practice areas
honors + affiliations
Member, American Law Institute
Adjunct Faculty, University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law
Board Member, Legal Aid Society and Employment Law Center
Editor, Georgetown Law Journal
Georgetown University Law Center, 1980, Francis E. Lucey, S.J. Award (highest grade point average)
bar admissions
- California
Court Admissions
- U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Circuits
- U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits
- San Francisco
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One Market, Spear Street Tower
San Francisco, CA 94105-1596
Phone: 415.442.1344
Fax: 415.442.1001
Thomas M. Peterson is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice. Mr. Peterson focuses his practice on appellate litigation of many complex civil matters, including the representation of clients in state and federal appellate courts, and trial court litigation in anticipation of possible appeal.
Mr. Peterson has argued more than 75 appeals in California state appellate districts, and in almost every federal circuit court of appeals, including the Federal Circuit. He prepared the appellate briefs in most of those cases, and in several others. He also has prepared numerous amicus curiae briefs on behalf of clients interested in legal issues pending in state and federal appellate courts.
Mr. Peterson mounts high-stakes appeals of adverse pre-trial and post-trial decisions and defends on appeal favorable trial court decisions. He has also sought and obtained interlocutory appellate review of a wide range of rulings for many clients, including adverse summary judgments, class certifications, and discovery orders. Mr. Peterson has argued on behalf of high tech, healthcare, retail, construction, pharmaceutical, and financial services clients, among others.
Mr. Peterson is a teaching practitioner-advisor in the course on appellate advocacy at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, whose practitioner-advisors are among the best appellate lawyers in the Bay Area. He is also a member of the American Law Institute.
Mr. Peterson clerked for Judge Cecil Poole of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and was first in his class at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Mr. Peterson is admitted to practice in California, including its six appellate districts, and before U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits. He has also handled state appellate cases in Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Alaska, and Hawaii.
Selected Representations
Antitrust
- Representing a large pharmaceuticals company before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to obtain affirmance of the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit under Section 7 of the Clayton Act challenging a significant merger.
- Representing another large pharmaceuticals company on appeal in the California Court of Appeals exploring the scope of the California Cartwright Act.
Labor & Employment Class Action
- Represented an international retailer to obtain affirmance in the Ninth Circuit of a ruling against employees of the retailer's supplier factories who claimed poor working conditions and sought to fasten responsibility on the retailer.
- Represented a securities industry trade association before the California Supreme Court in one of the industry's most significant wage and hour matters.
- Represented large pharmaceuticals companies in the Ninth Circuit on the issue of whether sales reps are exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act and similar provisions of state law.
- Represented numerous clients in the California appellate courts in connection with wage and hour, discrimination, and other employment-related claims.
ERISA Class Action
- Represented a Fortune 500 company in the Ninth Circuit in an ERISA class action involving allegations that the company and its 401(k) administrative committee breached ERISA fiduciary duties.
Insurance
- Represented several different policyholders in multiple California cases, seeking on appeal coverage for liability resulting from asbestos exposure.
- Represented, as national appellate counsel, three companies charged with mass torts and appearing as a result in numerous cases around the country.
- Represented multiple companies in petroleum and manufacturing industries seeking in separate California cases coverage for environmental, antitrust, and mass tort claims.
Patent
- Represented the successful plaintiff on appeal of a nine-figure judgment in a patent infringement judgment before the Federal Circuit.
Commercial
- Represented a large pharmaceutical company on appeal before the California Court of Appeal in its defense of one of the largest jury verdicts returned in California on business torts growing out of interference with the client's development of a new product.
First Amendment
- Represented healthcare companies in separate cases challenging the constitutionality of a California pharmacy pricing disclosure law.
education
- Georgetown University Law Center, 1980, J.D.
- University of San Francisco, 1977, B.S.