Seth M. Gerber

Seth’s cases cover a broad range of confidential and trade secret information from customer lists to sophisticated, innovative technologies, including semiconductors, electric fracking equipment, and custom-engineered parts for aerospace, space, and military industries. Seth also counsels clients with respect to defining, classifying, and protecting their confidential, proprietary, and trade secret information. He has successfully defended complex mass raid cases to verdict after lengthy jury trials and handled numerous evidentiary hearings concerning requests for injunctive relief.

Seth has been profiled by the Daily Journal for his cross-border litigation to recover cultural and religious property seized during World War II. Seth has participated in a hearing before the US Senate Helsinki Commission, negotiated with high-ranking foreign officials and the US State Department, and obtained a favorable judgment and sanctions award of $180 million against a foreign state.

Seth serves on the Steering Committee for the Sedona Conference Working Group 12 on Trade Secrets, and he regularly speaks on panels for the Practising Law Institute, American Bar Association, American Intellectual Property Law Association, and Sedona Conference on trade secret matters. Seth frequently publishes articles about trade secret law and co-authored the chapter on injunctions in the treatise Trade Secret Litigation & Protection by the Intellectual Property Section of the California Lawyers Association.

Seth has served on the boards of several community and civil rights organizations. He is a recipient of the State Bar of California's Wiley M. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services and the Anti-Defamation League's Daniel R. Ginsberg Leadership Award.

• Obtained a judgment ordering a foreign state to return irreplaceable religious property that was looted during World War II and a monetary sanctions award of $180 million
• Obtained an arbitration award worth $25 million in stock and $6 million in attorney fees and costs. The arbitrator found the opposing party liable for fraudulent inducement, fraudulent concealment, breach of confidential relationship and undue influence, and concluded that the respondent had engaged in willful, malicious, systematic, and intentional fraud and deceit
• Obtained a complete defense verdict after a six-day jury trial in federal court in Oregon. The plaintiffs sought $7 million in damages plus punitive damages based on allegations that the defendants breached an employment agreement and intentionally interfered with contractual and prospective economic relationships. The jury returned a defense verdict after less than two hours of deliberations.
• Obtained a complete defense verdict and $6.13 million award of attorneys’ fees and costs after a two-month jury trial concerning the departure of 75 insurance professionals from a competitor’s offices in Fresno, Salinas, and Walnut Creek, California; plaintiff had sought $50 million in damages plus exemplary damages of twice that amount but obtained nothing
• Obtained a favorable judgment after a two-week bench trial declaring that the defendant’s covenant not to compete and Illinois choice-of-law and forum selection provisions in stock agreements were unenforceable
• Obtained a dismissal with prejudice of claims for misappropriation of trade secrets against a Chinese telecommunications company on the grounds that the plaintiff did not plausibly allege a conspiracy
• Obtained a preliminary injunction against insurance producers and an insurance brokerage firm precluding them from any improper use or disclosure of confidential or proprietary information
• Obtained a preliminary injunction against a sales engineer and competitor in the aerospace industry prohibiting the defendants from any improper use or disclosure of confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information
• Defeated a motion for preliminary injunction after an evidentiary hearing in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois; the plaintiff sought injunctive relief against an insurance brokerage firm and insurance professionals for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets
• Defeated a motion for preliminary injunction after an evidentiary hearing in federal court in Arizona after several insurance brokers left a major brokerage firm to join a firm  client
• Defeated a motion for a temporary restraining order in federal court in Illinois after 26 reinsurance professionals left a major brokerage firm to join a firm client 
• Defeated a motion for preliminary injunction sought in the Court of Chancery in Delaware against an insurance brokerage firm and insurance professionals for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets
• Defended one of California’s largest independent physician associations in a lengthy jury trial for alleged misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract; the jury found that the defendant did not engage in any willful or malicious misconduct and awarded a tiny fraction of the damages sought
• Obtained a favorable jury trial verdict and damages against a distributor of fashion accessories for copyright infringement
• Represented the University of Southern California (USC) in a lawsuit against a Tenet Healthcare subsidiary seeking a court declaration that Tenet had defaulted under a long-term ground lease and operating agreement, which resulted in USC’s acquisition of University Hospital and Norris Cancer Center from Tenet
• Obtained a favorable arbitration award for USC in a dispute concerning the value of a medical office complex