Elliot Peters

Peters, a name partner with Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP, specializes in white collar criminal defense and professional liability cases. Among his current clients are Genentech Inc.; SPI Holdings; the former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, Christopher Lischewski; John and Ines Crosby, former executives of the Rolling Hills Casino; John Wessman, the developer of Town & Country Plaza in Palm Springs; and Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.

For Genentech, Peters last fall filed a trade secret theft suit alleging that several of its former scientists stole confidential and proprietary information to help a foreign company develop biosimilar versions of its medicines Rituxan, Herceptin, Avastin and Pulmozyme. Genentech Inc. v. JHL Biotech Inc., 3:18-cv-06582 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 29, 2018).

“This is a fascinating case,” Peters said. “Genentech realized that a senior scientist might be working for a competitor. We did an internal investigation and turned the results over to the U.S. attorney, who also got interested in pursuing criminal charges.”

In March 2019, U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup of San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction in Genentech’s favor and denied most of JHL Biotech’s dismissal motions. Alsup, citing a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court case, held that “Genentech has established all four Winter factors as to its trade secret misappropriation claims and that certain provisional relief is warranted.” Peters’ complaint says he has documentary evidence including emails, test messages, Skype logs and audit records showing that Taiwan-based JHL Biotech conspired with former Genentech employees “to give JHL an illegal and corrupt advantage in the biotechnology industry…”

The government’s criminal trade secret theft case against three former Genentech scientists is set for trial in May 2020.

“Our trial will follow, though we’re trying to negotiate,” Peters said. “We caught them pretty much red handed.”

Peters is defending key individuals associated with the development of the 58-story Millennium Tower luxury condominiums on San Francisco’s Mission Street facing multiple lawsuits over its rate of settlement — about 16 inches to date — its two-inch tilt, and the claim that the developer did not disclose that information to potential home buyers. The plaintiffs include the Tower’s homeowners association, private individual condo owners and an array of contractors, subcontractors and vendors. Lehman v. Transbay Joint Powers Authority, CGC-16-553758 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 17, 2016).

“This is a construction defects case on steroids,” Peters said. “We’re trying to resolve it for this high-end developer. There is insurance, but it’s getting eaten up in litigation when it could be going to fix the building.”

— John Roemer