Keith Glen Wileman

KEITH WILEMAN has been AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell since 1998, and has a quarter of a century of litigation and trial experience. He has tried jury and bench trials to victory in both federal and California state trial courts, argued successfully in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the California Court of Appeal, and practiced in the California Supreme Court, losing only one appeal in his entire career. Keith has appeared in the Superior Court of the State of California in a dozen California counties, and each of the federal district courts in California. He has never lost a jury trial and has only lost one court trial, for a sum less than the plaintiff’s demand. He has been lead trial counsel in all but one of his trials, in which case he was co-lead counsel and gave the opening statement and examined key witnesses. He has tried short, one-week cases and longer cases lasting weeks and even months.         The principal focus of Keith’s practice is business litigation and intellectual property, including extensive defense work in copyright, trademark and patent cases. His reported cases in copyright and trademark include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. v. Fireworks Entertainment Group, Inc., 137 F. Supp. 2d 1177 (C.D. Cal. 2001) and Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. v. Fireworks Entertainment Group, Inc., 156 F. Supp. 2d 1149 (C.D. Cal. 2001). His intellectual property clients have included studios, distributors, producers, writers, agents and photographers, as well as Internet companies and traditional broadcasters, and manufacturers accused of patent infringement. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in intellectual property matters.         His general business litigation experience includes a wide variety of matters, including real estate, banking and mortgage issues, distribution issues, breaches of contract, insurance coverage and bad faith, and UCC Article 2 cases. His recent published decisions in business litigation include La Sound, et al. v. St. Paul Travelers Ins. Co., 156 Cal. App. 4th 1259 (Fourth Dist., Div. 3, 2007, rehearing denied, review denied), and Firestone v. Hoffman, 140 Cal. App. 4th 1408 (Second Dist. 2006).         Keith’s most recent appellate victory was in a complex real estate investment scam in which he represents the plaintiff. Upon the trial court’s denial of a motion for trial setting preference without prejudice to later renewal, he filed a writ petition which was granted by way of an extraordinary Palma notice to the trial court, advising it that the appellate court intended to overturn the trial court’s decision unless the trial court entered a new and different order granting the motion, which the trial court of course did.         Earlier in his career, Keith’s practice emphasized the defense of product liability actions and transportation-related personal injury and wrongful death litigation. When he first entered practice, Keith worked exclusively on aviation and aviation insurance coverage cases. He has defended airlines, manufacturers of fixed wing and helicopter air frames, manufacturers of reciprocating and turbine aviation power plants, fixed base operators, pilots and aviation insurers. In Belzer v. SIAI Marchetti, he successfully represented the defendant aircraft manufacturer against wrongful death claims. He has also had favorable experience with the General Aviation Revitalization Act, including the reported case of Lyon v. Agusta, 252 F. 2d 1078 (9th Cir. 2001).         Outside the aviation context, Keith has represented manufacturers of automobiles, transmissions, wheels, tires, truck trailers, cranes and other aerial devices, construction equipment, scaffolds, prescription drugs and medical devices, chemicals, foods, food processing equipment, and a wide variety of consumer goods and cosmetics. One prescription drug/medical device trial victory was Lopez v. Voco, in which he represented defendants whose products allegedly failed to detect the presence of tuberculosis in an infant who developed meningitis and severe brain injuries.         Much of his non-aviation product liability work has involved claims of injury or death resulting from exposure to various products alleged to be harmful or carcinogenic, such as organic solvents, petroleum distillates and their products of combustion, isocyanines, vinyl chloride compounds, adhesives and their components, volatile organic compounds in paints, and chemicals used in film development. He has also represented defendants in inhalation claims involving asbestos-containing products, metallic and non-metallic particulates, and smokes or vapors.         He also represented railroads in cases ranging from derailment disaster litigation to Federal Employers Liability Act and cargo claims. While engaged in railroad practice, Keith was a longstanding member of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel, the defense lawyer association for that industry, for whom he wrote and spoke on trial technique and alternative dispute resolution, as well as serving as a CLE program director for that organization.