm is known for, including white-collar defense, constitutional issues, privacy, and cutting-edge technology disputes.
Peters, who joined the firm in 1991 and became a name partner in 2017, has spent more than three decades litigating some of the nation’s most consequential criminal and commercial cases. This year, he has been at the forefront of legal battles over constitutional rights and government intimidation. Peters drafted the firm’s strongly worded statement opposing President Trump’s executive actions targeting law firms, a stance that drew national media attention and earned the firm recognition from the California Senate on Law Day.
In June, he won a full acquittal for Coachella Valley developer John Wessman after an eight-year-long prosecution alleging bribery of the Palm Springs mayor. Peters dismantled the prosecution’s key witness by proving his account of a meeting was impossible and highlighted an incriminating shakedown text that undercut the prosecution’s theory. “I was tense, but the jury said ‘not guilty’ 10 straight times,” Peters told the Daily Journal.
Berkowitz, who joined the firm in 2006, has become a go-to lawyer for privacy, cybersecurity and technology litigation. His recent victories have shaped how courts apply decades-old statutes to rapidly evolving technologies. While representing Google, he successfully argued that state privacy laws could not be stretched to cover the company’s use of GPS location data, leading to dismissal of claims and a minimal settlement in what was described as the largest class action in U.S. history by class size.
Berkowitz’s work has centered on helping judges bridge the gap between outdated laws and rapidly-evolving tech. He has defended companies against claims arising from espionage by foreign governments, litigated data privacy cases involving mobile apps, and established precedent at both the district and appellate levels in the Android Lockbox litigation. “What we see is exponentially increasing litigation around claims that companies collected or used consumers’ information in ways that exceeded the consumers’ consent,” he said to the Daily Journal. His strategy remains steady: translate the technical into the accessible while balancing innovation with privacy.
Read Elliot Peters’ Top 100 Lawyers profile here.
Read Ben Berkowitz’s Top 100 Lawyers profile here.