Brock J. Seraphin

/My focus

I focus my practice on complex commercial disputes. I have significant experience litigating commercial disputes involving tort claims, contract disputes, trade secrets, and employee mobility. I represent entities and individuals from a diverse range of industries in both state and federal court, as well as in arbitration.

In addition to my litigation experience, I serve as a trusted advisor and provide clients with strategic compliance counseling. I counsel clients on personnel issues such as employee hiring, discipline, termination, disability accommodations, and other employee compliance issues. Sensitive to the expense and stresses that litigation imposes on businesses, I help clients identify risks to anticipate and prevent future threats before they ripen into litigation.

/Representative experience

PRIOR EXPERIENCE

Before joining Nixon Peabody, Brock was in private practice, including at an AmLaw 100 firm and another nationally recognized law firm. Additionally, Brock previously served as an adjunct professor for the Pro Se Mediation Clinic at Loyola Law School and as a judicial extern for the Honorable Philip S. Gutierrez of the US District Court for the Central District of California.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE

The below representative experience includes representations from prior firm.

• Prevailed on motion for summary judgment and obtained dismissal of claim for interference with contract in property dispute involving 1,000,000-square-foot industrial warehouse, resulting in a determination that client validly exercised an option to purchase the property and that the option was superior to a prior unrecorded interest in the property
• Successfully opposed special motion to strike (anti-SLAPP), refuting arguments that defendant’s efforts to disrupt real estate transaction was protected by the litigation privilege
• Obtained dismissal of a putative class-action lawsuit filed by emergency room patients against a national healthcare provider; after removing the case from New Mexico state court to the US District Court for the District of New Mexico, successfully argued that the plaintiffs’ complaint failed to allege adequate facts to state a claim for breach of contract or negligence. The US Court of Appeal for the Tenth Circuit upheld the district court’s ruling, resulting in a complete dismissal for the client.
• Successfully defended numerous claims against employers involving allegations of discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination, including securing early dismissals at the pleading stage, prevailing on motions for summary judgment, prevailing at arbitration, and obtaining favorable settlements by efficiently attacking the substance of employee claims
• Responded to and successfully quashed a third-party deposition subpoena served on a global risk consultancy company by a foreign multibillion-dollar aluminum company embroiled in a federal criminal investigation and a California civil lawsuit involving claims of unfair competition and trade libel; within the complicated framework of California’s anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) laws, successfully argued that the consultancy’s earlier limited document production satisfied any discovery obligations and obviated the need for any witnesses to appear for deposition
• Prevailed on a motion to quash a non-party subpoena served on a high-profile CEO of a media company in a dispute between the media company’s clients; successfully argued that the apex doctrine applied to limit the time and scope of the CEO’s deposition
• Successfully compelled fraud claims to arbitration in Delaware in action brought against a CFO by his former employer, an engineering company; argued before the US District Court for the Central District of California that the engineering company’s claims arose out of the merger agreement that created it; this procedural victory provided the CFO client significant leverage in a complex multi-jurisdiction case involving multiple actions in state court, federal court, and arbitration.

/Looking ahead

As the landscape of trade secret law continues to evolve, I am committed to staying at the forefront of these developments, particularly within California. As generative AI tools continue to enhance a company’s ability to compile and reverse-engineer information from public sources, I expect courts to grapple with what constitutes taking “reasonable measures” to protect trade secrets amidst this new wave of technological advances.