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Bienert Katzman Littrell Williams LLP scored a complete victory at trial for its client Nathan Boulais, who had been accused of violating, and conspiring with others to violate, the federal civil RICO statute based on the alleged theft of trade secrets.  Plaintiffs Skye Orthobiologics LLC and Human Regenerative Technologies, LLC claimed that a former Skye executive, Brian Banman, stole proprietary information to start a competing company, CTM Biomedical, Inc.  The plaintiffs accused Mr. Boulais, an experienced independent sales representative who had sold both Skye’s products and CTM’s products, of conspiring with Mr. Banman and others to steal the plaintiffs’ trade secrets and use them to start and grow CTM.

In his opening statement, BKLW Partner Michael R. Williams told the jury the evidence would show that “there is no such thing as Skye’s customers.”  After a six-day jury trial before the Hon. Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of the U.S District Court for the Central District of California, the jury agreed, retuning a full defense verdict on all claims  against Mr. Boulais.  The jury specifically found that neither Mr. Boulais nor any of his co-defendants stole or otherwise misappropriated any of the plaintiffs’ alleged trade secrets and that none of them either violated RICO or conspired to do so.  

“Nate Boulais never should have been named as a defendant in this case, and we are gratified the jury recognized that the claims against him had no merit,” said BKLW Partner Michael R. Williams, Mr. Boulais’s lead counsel.  “We are thrilled that Nate can go back to focusing on what he does best—working closely with doctors to give patients access to cutting-edge medical devices.” 

In addition to Mr. Williams, the BKLW trial team included attorney Carlos A. Nevarez and paralegal Leah Thompson.

Learn more:

Michael R. Williams

Michael R. Williams

Michael R. Williams is a trial lawyer with more than twenty-five years of experience in all aspects of complex business litigation.  Mike heads BKLW’s commercial litigation practice and his main practice areas include qui tam suits under state and federal False Claims Acts, insurance coverage and bad faith, corporate governance […]

Carlos A. Nevarez

Carlos A. Nevarez

Carlos has experience as a judicial law clerk to federal and state judges, judges pro tempore, and staff attorneys on complex and high-stakes matters encompassing corporate and personal liquidations and reorganizations, contract disputes, personal injury, real property litigation, business torts, and administrative appeals. While at BKLW, Carlos has worked on […]

Leah Thompson

Leah Thompson

Leah Thompson is a paralegal skilled in research, document review, and document drafting and editing.  She assists with various projects to prepare complex civil and criminal matters for hearings and trials and is proficient with legal office technology, including various advanced e-discovery platforms.  Leah also assists in the Firm’s marketing […]

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