- By Ali Wunderman | Special to The Examiner
- Nov 9, 2025 (SFExaminer.com)
Editor’s Note: Meet the 2025 San Franciscans of the Year. Read all of The Examiner’s profiles on the winners here.
As one of America’s most respected trial lawyers, decorated Marine veteran John Keker is known for his fearless defense of justice and civic integrity as a lawyer at the downtown firm Keker, Van Nest & Peters.
This year, his firm gained national attention as one of the first in the country to criticize President Donald Trump’s presidential memos and executive orders targeting big law firms and attorneys for retribution. While nine firms agreed earlier this year to provide nearly $1 billion worth of free legal services to the administration in order to avoid litigation, Keker stood up to Trump and defended San Francisco’s values on a national stage.
His firm issued a statement calling on others “to resist the [Trump administration’s] erosion of the rule of law,” and he also penned an editorial in The New York Times alongside his law partners. Keker has remained a vocal critic of the administration’s efforts since then.
In doing so, Keker embodied The City’s spirit: courageous, principled and unafraid to challenge power when the rule of law and decency are at stake. Before we began our interview, Keker pointed out a framed photograph hanging in his Jackson Square office of a young Nelson Mandela after being acquitted of treason in 1956 — a constant inspiration to keep fighting the good fight.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What does being named a San Franciscan of the Year mean to you? I was obviously picked on athletic ability, and I beat Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Buster Posey.
Seriously, it’s a great honor. I moved to San Francisco with my family in 1971 determined to stay here. When we first moved here, I had a public-defender job with a public-defender salary, and I needed $500 to pay the mover. I went to the Bank of America at Fisherman’s Wharf to ask to borrow it, and the woman said, “You don’t meet our criteria.” And I started screaming and said, “I’m going to be somebody in this town someday, and I’m going to bring down the Bank of America!”
