Laurie C. Mims

Mims litigates trade secrets theft cases, white collar criminal matters and other complex commercial disputes. Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies seek her representation to untangle complicated merger and collaboration agreements and to protect their innovations. Last year she was chair of the Bar Association of San Francisco's litigation section.

Since 2017, she has led the Keker team representing biotech pioneer Genentech Inc. as the victim of a massive trade secret theft by former employee scientists and others for the benefit of a Taiwan-based developer of biosimilar versions of Genentech's top-selling cancer medicines. Fallout from the sprawling crime involves both criminal and civil cases. Genentech is a unit of Roche.

"It's been close to four years and it's still ongoing," Mims said. "We settled the civil case, but there's a lot going on on the criminal side." Genentech Inc. v. JHL Biotech Inc., 3:18-cv-06582 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 29, 2018); U.S. v. Lam, 3:18-cr-00527 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 25, 2018).

She said she and Keker partners Elliot Peters and Cody Harris were instrumental in achieving a September 2019 settlement in which JHL agreed to abandon development of all four of its products that were biosimilars of Genentech's drugs. The deal required JHL to destroy all related cell lines, stipulate to a permanent injunction, fully cooperate with Genentech's investigation and reimburse Genentech for its legal fees and costs. The Genentech drug brands involved include Rituxan, Herceptin, Avastin and Pulmozyme.

"That settlement brought Genentech a lot of comfort that JHL would no longer be piggybacking off its investment," Mims said. "We had litigated and won a preliminary injunction and defeated JHL's motion to dismiss. That was a critical win for us, and JHL shortly came to the negotiating table." U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup of San Francisco, in granting the injunction, held that Genetech had a likelihood of success on its trade secret misappropriation claims.

To launch the pending criminal case, Mims and her team reported the theft to the U.S. Department of Justice and cooperated with the government's investigation of the crime, which led to the indictment of former Genentech principal scientist Xanthe Lam, her husband Allen Lam and James Quach, who also worked for Genentech. They allegedly conspired with a JHL official to move Genentech's proprietary information to the Taiwanese firm. All have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Mims has appeared for Genentech in the matter under the Crime Victim Rights Act. She also represents the Genentech witnesses expected to testify in the upcoming criminal trial. Mims also represents Genentech regarding the DOJ's ongoing investigation of other wrongdoers involved in the theft.

A whistleblower's tip led to Genentech's uncovering the crime. "The further we got along in our investigation, the more evidence we found, unfortunately," she said.

-- John Roemer