William Keane has obtained extensive trial experience in more than 35 years of criminal and civil litigation. His practice emphasizes white collar criminal and regulatory defense, corporate internal investigations, and includes civil commercial and intellectual property litigation. Bill is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of its Board of Regents. He is the past chair of Farella’s Complex Litigation Department, overseeing 15 partner litigators and 35 associates. Prior to joining Farella, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Jose.

In private practice, Bill has successfully tried cases in a variety of tribunals. His federal jury trial experience includes defending Olympic track coach Trevor Graham in one of three BALCO performance-enhancing drug cases. Mr. Graham received probation after Bill successfully hung two of three counts. In the largest cheating scandal in America’s Cup sailing history, he represented an Oracle Racing crew member in an administrative trial in San Francisco before an international jury of sailing experts. The jury’s decision saved his client’s career eligibility. Representing an employer, Bill also favorably resolved a disciplinary proceeding brought by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

His clients have faced investigations and cases by U.S. Attorney's Offices, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Department of Justice involving securities fraud, antitrust, cyber security, Medicare fraud, environmental law, off-label pharmaceutical marketing, tax violations, fraud schemes, government false claims, and import/export violations. He leads internal investigations involving accounting, fraud, FCPA, trade secrets, and senior executive employment issues. Bill’s civil practice focuses on civil enforcement actions, false claims, and complex contract disputes, along with intellectual property matters, including trade secret misappropriation and software licensing. He also defended a former chief credit officer named in litigation arising from a bank failure.

Bill is consistently recognized for white collar criminal defense by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, Benchmark Litigation, Northern California Super Lawyers, and Litigation Counsel of America. For the Northern District of California, he has twice been court-appointed to the U.S. Magistrate Judge Selection Committee, was a court-appointed Lawyer Representative to the Northern District Federal Judicial Conference, and was appointed to four terms as C.J.A. counsel for indigent defendants. He has taught federal criminal law and procedure, and legal writing at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (UC Law SF), his alma mater, where he was editor-in-chief of the Hastings Law Review, Volume 37. He has taught trial advocacy at Stanford Law School and lectured on ethics for CLE programs. He is a Fellow and a long-time board member of the Tony Patiño Fellowship, which awards merit-based law school scholarships at UC Law SF, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University.

Bill served in several leadership positions for the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) before being appointed to the Board of Regents in 2022. He served three years each as chair of the Northern California State Committee and the Federal Criminal Procedure Committee. While chair of the latter committee, he was the primary editor of a white paper on conducting corporate internal investigations: Recommended Practices For Companies and Their Counsel in Conducting Internal Investigations (2020 Update), available online at actl.com. He also served as a Trustee for ACTL’s charitable U.S. Foundation.

Bill has appeared on San Francisco Bay Area TV news programs on KTVU Channel 2, NBC-11, and KRON4, and NBC’s Today Show, including as a legal analyst for the BALCO steroids case, U.S. v. Barry Bonds. He also provided national commentary on the Roger Clemens perjury trial and the Lance Armstrong doping investigation. He is regularly quoted by national media and legal publications. He was also credited as the legal and courtroom advisor for the independent movie “The Skeptic.”