About Sebastian E.
Sebastian E. Kaplan is a licensed attorney admitted to practice law in the State of California. He was admitted to the California State Bar in 2007. His license is currently in active status. Mr. Kaplan is a counsel at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, a full-service law firm located in San Francisco, California. He has been practicing law for over nineteen years, serving clients throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding regions.
Mr. Kaplan earned his Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School, where he graduated in 2006. Prior to law school, he completed his undergraduate education at Wesleyan University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002. During his time at Stanford, he was involved in various legal clinics and externships, gaining practical experience in intellectual property law.
Mr. Kaplan concentrates his practice in the areas of intellectual property law, including trademark litigation, copyright disputes, trade secret cases, and complex commercial transactions. He represents clients in both federal and state courts, handling matters at all stages from pre-litigation cease and desist letters through trial proceedings. In addition to intellectual property litigation, he defends technology innovators in privacy, false advertising, and other consumer-related class actions.
Throughout his career, Mr. Kaplan has handled cases in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the United States District Court for the Central District of California, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He has also appeared before the California Court of Appeal on multiple occasions. Before joining Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, he clerked for the Honorable Carlos T. Bea on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced law at firms in San Francisco and Oakland.
Mr. Kaplan is an active member of local and national bar associations. In 2016, he was appointed by the president of the American Bar Association to sit on the Advisory Commission of the Standing Committee on Public Education. He is a director of the Justice and Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco and chair of the BASF Intellectual Property Section. In 2013, he served as the president of BASF’s Barristers Club, comprised of BASF attorneys with less than ten years of practice, and was named Outstanding Barrister of the Year in 2016. He is also committed to pro bono homelessness prevention and regularly represents indigent tenants facing eviction. In 2015, Mr. Kaplan was awarded BASF’s annual Housing Justice Award for first-chairing a four-day unlawful detainer trial.
