SAN FRANCISCO, Mar. 10, 2010 – William P. Keane, a litigation partner at Farella Braun + Martel, has been inducted as a Fellow into the American College of Trial Lawyers (the College), one of the premier professional trial-lawyer organizations in America. Keane, who chairs Farella’s White Collar Crime and Internal Corporate Investigations Group, was inducted at the College’s annual meeting in Palm Desert on Mar. 6.
Founded in 1950, the College is composed of the best of the trial bar from the United States and Canada. College membership is limited to the top one percent of the total lawyer population of any state or province. Fellowship status is extended by invitation only, after careful investigation, to those experienced trial lawyers who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility and collegiality. Lawyers must have a minimum of 15 years of trial experience to be considered for Fellowship.
Keane’s nearly 25-year career includes extensive jury trial experience in complex civil and criminal litigation with an emphasis in white collar criminal defense, intellectual property and commercial litigation. He defends federal criminal and enforcement actions involving a wide variety of subject matters, including allegations of accounting and securities fraud, insider-trading, mail, wire and Internet-related fraud, trade-secret theft, and antitrust violations. Keane’s most recent trial defense was the federal criminal prosecution of world-class track coach Trevor Graham for alleged false statements arising out of the BALCO performance-enhancing drug investigation. Keane successfully obtained a hung jury on two of three counts, including the primary count based on the government’s unproven allegations that Graham directed his athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs. Keane was then successful in arguing for a probation and home-detention sentence rather than the term of imprisonment urged by the prosecution. Prior to joining Farella in 1997, Keane served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Silicon Valley Office in San Jose, where he handled white collar criminal prosecutions.
A frequent lecturer on white collar defense and commercial litigation strategies and legal ethics issues, Keane has been regularly recognized on the Northern California Super Lawyers lists and frequently quoted in the media. His expert commentary has appeared in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Sports Illustrated and Bloomberg News. Keane is a member of the Board of Directors of the Tony Patiño Fellowship, a non-profit corporation that awards law school scholarships at University of California, Hastings College of Law, University of Chicago and Columbia University, and he currently serves as a court-appointed Lawyer Representative to the Northern District of California Judicial Conference.
Keane earned his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Hastings Law Journal, and his B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. He served as a law clerk to the now-retired Honorable Eugene F. Lynch of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
About the American College of Trial Lawyers
The College strives to improve and elevate the standards of trial practice, the administration of justice and the ethics of the trial profession. The College's Fellowship represents all branches of trial practice in the plaintiff and defense bars, enabling the organization to speak with a balanced voice on important issues affecting the legal profession and the administration of justice. www.actl.com.
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