The Team

• Keith J. Staten
• Alan J. Donato

Keith Staten, CEO, Attorney at Law

Mr. Staten specializes in complex criminal litigation, DUI litigation and administrative licensing issues. He earned his Bachelor’s of Arts in Management Information Systems from San Francisco State University in 1987, and he earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1992. After beginning his career at the Sacramento County Public Defender’s Office, Mr. Staten left to start his own criminal defense practice in 1994.

Between 2001 and 2007, Mr. Staten was Senior Staff Counsel for the California Department of Motor Vehicles. There he reviewed DUI legislation and managed all writ litigation throughout the State of California. He also was the in-house legal advisor to the Driver Safety Program.

Mr. Staten is an expert in DUI matters, both from the criminal justice side and the DMV administrative side. He also is known for his successful verdicts in drug and sex cases.

Mr. Staten helped create new case law in the “Facebook” case. In that case, a juror had “friended” other jurors on the social networking site and regularly posted commentary on the trial during that trial. Mr. Staten successfully argued at both the trial and appellate level that his client’s right to a fair trial trumped that juror’s privacy rights, and won a motion for a new trial.

Further, in the case of a fatal shooting at a Sacramento IHOP, Mr. Staten won an acquittal for his client when his frame-by-frame analysis of surveillance video clearly revealed his client acted as a peacemaker, and had left the restaurant before the fight escalated to the shooting.

Mr. Staten has been an active member of his community by serving on the Boards of the Sacramento County Bar Association, the Sacramento Indigent Defense Panel, the Wiley Manuel Bar Association, Natomas Pathways 3 Charter High School and the OK Kids Program of Sacramento. He has given lectures to community organizations, youth groups, and professionals.