Jeffrey R. Chanin
Keker & Van Nest LLP
710 Sansome Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
(San Francisco)

Admitted: 1981, District of Columbia; 1982, California

Law School:

College:

Birth Date and Place:

Practice Areas: Commercial Litigation, Intellectual Property

Additional Information:
Bar Association of San Francisco; State Bar of California; The District of Columbia Bar; American Bar Association (Chair, Subcommittee on Uniform Trade Secrets Act/Federal Protection for Trade Secrets, 1993-1994; Member, Sections on: Litigation; Intellectual Property Law).
Order of the Coif. Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Intellectual Property. Member, 1978-1979 and Associate Editor, 1979-1980, University of Chicago Law Review. Law Clerk to: Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham, U.S. District Judge, Northern District of Texas, 1980-1981; Hon. Richard A. Posner, Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 1981-1982. Author, "Judicial Practices and Decision Making in Pretrial Release: A Study of Bail Administration in Rhode Island," Governor's Justice Commission, 1977. Director, Rhode Island Bail Project, 1976-1977. Fellow: American Bar Foundation.
Jeffrey Chanin has been a partner in the firm since 1985. He joined Keker & Brockett in 1982 after serving as the first law clerk to the Honorable Richard Posner, now chief judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Patrick Higginbotham of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, now circuit judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Jeff graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1976. He then initiated and directed the Rhode Island Bail Project, under the sponsorship of the Rhode Island Governor's Justice Commission and the United States Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, which led to a revision of the State's pre-trial release practices. Jeff graduated cum laude from the University of Chicago Law School in 1980, where he served as an associate editor of the Law Review and was awarded the Order of the Coif.
Jeff's practice spans the range of complex business litigation and white collar criminal defense. He has had significant experience and success representing plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving high-tech trade secret misappropriation, copyright, patent infringement, false claims and defense procurement fraud, securities fraud, and professional negligence. He was lead counsel in the defense of several Bay Area companies during the Pentagon's "Ill Winds" defense procurement fraud investigations. Jeff has successfully conducted jury and bench trials in federal and state courts involving trade secret misappropriation, patent and copyright infringement, vineyard contracts and winemaking regulations and procedures, materials toxicity, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, money laundering, and other matters.
Notable cases include plaintiff's counsel in Cadence Design Systems v. Avant! (trade secrets, copyright) 125 F.3d 824 (9th Cir. 1997) (The American Lawyer, Jan./Feb. 1998 and Nov. 1999); Plaintiff's counsel in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. ("TSMC") v. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. ("SMIC") (patent infringement, trade secrets); defense counsel in Steel v. Kendall Jackson Winery (trade secrets, contracts); defense counsel in Target Therapeutics v. Cordis Endovascular Systems (patent infringement) 113 F.3d 1256 (Fed. Cir. 1997); plaintiff's counsel in Palm Computing v. Olivetti Office USA (trade secrets, copyright); defense counsel in United States v. Harris Corp. (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act); defense counsel in Tolhurst v. Johnson & Johnson (product liability) (Mealey's Emerging Toxic Torts, Dec. 1996); defense counsel in Katz v. Silicon Graphics, Inc. (securities fraud); defense counsel in Ventritex v. Intermedics (trade secrets, patent infringement) (822 F.Supp. 634) (N.D. Cal. 1993) (listed in the National Law Journal, March 1993 as one of the top ten defense verdicts of 1992); plaintiff's counsel in Therma-Wave v. Jenoptik (patent infringement); defense counsel in Informix v. Oracle Corp. (trade secrets, employment); defense counsel in United States v. Hilger (admiralty, manslaughter) 867 F.2d 566 (9th Cir. 1989); plaintiff's counsel in Sonoma-Cutrer v. California Wine Commission (First Amendment).
Jeff is admitted to practice before the California and District of Columbia bars, and numerous federal courts. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property Inns of Court, and he previously chaired the American Bar Association Subcommittee on Uniform Trade Secrets Act/Federal Protection for Trade Secrets. Jeff is the author of Judicial Practices and Decision-Making in Pretrial Release: A Study of Bail Administration in Rhode Island, Rhode Island Governor's Justice Commission, 1977.