Brett M. Schuman

Partner

Brett M. Schuman is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. He is the Risk Management Partner for the San Francisco office and a member of the firm's Standing Committee on Conflicts and Professional Responsibility. Mr. Schuman focuses on appellate litigation, which includes participation in cases at the trial court level when an appeal is anticipated. His experience includes many substantive areas with particular emphasis on intellectual property and labor and employment litigation.

Recent significant intellectual property representations include:

• Primary architect and author of successful summary judgment motion in case with more than $500 million in damages sought against client for trade secret misappropriation.
• Primary attorney responsible for securing summary judgment for client in case where plaintiff claimed more than $8 million in damages caused by alleged conversion of computer equipment against worldwide network solutions company.
• Obtained dismissal in federal case alleging antitrust violations against large network solutions company.
• Favorable settlement for client in inventorship dispute case in which plaintiff claimed to be true inventor of client's intellectual property and sought change of inventorship order and damages for, among other things, copyright infringement.
• Handled briefing in successful Federal Circuit appeal affirming finding of patent infringement against generic manufacturer of antibiotic.
• Prepared amicus brief on behalf of international federation copyright case and cited numerous times in court's opinion.
• Successfully resolved claims for copyright infringement and other torts against national laboratory conglomerate threatened with injunction that would have effectively shut down the company.

Recent significant labor and employment representations include:

• Successfully obtained reversal of order denying employer's motion to compel arbitration in California employment dispute.
• Argued an FLSA case in which the issue was whether plaintiff was properly classified as a salaried/exempt employee under FLSA.
• Briefed, argued, and obtained affirmance of summary judgment for defendant in disability discrimination case under FEHA.
• Prepared and filed amicus brief on behalf of client in a California Supreme Court case involving validity of pretrial jury waivers.
• Prepared and filed amicus brief on behalf of client in a California Supreme Court case involving enforceability of class arbitration waivers in employment arbitration context.

Mr. Schuman clerked for Justice Alan B. Handler of the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey during the court's 1996–1997 term. For the last several years, he has served as a teaching practitioner-advisor in a course on Appellate Advocacy at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law.

Mr. Schuman is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. Supreme Court and all Federal and State California Courts.