Thomas M. Peterson

Tom mounts high-stakes appeals of adverse pretrial and post-trial decisions, and defends favorable trial court decisions on appeal. He has also sought and obtained interlocutory appellate review of adverse summary judgments, class certifications, and discovery orders, among other rulings. Clients in high-tech, healthcare, retail, construction, pharmaceutical, financial services, and other industries have turned to him to argue on their behalf.

From time to time, Tom serves as a teaching practitioner–adviser in the appellate advocacy course at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He is also a member of the American Law Institute.

Antitrust

• Represented a large pharmaceutical 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.
• Represented another large pharmaceutical company on appeal in the California Court of Appeal exploring the scope of the California Cartwright Act as applied to acquisition transactions.

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 pharmaceutical 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 across the country.
• Represented multiple companies in petroleum and manufacturing industries seeking coverage for environmental, antitrust, and mass tort claims in separate California cases.

Patent

• Represented the successful plaintiff on three separate appeals of nine-figure judgment in patent infringement cases 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. Secured affirmance and denial of California Supreme Court review.

First Amendment

• Represented healthcare companies in separate cases challenging the constitutionality of a California pharmacy pricing disclosure law.

Financial Services

• Secured new trial for a major national bank serving as an indenture trustee in a case involving three separate trusts that defaulted, resulting in a class action suit by noteholders. The appellate court affirmed the jury verdict in favor of the bank/trustee for the first two trusts, affirmed a new trial order in favor of the trustee as to a third, and reversed cost awards to plaintiffs.