Maya James represents clients in criminal prosecutions and investigations, high-stakes commercial litigation, and government enforcement actions in state and federal courts nationwide. Most recently, she shielded a high-profile bank executive from criminal and civil liability; secured a sweeping injunction to protect her client’s trade secrets and helped the government successfully mount a criminal case against the individuals behind the misappropriation; convinced the DOJ to drop an antitrust investigation into her client; and succeeded in invalidating patents wielded by the other side in patent infringement cases.
Maya is also deeply committed to her pro bono practice, representing indigent criminal defendants in proceedings to vacate murder convictions secured under a California felony-murder statute that has since been reformed. She established a unique pro bono partnership between our firm and public defender offices in California to help vacate felony murder convictions, through which the firm has successfully vacated convictions for six individuals who have since been, or will soon be, released from prison.
Prior to joining Keker, Van Nest & Peters, Maya served as a law clerk to Judge Jesus G. Bernal of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Maya earned her J.D. from Stanford Law School and graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in philosophy. While in law school, she worked at the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and taught classes on substantive law and criminal procedure to incarcerated youth at the San Mateo County Youth Services Center. She also served as a course assistant in the Stanford Management Science & Engineering Department where she lectured on topics ranging from the application of Bayesian inference in criminal trials to statistical analysis of discrimination claims. She is a native Spanish speaker.
Nonprofit Institute v. Pharmaceutical Company
We represented a nonprofit research institute in its lawsuit against a giant pharmaceutical company regarding the latter’s refusal to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties it was owed for its intellectual property in a blockbuster drug. Following positive rulings on the merits of the case, we negotiated a very favorable settlement that entitles our client to ongoing royalties.
United States v. Executive
We represented a senior executive of a national bank in an investigation involving three United States Attorneys’ Offices, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, as well as parallel civil litigation. No criminal or SEC charges were lodged against our client, we secured a dismissal of the civil case against our client, and we reached a favorable settlement with the OCC.
Genentech v. JHL Biotech
We represented Genentech as the victim of a massive trade secret theft by its former scientists and founders of JHL Biotech, which was developing biosimilar versions of Genentech’s cancer medicines. The Keker team reported the theft to the DOJ and FBI and cooperated with the government’s investigation, which led to the indictment, guilty pleas, and prison time for JHL’s founders and top executives. On the civil side, the team won a preliminary injunction forbidding JHL from commercializing its products. This broad injunction, which rested on a finding that Genentech had a likelihood of success on its trade secret misappropriation claims, led to a settlement with JHL, in which JHL agreed to abandon development of all four of its biosimilars of Genentech’s products, destroy all related cell lines, stipulate to a permanent injunction, fully cooperate with Genentech’s investigation, and reimburse Genentech for its legal fees.
RingCentral, Inc. v. Dialpad, Inc.
We successfully defended cloud-based telephony and unified messaging provider Dialpad in a patent infringement action brought by competitor RingCentral in the Northern District of California. Dialpad obtained a ruling that all five asserted patents claim ineligible subject matter.
United States v. Founder
We represented a founder of a sustainable foods company in a criminal antitrust investigation. Following discussions and presentations to the DOJ, the investigation was dropped; no charges were filed.
01/18/2024
Keker, Van Nest & Peters is pleased to announce that the firm has elevated associates Andrew Bruns, Cody Gray, Maya James, Christina Lee, and Franco Muzzio to Partner, Kristen Lovin to Of Counsel and Senior IP & Technology Litigator and Hamilton Jordan to Of Counsel, effective January 1, 2024. This class marks the largest group of associates promoted to partner since the firm was founded in 1978. Read more
December 31, 2019
When it came to challenging a controversial felony murder bill that went into effect Jan. 1, 2019, Southern California prosecutors took a harder line than many of their counterparts in the rest of the state. But since November, when the 4th District Court of Appeal published two opinions affirming the validity of SB 1437, the state's largest local prosecutor's office has stopped disputing the bill altogether. Read more
September 16, 2019
The issues at stake in the case illustrate the growing importance of trade secrets protection to life sciences companies and the IP professionals who serve them. Read more
September 09, 2019
Taiwan’s JHL Biotech has agreed to stop developing copycat versions of four Genentech biologics as part of a deal to end high-stakes trade secrets litigation. Read more
September 09, 2019
Genentech reaches a settlement agreement with JHL Biotech, which sees the latter cease development of biosimilars to Genentech’s products. Read more
- Presenter, "Trade Secret Year in Review," Berkeley Center for Technology and Law, 2022
- "Combatting Police Discrimination in the Age of Big Data," Sharad Goel, Maya Perelman, Ravi Shroff, & David Alan Sklansky, 20 NEW CRIM. L. REV