The in-house legal team at Terumo Neuro has accumulated numerous wins over this past year.
The 15-person team for the Aliso Viejo-based medical device maker in July won an injunction against three former employees for misappropriating trade secrets and favorably settled the same case against competitor Balt USA LLC, resulting in a “highly favorable outcome” for the company.
They’ve helped secure 12 patents for the company in the last two months covering both core products and technologies outside its core focus.
To top it off, they navigated the company’s recent rebranding from MicroVention to Terumo Neuro, reflecting its new strategy to expand into broader areas of neurovascular care.
“I feel like we had a great story to tell this year,” General Counsel Jacqueline Collins told the Business Journal.
Now, they can add one more win to the list.
Terumo Neuro, which is owned by Japanese medical device company Terumo Corp., won the Best In-House Legal Team Award at the Business Journal’s 14th annual General Counsel Awards on Nov. 14 at the Irvine Marriott.
Team’s Proudest Accomplishments
Achieving a favorable resolution in the trade secrets case was one of the proudest accomplishments for the company, according to Collins.
“In the medical device industry, trade secrets are the heart and soul of our innovations,” she said.
“It’s important that employees understand how that works and how the IP that’s created when they’re at the organization belongs to the organization and not the employee.”
The entire process from beginning to end took about four years.
Terumo Neuro in 2019 initially filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Balt and during the process discovered that former employees had taken thousands of documents containing trade secret information to start a business that competed with Terumo Neuro.
A year later, Terumo Neuro filed a second lawsuit against Balt and the former employees for trade secret misappropriation, seeking more than $100 million in damages.
They were represented by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP and brought on Alston & Bird LLP as mediation counsel.
“It was expensive, but I’m glad that the company was able to settle that,” Collins said.
From Silos to Collaborative Work Environment
When Collins joined Terumo Neuro in 2022, she said the legal operations were divided into separate legal and IP divisions.
“I think we were very siloed,” Collins said.
Now, the team attends meetings in Japan to meet the other 100 attorneys that work for Terumo Corp.
“It was really an opportunity to break down those silos and collaborate with our colleagues around the globe,” Collins said. “I think that strengthens what we bring back to the business here in Orange County.”
Collins has been in the medical devices industry since 2022, the same year she moved to Orange County.
She was recruited to be general counsel at Nobel Biocare, which was acquired by Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR) in 2014 for $2.2 billion.
In 2018, Collins then joined Laguna Hills-based dental startup Sonendo Inc., where she helped bring the company public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021.
“I met so many people in the industry through that because there are a lot of bankers, lawyers, tax advisors and accountants that are integral to that IPO process,” Collins said.
“That was really exciting.”
Toward the end of her time at Sonendo, Collins said she knew she wanted to take on a new position at a global company and to lead a team.
Executive management at Terumo Neuro supported Collins in putting a legal team together with the goal of becoming a billion-dollar company, she said.
This year, the company is on track to generate around $650 million in revenue.
“I’m really proud to see the growth and the responsibility that the attorneys on the team feel for improving our brand within the organization,” Collins said.
Community Volunteering
The team’s work has impacted the company globally, but they’re also making sure to give back to the local community.
As a group, the legal team prepares case files and analysis for Loyola Law School’s Project for the Innocent, a clinic dedicated to exonerating wrongful convictions.
They also serve as mentors for the Association of Corporate Counsel’s (ACC) Diversity Summer Internship Program for first year law students in Southern California.
This year, the team is volunteering again at Santa Ana-based nonprofit Project Youth OC’s toy drive during the holidays, as well as donating to Working Wardrobes, another nonprofit in Santa Ana that provides the community with resources to find employment.
