Photo of Robert S. Niemann

Robert Niemann is a trial lawyer in the litigation department concentrating his practice in the areas of complex business and commercial litigation, trade secrets, intellectual property, unfair business practices, products liability, and environmental toxic torts. Mr. Niemann is co-chair of Keller and Heckman's national litigation practice, along with Arthur S. Garrett III. He is also the co-chair of the Food Law Committee of the Litigation Section of the California State Bar Association.

Mr. Niemann has extensive experience with class actions, multidistrict litigation, mass torts and major complex cases. He has represented many clients as their national and regional coordinating trial counsel handling hundreds of cases and coordinating the matters with attorneys throughout the United States. His experience in over 35 years of practice includes representation of manufacturers, distributors, inventors and component suppliers of pharmaceutical products, medical devices, healthcare and food products and various consumer products.

Mr. Niemann has represented manufacturing, food and beverage, and numerous consumer and construction equipment manufacturers for contract disputes, royalties, indemnity issues, product labeling and product liability. He has also represented companies for breach of contract, fraud, business torts, unfair competition, unfair business practices and false advertising. Within the tobacco industry, Mr. Niemann has successfully represented e-cigarette and e-liquid manufacturers, suppliers and retailers in intellectual property, contract matters and in consumer class actions.

Mr. Niemann has represented potentially responsible parties in environmental toxic tort litigation including CERCLA litigation, toxic spill litigation, vapor and chemical intrusion, site contamination, personal injury and biomonitoring.

Mr. Niemann is actively involved in ADR proceedings as a litigant and as a neutral. He presides frequently over civil arbitrations, mediations and as a Judge Pro Tem. He has arbitrated/mediated hundreds of matters in his career, and serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the San Francisco Superior Court for settlement conferences and trials. He is also an appointed arbitrator for the Counties of San Francisco and Marin.

Mr. Niemann is AV® Preeminent™ Rated by Martindale-Hubbell. He was selected as a California “Super Lawyer” in 2017 marking his 10th year with this recognition. Additionally, Mr. Niemann was named a top rated IP lawyer, a top rated lawyer in Mass Torts Law, and a top rated lawyer for Energy Law, Environmental Law and Land Use Law by American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell.

As the e-vapor industry evolves, manufacturers must keep up with an expanding legal and regulatory landscape. In addition to designing their products and services to comply, it is important for e-vapor companies to carefully assess their business practices and relationships with employees and business partners so as to best protect their confidential information and intellectual