On March 20, 2018, Jennifer Keller, Stephen Larson and their trial team were honored with a California Lawyer Magazine CLAY Award – California Attorneys of the Year – for their successful defense of San Bernardino County developer Jeff Burum during a nine-month jury trial in 2017. (People v. Biane et al.) The case was jointly prosecuted by the California Attorney General and the San Bernardino County District Attorney. Then-Attorney General Jerry Brown had called it “The biggest corruption case in the history of San Bernardino County and possibly the State of California.” The defense vigorously cross-examined the prosecution witnesses and rested without calling a single witness of its own. The jury was out for approximately two hours before returning a verdict of not guilty on all charges.
It was Jennifer’s second CLAY Award. Her first, in 2012, honored her “extraordinary achievement in litigation” in 2011 — a $170 million victory for her client MGA in MGA Entertainment v. Mattel, a case she had entered as lead counsel just 12 days before trial.