Spencer McManus represents clients in all facets of commercial litigation. Prior to joining Keker, Van Nest & Peters, Spencer served as a law clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He also served as an associate for an Am Law Top 50 law firm, where he represented companies in complex commercial litigation in federal and state courts and in private arbitrations in disputes involving breach of contract, fraud, anti-SLAPP, business torts, and consumer class actions. Spencer’s pro bono practice focuses on reproductive rights and voting rights work.
Spencer earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He earned his B.A.S. in political science-public service and chemistry from the University of California, Davis. While in law school, Spencer served as a legal intern for the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Appellate Section and as a judicial intern to Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
We represented secure networking company Fortinet, winning a complete defense verdict after a four-week jury trial in Santa Clara Superior Court where plaintiff Alorica sought compensatory damages of more than $200 million, plus additional enhancements for punitive damages. The jury found that Fortinet was not liable on Alorica’s claims of fraud and breach of warranty. KVP was retained a few months before the trial date, and in short order the defense team obtained several favorable pretrial rulings. Prior to the jury verdict, the KVP team also obtained directed verdicts on punitive damages and plaintiff’s largest claim for compensatory damages.
We defended Google against an AI-related patent infringement suit brought by Singular Computing that alleged Google’s TPU chips (custom-designed hardware used for training and inference of large AI models) infringed Singular’s patents. After Google successfully invalidated some of the patent claims through inter partes review, the KVP team led Google’s defense in a 2-week trial in Boston federal court on a narrowed set of claims. Shortly before closing arguments, Singular accepted a pending settlement offer.
For The Recorder, Warren Braunig and Spencer McManus authored an article that explains how the decision in Teradyne v. Astronics illustrates the potential strength of the fair use defense in software cases, even in those involving direct competitors. Read more
Keker, Van Nest & Peters partners Bob Van Nest, Sharif Jacob, Sophie Hood and Ryan Wong reflect on the firm’s biggest trial wins which earned its place among Law360’s 2024 Trials Groups of the Year. Read more
Law360 has reported that Google LLC, represented by Keker, Van Nest & Peters, and Singular Computing LLC have settled a patent lawsuit over computer chip designs that improve efficiency for artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The joint motion to settle the case comes two weeks into a federal jury trial in Massachusetts and as both parties were set to deliver closing arguments. Read more