Keker & Van Nest LLP

Keker & Van Nest has a proud tradition of providing pro bono representation in a variety of civil and criminal matters. Pro bono cases at Keker & Van Nest are treated just like every other matter at the firm, and the hours spent by our lawyers on pro bono work are recorded in the same manner as their hours on paying matters. In addition, because many of our lawyers are former prosecutors or public defenders, the firm has a unique ability to provide its lawyers with pro bono opportunities in criminal cases.

Following are some of the firm's recent pro bono matters:

We obtained freedom for John J. Tennison, who had served 13 years of a life sentence for murder. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken granted the habeas corpus motion we filed, issuing a 100-page opinion finding violation of constitutional rights, and a state court subsequently declared Tennison to be "factually innocent." Prior to our becoming involved in the case, the federal court had summarily dismissed Tennison's habeas petition.
In the aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education, the Berkeley Unified School District was the first public school district in the country to adopt a voluntary desegregation plan. This year—near the 50th anniversary of the Brown decision—the District's plan was challenged by a lawsuit filed under Proposition 209, the provision of the California constitution that outlaws racial preferences. We represented the District pro bono in the action. On the motion to dismiss that we filed, the Court adopted our argument that the claim was barred under the equal protection clause of California's constitution.
Along with the ACLU, we obtained a ground-breaking settlement in a racial profiling action brought against the California Highway Patrol (CHP). Under the settlement, the CHP agreed to stop using minor traffic violations as a pretext for searching cars for drugs, agreed to compile data on traffic stops, and agreed to have an independent auditor review the traffic stop data to identify any officer who might be engaging in racial profiling.
In Flores v. Morgan Hill, we achieved - together with the ACLU, the National Committee for Lesbian Rights, and two solo practitioners - a $1.1 million settlement (damages and fees) of a peer-to-peer anti-gay harassment case on behalf of six former students in the Morgan Hill School District. The District also agreed to implement an extensive training program for administrators, teachers, and students on sexual orientation harassment. See article.
The firm represented Zula Jones, a San Francisco government employee charged with participating in a government contracting fraud scheme. Jones' personal office had been the subject of multiple searches, some with her consent, during a four-day FBI seizure of the offices of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission. The firm successfully obtained an order suppressing the seized evidence, which led to the government dismissing all charges against Jones. See United States v. Jones, 286 F.3d 1146 (9th Cir. 2002). See article.
The firm represented San Francisco BayKeeper in a suit against the Vallejo Sanitation and Flood Control District for dumping raw sewage into the San Francisco Bay. After the district court found violations of the Clean Water Act, the District agreed to a rigorous compliance and remediation plan and the court awarded Baykeeper more than a million dollars in attorneys fees. Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund and Lawyers For Clean Water were our co-counsel.
The firm recently represented a Chinese-American garment worker in a lawsuit for wrongful termination and recovery of four years unpaid wages. The worker was terminated in retaliation for her participation in developing evidence of sweatshop violations that initiated a series of sweatshop raids by the federal Department of Labor. The employer was ultimately forced to pay approximately $200,000 in back wages and provide employee benefits to the affected garment workers. The client's personal claims were settled favorably. The Asian Law Caucus was our co-counsel in this case.
The firm currently provides legal advice to the Popular Noise Foundation, a non-profit foundation seeking to stop the economic displacement of independent musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, and to provide new programs to preserve local music and benefit local musicians.
The firm currently serves as appointed counsel for an indigent defendant in a capital case in Alameda County Superior Court. The client was convicted in 1983 of double murder and sentenced to death, and partner Jon Streeter began litigating the matter the following year. In 1998, with execution only months away, Jon and his co-counsel obtained habeas relief from the Ninth Circuit, vacating the convictions and sentence. We will now represent the client at re-trial.
The firm accepts a steady stream of appointments to represent indigent criminal defendants in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California under the Criminal Justice Act. These cases allow us to utilize our considerable federal criminal experience on behalf of a wide variety of criminal defendants. Under this program, the firm currently represents a woman accused of conspiracy and bank fraud.
The firm represented an ethnic Armenian seeking asylum based on the "ethnic cleansing" in Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In a highly unusual result, the Ninth Circuit held on the facts of the case that the INS had no discretion to deny asylum. The case was reported at Andriasian v. INS, 180 F.3d 1033 (9th Cir. 1999).
In another asylum matter, the firm represented an ethnic Tajik who was tortured by the former Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan, and who feared returning to Afghanistan due to likely political retribution. The case involved both a Ninth Circuit appeal based on past persecution under the Communists, and an extensive motion to reopen proceedings in the Bureau of Immigration Appeals based on likely future persecution after the change in government.
We are assisting the Office of the City Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco in its litigation against the major gun manufacturers and distributors, in which the City claims that their advertising and marketing of hand guns constitutes an unfair trade practice.
Working under the auspices of the Alameda County Public Defender, one of our associates took a misdemeanor driving under the influence case to trial. The client was acquitted.
We have handled a variety of cases for domestic violence victims who needed attorney representation on restraining order, child custody and/or visitation issues, including representing them at hearings, during mediations, during settlement discussions and preparing them for trials. These cases were referred to a Keker & Van Nest attorney by a local restraining order clinic.
The firm assisted a domestic violence victim threatened with tax liens because of her abusive former husband's failure to pay taxes on a jointly owned business. After presentation of a full factual record, the Internal Revenue Service concluded that the client bore no responsibility for the unpaid taxes. The firm also represented the client at a hearing to revoke her ex-husband's probation for continuing spousal abuse.
We represented a California prisoner in a Section 1983 claim against guards who had searched his cell and read through his legal mail under the pretext of searching for "coded gang-related messages." After a bench trial, United States District Court Judge Fern Smith issued an order holding that the reading of legal mail, even for the purpose of seeking coded gang-related messages, violated the prisoner's civil rights.
As part of the California Coalition for Battered Women in Prison, partner Chris Kearney obtained the release on a habeas petition of a domestic violence victim who had been serving an indeterminate life sentence for the murder of her abusive husband.