mvanniekerk@be-law.com
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Admitted to bar: 1992, Republic of South Africa; 1998, Texas; 1999, California; U.S. District Court, Northern District of California; U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Education: University of Texas at Austin (LL.M, 1998, specializing in Intellectual Property Law); University of Cape Town, South Africa (LL.M, 1996, specializing in Maritime Law and South African Income Tax Law; LL.B., 1989; B.A., 1987).

Member: American Bar Association; State Bar of California; State Bar of Texas.

Experience: Mr. van Niekerk's area of practice is business litigation, with special emphasis in the areas of intellectual property disputes, business torts and commercial contract disputes.

In 2003, Mr. van Niekerk and John W. Fowler obtained a $13.5 million judgment for Bergeson, LLP client Lam Research Corporation against Dallas Semiconductor Corporation in a breach of contract case. This was one of the largest verdicts ever in a commercial code case in Silicon Valley. The case, tried to a Santa Clara County jury, was filed after Dallas refused to accept the first two installments of a $20 million contract for semiconductor fabrication equipment and related services. The verdict was for Lam's lost profits under U.C.C § 2708(2). The Bergeson team overcame the defendants' claim that there was no contract because the documents exchanged by the parties had boilerplate terms which did not agree. The jury accepted Lam's evidence that the contracts were formed by conduct under U.C.C. § 2207(3).

On April 17, 2006, the Sixth Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal rejected Dallas' contentions on appeal and affirmed the trial court judgment. In its ruling, the Court of Appeal found there was substantial evidence supporting the court's instructions to the jury and the court's ruling that Lam was a lost volume seller.

Prior to joining Bergeson LLP in 1999, Mr. van Niekerk was an associate in the Technology Litigation department of the Palo Alto office of Cooley Godward, LLP, from 1998-1999. Mr. van Niekerk was a litigation attorney at Abe Swersky & Associates, Cape Town, South Africa, from 1990-1996 where he had extensive trial experience before all courts in South Africa.