Bernanke to give deposition in AIG bailout lawsuit
A U.S. judge has ordered that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke can be questioned in a lawsuit against the government filed by the former head of American International Group Inc.
Education
Law School/Year: Yale, 1977
College/Year: San Diego State University, 1974
Bar Admissions
California; U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth and Federal Circuit; Numerous federal courts
Practice Areas
Intellectual Property
Major Cases
February 2012
Baxter Healthcare v. Fresenius Medical- Lead counsel for Fresenius, defending against Baxter’s claim that Fresenius’s peritoneal dialysis cycler infringed a patent held by noted inventor Dean Kamen and owned by Baxter and Kamen’s company, DEKA, and another Baxter patent.
November 2012 - trial/January 2013 - decision
Allergan and Duke University v. Apotex Inc., Sandoz Inc. and Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co. Inc. Co-lead counsel in bench trial for Allergan to halt the defendants from introducing generic forms of Latisse, a popular treatment for stimulating eyelash growth. Brooks scored a complete victory.
November 2012
Argued appeal in Allergan, Inc. v. Sandoz Inc., et al 2:09-cv-97– District Court opinion -- in which Brooks/Fish prevailed -- was upheld. She successfully represented Allergan regarding its drug Combigan. The successful verdict saved Allergan potentially $3 billion.
December 2012
Multimedia Patent Trust v. Apple - Brooks and her team scored a complete victory with a jury determining no infringement of three video compression patents involving Apple's iPod, iPad, iPhone and MacBook. Multimedia Patent Trust’s attorney asked for $172.3 million in royalty damages.
January 2013
Allergan Inc. v. Barr Laboratories Inc. - The federal court affirmed the decision of this 2011 Hatch-Waxman bench trial, in which Brooks represented Allergan regarding the glaucoma drug LUMIGAN worth $400 million in annual sales. The trial court found for Allergan basing the opinion predominantly on the fact that the defendants’ expert’s credibility had been “eviscerated” by Brooks on cross-examination.
May 2013 – Settlement
Roche v. Teva (Cite TBD) involving the drug Xeloda, an oral chemotherapy tablet used for breast and other cancers with 2012 sales of $660 million in the United States and more than $1.6 billion worldwide. While the terms are confidential, the settlement was exceedingly favorable for Brooks’ client, Roche.
Professional Background
Brooks is a principal in Fish & Richardson's Southern California office. She has a nationwide trial practice, specializing in complex intellectual property litigation. Brooks assisted in drafting the local patent rules for the Southern District of California.
Brooks’ litigation experience includes numerous cases involving intellectual property, product liability and qui tam litigation. She was a trial attorney with the Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc. from 1977 to 1980 and has been listed in Best Lawyers in America since 1987.
In 2009, she was named to the Minority Corporate Counsel Association's national list of "Leading Law Firm Rainmakers." MCCA chose just 14 attorneys for this honor, and Brooks is one of four women on the list.
In November 2011, IP360 named Brooks as one of the 10 intellectual property “MVP’s” nationwide. Brooks was the only woman to achieve this recognition.
Professional Affiliations
Founding member, Wallace Inn of Court (2005-present); Board Member and pro bono counsel, Western Center on Law & Poverty (2005-present).
Personal Background
Brooks grew up in Sunnymead, Calif., a small farming community, where she lived with her single mother and sister. To make ends meet, Brooks’ family took in laundry and ran a home-based daycare center. She entered Yale Law School at age 20.
She is the mother of two grown children and lives in La Jolla.
Aug. 14, 2013 -- Reporter Doug Sherwin talks with attorney Lonny Zilberman, a partner with Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP and a 2013 Top Attorney, about sexual harassment lawsuits and the nuances of these types of cases.
A U.S. judge has ordered that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke can be questioned in a lawsuit against the government filed by the former head of American International Group Inc.
Partner liability has emerged as one of the most important issues for law firms and is increasingly the crucial factor that determines building selection and the structure of other economic lease terms. Arguments over liability complicate — even kill — otherwise easy lease transactions. Law firm decision-makers contemplating a relocation or renewal would be well-served to understand and carefully consider how they intend to deal with partner liability from the outset.
Top Attorneys 2013 pays tribute to San Diego County's legal cream of the crop. It is the culmination of a lengthy peer voting process that began in April with the announcement of a call for nominations. San Diego County lawyers were asked who among their peers -- with whom they had professional experience -- were worthy of recognition.
When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in June, it opened up more than 1,000 federal benefits and responsibilities to legally married same-sex couples.
Thomas Guernsey has been at the job as Thomas Jefferson School of Law's new dean and president for less than two months and he's already made quite an impression.
Recently, I received calls from two human resources managers regarding articles in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. They were concerned about the WSJ’s claim that the position of legal secretary is extinct and USA Today’s assertion that the growth of temporary hiring is a negative devolvement.
Established in 2001, Morris, Sullivan & Lemkul was founded by Shawn Morris and Mike Sullivan. Shawn and Mike are former partners of Wingert Grebing, one of San Diego's oldest and most respected law firms.
The U.S. Department of Treasury recently announced that it is delaying until 2015 the enforcement of the so-called “employer mandate” provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA” or “Obamacare”), which were supposed to take effect in 2014.
#1. Put all commission agreements in writing (Labor Code section 2751).
RJS Law is a full-service law firm that can help resolve your personal, small-business or corporate tax problems with the Internal Revenue Service and California state tax authorities.
As the practice of law adapts to meet the changing needs of clients and organizations, opportunities exist to develop partnerships between law firms and law schools. Together, firms and schools can prepare profession-ready graduates and meet the growing need for legal services. California Western School of Law, San Diego’s oldest law school, is poised to lead the way in this national effort.
The University of San Diego School of Law develops resources and clinics that offer practical training to law students while making it possible for them to give back to the community. With San Diego County’s estimated veteran population of 250,000 and more than 2 million veterans living in California, there is no doubt that many have and will benefit from the school’s Initiative to Protect Student Veterans.
California’s employers are burdened with a long list of onerous regulations, so it’s no surprise that many employers fail to recognize the daunting requirements of the California Labor Code -- until it’s too late.
Gomez Iagmin Trial Attorneys is a plaintiff's only law firm based in downtown San Diego, specializing in catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, complex product liability and mass torts.
The attorneys at CaseyGerry specialize in serious personal injury and traumatic brain injury cases, and are at the forefront of the complex medical issues related to brain injury. These include chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease thought to be caused by repeat concussions or blows to the head, and second impact syndrome, a condition in which the brain swells rapidly after a person suffers a second concussion.
Ralph Nader has a new cause.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has declared that, at least when it comes to voting rights, the U.S. Supreme Court is guilty of wishful thinking. He is also showing both how difficult and how important it is to overcome that kind of thinking.
A federal jury in Oregon awarded $18.6 million to a woman who spent two years unsuccessfully trying to get Equifax Information Services to fix major mistakes on her credit report.
A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Cuomo administration over dairy farm regulations intended to bolster the state's growing yogurt industry, the groups announced Monday.
It was late at night on Feb. 27, 2001, and Penn State's then-president, Graham Spanier, one of academia's most prominent administrators, typed a brief email to two other top administrators as they debated how to respond to a thorny situation.
FedEx Corp., the world’s largest cargo airline, will pay $21.5 million to settle a lawsuit over claims that it overcharged customers by billing for deliveries to businesses and governments at higher residential rates.
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