Jennifer L. Keller

Complex Civil Trials

Irvine

Around 20 years ago, Jennifer Keller determined that she didn't want to be a criminal defense lawyer anymore, even though she was one of Orange County's best. She began to take civil cases and after a few big trial victories -- including a defense win for Chapman University, a $350 million jury award in a business fraud trial and beating Mattel in a high-profile trial over MGA Entertainment's right to the Bratz Dolls -- she figured out what she wanted.

She wanted to create a trial boutique that would handle all kinds of civil cases. After all, "a trial's a trial," Keller said. "The rules of persuasion are the same. The rules of evidence are the same. The way you need to tell a story is the same."

Now, she and her firm handle a wide variety of cases. Just a year ago, she defeated another case against MGA Entertainment in a trial over the design of another set of dolls. MGA Entertainment Inc. v. Harris, 2:20-cv-11548 (C.D. Cal., filed Dec. 22, 2020).

In late September, she and partner Chase Scolnick are set to go to trial in a Lanham Act false advertising case about screening tests for colon cancer. They represent Guardant Health, which developed a straightforward blood test for colorectal cancer. Guardant Health Inc. v. Natera, Inc., 3:21-cv-04062 (N.D. Cal., filed May 27, 2021).

But before the test was put on the market, Natera, Inc., the company that makes the leading biopsy-dependent tissue test, "decided to quote 'salt the launch' unquote of our product," Keller said, quoting an email. To do that, Natera sent emails to oncologists across the country attacking the Guardant test with "completely false and misleading information," she said.

In a very different case, Keller is defending two of Michael Jackson's companies against separate lawsuits from two men who claim the late singer molested them as boys more than 30 years ago. They are seeking $100 million each. Keller's co-counsel on the case is her old law school friend, Thomas A. Mesereau. Robson v. MJJ Productions Inc., BC508502 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed May 10, 2013).

Their suits contend the two companies were negligent in not supervising Jackson. But the defense argues Jackson was the companies' owner and sole employee and so couldn't be liable for not supervising himself. The cases have been stalled for decades, so discovery will be difficult and lengthy, Keller said.

The plaintiffs are the central figures in the documentary film "Leaving Neverland," and they now have a podcast about abuse. "We're going to be showing how they've monetized being claimed victims of Michael Jackson."

Looking back, Keller said she had dreamed of assembling "a firm of elite trial lawyers backed by elite, former big firm litigators who would try huge cases of all different kinds."

"And I just sometimes have to pinch myself that it turned out to be true," she said. "It actually worked."

-- Don DeBenedictis