Jennifer L. Keller

Keller is a litigator who yearns for the courtroom. She spent much of 2015 teeing up for trial several major cases due to launch before juries this year. And she's still dealing with what she calls her "blast from the past," the ongoing fallout from her stint as lead counsel for MGA Entertainment Inc. in the Mattel v. MGA epic doll showdown between Barbie and Bratz.

A jury awarded her client $85 million in 2011 and the court added $139 million in attorneys' fees and costs. Mattel though, fought on, petitioning the 2nd District Court of Appeal for a writ overturning a judge's denial of its effort to toss MGA's $1 billion follow-on trade secrets case. That lawsuit was based on allegations that Mattel is liable for willful and deceptive business practices by stealing Bratz product attributes, price lists and marketing plans.

"We did the briefing and the court has been sitting on it for nine or 10 months," Keller said. "We wrote the court asking when we might expect a ruling, but our nudge was ineffective."

Meanwhile, Keller set the stage for a string of trials, slogging through discovery issues and pretrial motions. "The starting gun goes off in June," she said.

First out of the blocks will be the Hollywood showdown between former Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch and former Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Ovitz. Keller is defending Ovitz against the reporter's claims that he's behind an intimidation campaign involving a dead fish, a rose and a card reading "Stop" left on her windshield. "We're going to win. It's a bunch of poppycock," Keller said.

In August a rare trial of a class action is set to begin. Keller is representing Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in a suit by term insurance policyholders claiming they should have gotten dividends. In October she'll be defending Rancho Cucamonga-based developer Jeff Burum, accused in a $100 million pay-to-play scheme. "We're as sure as you can be in a criminal case that he's going to be acquitted," Keller said.

"It's been a little frustrating, grinding out all this pretrial stuff," she said. "That's the life of a trial lawyer -- the life I love, if I can only get them loose and in front of a jury."

? John Roemer