Jennifer L. Keller

According to Keller, a specialist in high-stakes trial work, variety isn’t just the spice of life; it’s the spice of lawyering as well.

“One thing I do believe sets [my practice] apart is the variety,” Keller said.

Her 13-lawyer firm has won victories in every area, stretching from disputes over life insurance dividends to a 10-month public corruption criminal defense trial. The common thread is the string of wins.

“That [variety] to me is the really fun part of what we do. It’s the coolest thing for me. You might find a firm with 800 lawyers that handles that variety, but not a boutique firm and one that goes to trial all the time,” she said.

Keller says that cross-examination is the most important trial skill after jury selection. The strategy varies from softer examinations to withering lines of questioning, but its importance is constant.

“If you can pick a good jury and have excellent cross-examination skills, you’re 95 percent of the way there,” she said.

Keller said an easy mistake to make is choosing an approach to go to trial too early and never wavering. Sometimes, she said, the right kind of cross-examination does not become clear until the witness takes the stand.

“Trials are living organic creatures and you have to adjust as you go on,” she said.

For example, when cross-examining a key witness in a public corruption trial in San Bernardino, Keller took a softer approach when she met him. It became clear he had been manipulated by county investigators during a drug-addled part of his life. In the end, the witness recanted his testimony to the prosecution and Keller’s client was acquitted. People v. Burum, FSB1102102 (San Bernardino Super. Ct., filed May 9, 2011).

She said she learned the skill as a criminal defense lawyer and carried it over to her civil work, where the stress is lower.

“Having had people’s lives dependent on the job I did, having people facing 25-50 years in prison, I find arguing over money very liberating. People have said I don’t seem to get nervous, and I say to myself, ‘It’s only money.’ They’re important cases and they’re important for a lot of reasons such as the rule of law has to be upheld, but they’re not life or death,” she said.

To maintain that mindset, she recalls a bit of advice from her father: “Only the end of the world is the end of the world.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s $10,000 or $10 billion; the way you connect with others, the way you tell a story, the way you engage people to be part of something larger than themselves, the way you cross-examine, is the same,” she said.

— Andy Serbe