Keker, Van Nest & Peters is pleased to announce that the firm has elevated associates Bailey Heaps, Katie Lynn Joyce, and Chris Sun to Partners, and Kristin Hucek and Ian Kanig to Of Counsel, effective January 1, 2023.
“This is a group of talented attorneys that brings creativity and thoughtfulness to solving our clients’ most difficult legal challenges. They are standout professionals dedicated to mentoring our junior lawyers, committed to pro bono work, and devoted to providing first-class client service that distinguishes our firm,” said Steve Taylor, Keker, Van Nest & Peters managing partner. “It is exciting to watch them develop into our firm’s next generation of trial lawyers.”
Bailey Heaps represents clients in a range of high-stakes civil litigation. He has handled cases in federal and state courts throughout the country for several leading tech and biotech companies, including the former shareholders of FerroKin BioSciences, Scripps Research Institute, Calithera Biosciences, Nextiva, and Zscaler.
He has served as an active member of several trial teams, including winning $80 million for Shareholder Representative Services in its role as representative for the former shareholders of FerroKin Biosciences in a post-merger dispute with Shire Pharmaceuticals in Delaware Chancery Court. He defended Sutter Health from an antitrust lawsuit filed by California’s Attorney General and helped Major League Baseball defeat a ticket-refund class action when games were canceled in response to the pandemic. He is active in the firm’s highly successful plaintiff-side contingency-fee practice and maintains a robust pro bono practice.
Bailey formerly served as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he defended challenges to the legality of federal statutes and Executive Branch actions. Before that, Bailey served as a law clerk to Judge Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Keith P. Ellison of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School and was a member of Stanford’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic team that served as co-counsel to Edith Windsor in her successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act.
Katie Lynn Joyce has handled high-stakes commercial and intellectual-property matters in a wide range of industries and litigations, including for Netflix, Crexi, Google, Zscaler, Instacart, and Kitty Hawk. Katie Lynn has played a central role on several trial teams, including an arbitration that secured a multi-million-dollar award and recovered attorneys’ fees for former shareholders of a tech company. She was also part of the trial team defending the former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods in a contentious case involving allegations of price-fixing. In addition, Katie Lynn second-chaired a defensive trial team that secured a zero-dollar settlement and mutual release of claims. Currently, Katie Lynn represents Netflix in multiple patent cases, SRS Acquiom in a plaintiff-side trade secret dispute, and Crexi in a copyright and antitrust matter. She also maintains an active pro bono practice.
Prior to joining the firm, Katie Lynn served as a law clerk to Judge Richard A. Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Judge Christina Reiss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont. Katie Lynn earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
Chris Sun maintains a broad practice representing major corporations in matters ranging from complex commercial litigation, class action defense, and intellectual property disputes. Chris helped win a complete defense verdict in a rare class action trial threatening more than $150 million in damages against his client Public Storage. He has successfully defended Coinbase in an arbitration regarding Coinbase’s treatment of unsupported cryptocurrencies. Chris was also part of a team representing Shanghai Moonton Technology Co., Ltd. in winning the dismissal of a significant copyright lawsuit filed by Riot Games, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Prior to joining the firm, Chris served as a law clerk for Judge Jill Pryor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as Executive Director of the Prison Legal Assistance Project, an organization dedicated to representing Massachusetts prisoners in their parole and disciplinary hearings. Before beginning his legal career, Chris spent four years at Deloitte Tax LLP where he assisted Fortune 500 companies in evaluating prices charged between related business entities for the provision of goods, services, and intellectual property rights.
Kristin Hucek represents clients in high-stakes commercial disputes and a broad spectrum of intellectual property litigation. She has played a key role on several trial teams, including the team that defended Qualcomm against an antitrust lawsuit brought by the FTC that challenged the company’s licensing practices, and on appeal, secured the reversal of the lower court’s order granting a preliminary injunction in the case. Kristin also defended Google during a patent trial in the Western District of Texas, which targeted Google’s Nest thermostats. Currently, she represents Qualcomm in a follow-on consumer action to the prior FTC litigation and software company Real Intent in copyright litigation. Working pro bono, Kristin was part of a team that represented 270 consolidated habeas petitioners in a three-week evidentiary hearing, which resulted in a finding that the warden of San Quentin and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated prisoners’ Constitutional rights after an unprecedented Covid-19 outbreak resulted in 2,197 prisoners infected and 28 deaths. Kristin has also secured the release of two clients from prison, including through a petition brought under California’s amended felony-murder statute.
Prior to joining the firm, Kristin was a trial attorney for the special litigation section of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney where she personally generated clemency recommendations for more than 100 individuals whose applications were granted by President Obama. Kristin also formerly worked as an associate at a Washington, D.C. based law firm. Kristin earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Ian Kanig focuses his practice on complex civil cases, sophisticated commercial disputes, and civil rights actions. He has particular experience litigating in San Francisco federal court, where he recently secured a dismissal with prejudice for Google of a nationwide consumer class action alleging the secret collection of third-party app data from Android phones. Last year, he won a large six-figure settlement for an inmate who was the victim of staff sexual abuse and retaliation at a Bay Area federal prison, which preceded criminal indictments of prison officials and an Associated Press investigation.
Ian now represents Netgear in a plaintiff-side federal unfair competition action against a competitor for violating FCC regulations in the sale of Wi-Fi 6E routers. He also represents Demandbase in a federal right-of-publicity class action raising novel First Amendment issues about internet speech. And he continues to represent Lyft in its driver-classification litigation, winning dismissals and stays across numerous private and government enforcement actions. Ian has maintained a close working relationship with the ACLU over the course of his career, which he recently represented in connection with its Voting Rights Project during the 2022 midterms.
Ian formerly worked as an associate in the San Francisco office of an AmLaw 25 law firm. He served as a law clerk for Judge Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr. in the Northern District of California. Ian earned his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he graduated magna cum laude.