Jennifer L. Keller

IRVINE - Jennifer L. Keller is a founding partner at Keller/Anderle, represents plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of high stakes commercial litigation and white-collar cases.

"I love the breadth of what we handle because we are trial generalists and not niche specialists," Keller wrote in an email. "Our litigation last year involved legal malpractice, intellectual property, breach of contract, sexual assault (the Kevin Spacey case), trusts and estates, white collar (including one of the Varsity Blues cases), insurance bad faith, a massive real estate partnership dissolution, and more. There is never a dull moment!"

She successfully defended Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey in a high-profile sexual battery civil jury trial brought by actor Anthony Rapp. Anthony Rapp and C.D. v. Kevin Fowler Spacey, 1.20-cv-09586 (S.D.N.Y., filed Nov. 13, 2020).

The jury deliberated just half an hour before reaching a unanimous verdict finding Spacey not liable and denying the $40 million Rapp sought.

She also represented CashCall and its CEO and sole owner Paul Reddam in a groundbreaking transactional legal malpractice case against AmLaw 100 law firm Katten Muchin and its partner Claudia Callaway. CashCall, Inc. et al. v. Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP et al., 30-217-00914968-CU-NP-CXC (Orange Sup. Ct., filed April 14, 2017).

The suit claimed the law firm steered the company to partner with a tribal businessman to avoid state lending laws. Contrary to Katten's advice, the loans issued by the Native American lender were subject to state and federal laws, and the resulting regulatory and consumer actions caused losses of $950 million.

"It settled on the very eve of trial after four years of hard-fought litigation," Keller wrote. "The case required us to master not just the subject matter -- bad advice to the client that it could avoid state usury laws by working with an intermediary located on an Indian reservation -- but also at the very end to fend off a choice-of-laws challenge that would have landed us in one of the few jurisdictions which still embraces contributory negligence in tort. Our team rose to the occasion with both deft depositions and superior law and motion work."

Had the case not been settled, it would have been the largest legal malpractice action to proceed to trial in the United States.

One key to Keller's success: she assumes that every case will go before a jury, even though most don't.

"A big mistake I see many lawyers make is positioning their cases solely for summary judgment -- then panicking when they lose," she wrote. "Otherwise, highly triable cases have to be settled for less or more than they're worth because someone with no trial experience litigated them."