Prominent SF lawyer James Gilliland slain outside El Cerrito home

A prominent San Francisco attorney returning to his home in El Cerrito on Thursday evening was confronted by an assailant who shot him to death, police said.

Officers responding to 911 calls just before 9 p.m. found James Gilliland Jr., 62, on his front porch on the 2600 block of Mira Vista Drive, in the hills east of Interstate 80. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Gilliland’s wife, Victoria, was inside the home at the time, but investigators have not located any eyewitnesses. They were canvassing for surveillance footage in the neighborhood Friday morning, said El Cerrito police Lt. Robert De La Campa.

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Gilliland had apparently been returning from a social engagement, and had just parked his car when he was shot, De La Campa said. The killer, he said, fired approximately six shots from a handgun.

“We don’t know the motive yet,” the lieutenant said.

It was not known whether Gilliland was stalked or followed, whether he was the victim of a robbery, or whether the victim and gunman knew one another, De La Campa said.

A few residents remembered seeing a white car, and someone running, around the same time as the shooting, he said. Others said they heard loud gunshots.

“I heard the shots, but honestly I didn’t make the connection to gunshots,” said neighbor Roberta Binarelli. “I thought it was fireworks. I thought, ‘What are they celebrating?’”

Other residents said Gilliland was a familiar face in the neighborhood and at a nearby church. He was regularly seen walking a large black dog and maintained a free take-one-leave-one book box in front of his home for the benefit of passersby.

“Man, I can’t believe that,” said neighbor Bruce Easley. “When I got up this morning and saw the activity, it just clicked.”

Gilliland was a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP in San Francisco, where he headed litigation from 2013 to 2015. Specializing in patents, copyright and antitrust, he represented companies including Oracle, Sony, Williams-Sonoma and Levi Strauss and Co.

Susan Spaeth, the firm’s managing partner, said Gilliland was “an absolute pillar.”

"He was our trusted colleague and close friend, as well as a mentor and role model to so many,” she said in a statement. “Jim will be missed deeply. He was truly a great lawyer, and his many clients trusted him with their most difficult cases.”

In addition to his work with the law firm, Gilliland served on the board of directors of Roses in Concrete, an Oakland charter elementary school. Its founder and chairman, Jeff Duncan-Andrade, recalled Gilliland as “such a humble dude and so giving of his time and expertise.”

“His legal acumen was incredible. He read every document for us. ... He insisted on excellence, and he would catch every mistake,” Duncan-Andrade said. “He was a lawyer — the best of what that word means. Not stereotypical. But I was most impacted by his humility.”

In an interview earlier this year with the Law360 news service, Gilliland was asked how he attracted new clients.

“On occasion, (I) tell clients that I am not the right person for a job,” he said. “One potential client said he was looking for the meanest SOB in town. I said he should not hire me, because that is not how I handle cases. He didn’t.”

Investigators urged anyone in the area with surveillance camera footage to call (510) 215-4400 or email investigations@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us.

Kimberly Veklerov and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov, @SteveRubeSF