Juanita Brooks Named Among Top California Women Lawyers

Juanita Brooks, a litigator and principal at Fish & Richardson’s San Diego-based Southern California office, was named to the Daily Journal’s 2018 list of “Top Women Lawyers” in California.

The publication highlighted recent high-profile cases that saw Brooks deliver extraordinary outcomes for clients in both the technology and pharmaceutical fields, including Microsoft and Gilead Sciences.

Brooks is a nationally-recognized trial and appellate lawyer specializing in complex intellectual property, product liability and mass tort litigation. She is known for her master storytelling and inherent ability to translate complex technical jargon into relatable conversational terms that both judges and juries understand.

According to Brooks, “the critical thing in a patent case is to make the technology, which can be very complex, accessible and understandable to the jury.”

Explaining the technology behind load balancing to the jury played a major role in Brooks’ win for longtime client Microsoft. In that matter, she successfully defended Microsoft in an infringement case regarding two patents covering methods and apparatuses for creating and managing custom websites. She helped the company prevail in post-trial motions as well.

Brooks also helped Gilead obtain a reversal of a $200 million verdict in favor of Merck & Co, Inc. in a patent infringement case involving Gilead’s cure for hepatitis C. After a jury awarded Merck damages for patent infringement, Brooks moved to re-open the record and presented evidence that convinced the judge that Merck and its attorneys were guilty of unclean hands due to the dishonest actions of Merck’s legal counsel, leading the judge to wipe out the entire verdict. The court later awarded $14 million in legal fees to Gilead, to be paid by Merck.

The Daily Journal’s list of “Top Women Lawyers” was published on May 2.