Dylan W. Wiseman

Profile

For 28 years, Mr. Wiseman has practiced exclusively in the fields of trade secrets, unfair competition, and employee mobility. Mr. Wiseman is the Co-Chair of Buchalter's Trade Secret and Employee Mobility Practice Group.

Since 2021, Dylan has been recognized by the Daily Journal, California's legal industry newspaper, as among the Top Trade Secrets Lawyers in California. He is nationally recognized by London-based IAM (Intellectual Asset Management) for trade secret litigation. In 2023, IAM tapped Mr. Wiseman as its exclusive commentator on trade secrets law for the United States. In 2024, Mr. Wiseman spoke via Zoom at the United States Patent & Trademark Office's trade secrets conference in Bangkok, Thailand for the Association of South East Asian Nations.

Mr. Wiseman represents businesses, on both the plaintiff and defense side in disputes involving:

Trade secrets
Unfair competition
Employee mobility and en masse departures
Antitrust claims
Disputes involving customer non-solicitation restrictions

He also counsels employers and start-ups regarding best practices for intellectual property.

Mr. Wiseman's diverse group of clients include:

Insurance brokerages
Venture capital, private equity, and investment banking firms
Aerospace companies
Mortgage banking firms
Biomedical device companies
Inventors
Professional service firms
Life sciences companies
Renewable and sustainable energy companies
Casinos
Healthcare companies
Sporting goods companies
Media outlets
Commercial banks

Mr. Wiseman has extensive jury trial experience. He has been lead trial counsel in several complex designated unfair competition jury trials, including an eight-week jury trial. Mr. Wiseman also has substantial first-chair experience in complex arbitrations.

Because of his trial experience, the California Lawyers Association asked Mr. Wiseman to be the sole author of the chapter on jury instructions in the treatise Trade Secret Litigation & Protection: A Practice Guide to the DTSA and CUTSA (4th Ed. 2021). Mr. Wiseman's chapter provides a comprehensive critique of the CACI 4400 series jury instructions used for trade secret claims.

Similarly recognizing Mr. Wiseman's two decades of trade secrets trial verdicts, he is a co-author of the Template Civil Jury Instructions Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, which was published in 2021 in the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal. In 2023, Mr. Wiseman joined The Sedona Conference - Working Group 12 (Trade Secrets), which is developing a set of pattern jury instructions for the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act.

Appearing in state and federal courts, Mr. Wiseman has extensive experience litigating disputes under:

The Uniform Trade Secrets Act
The Defend Trade Secrets Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
California's Unfair Competition Law, Business and Professions Code, section 17200
California's Business & Professions Code sections 16600 and 16601
California's intellectual property assignment provisions
California Penal Code section 502
California's employee duty loyalty provisions

On multiple occasions, Mr. Wiseman has taught continuing education seminars regarding trade secrets and unfair competition litigation for the State Bar of California's Labor and Employment Law Section. An award-winning lecturer, he has also taught continuing legal education seminars regarding intellectual property protection, social media and confidentiality, computer forensics, and eDiscovery.

In 2017, Mr. Wiseman opened the Sacramento office after working for a year to plan, organize, and recruit the other Sacramento attorneys. The Sacramento office now has over 40 resident lawyers.

Prior to joining Buchalter, Mr. Wiseman was a Shareholder for ten years at Littler Mendelson, the world's largest labor and employment law firm.

Bar Admissions

California

Education

Santa Clara University School of Law, J.D.
University of California, Davis, B.A., with honors

Areas of Practice

Intellectual Property Law
Labor & Employment

Litigation

Privacy & Data Security Law

Trade Secrets, Employee Mobility & Restrictive Covenants

Professional Career

Significant Accomplishments

Litigation

Biomed devices. Represented company against competitor in trade secret and predatory hiring dispute in which half the national sales force left in one day.
DNA sequencing. Obtained partial dismissal after plaintiff ailed to identify trade secrets with reasonable particularity. Affirmed on appeal with by the Ninth Circuit.
Minimally invasive surgical devices. Represented startup and inventor in dispute over intellectual property assignment terms for post-termination inventions.
Biotherapeutics. Advised biotherapeutics firm on best practices to avoid trade secret misappropriation.
Medical equipment servicing. Represented regional client against multi-national competitor who claimed it had misappropriated trade secrets.
Medical staffing. Represented healthcare company in anti-trust dispute to enforce surgical contracts with joint venturer who sought to end staffing for program.
Healthcare. Represented company against competitor in trade secret and predatory hiring dispute.
Aerospace. Represented competitors in hard-fought trade secrets dispute, and obtained favorable resolution for defendants.
Clean energy. Obtained injunction on behalf of thermal transference firm after two scientists downloaded files and brought them to a competitor.
Ag-Tech. Represented defendants and counter-claimants who hired employees from a competitor that were accused of trade secret misappropriation.
Fin-Tech. Represented firm which claimed its investment algorithms were coped by a former employee.
Custom machining. Represented firm which had two employees leave and allegedly brought costing and pricing data to a direct competitor.
Sporting equipment. Represented custom racing ski firm against competitor who allegedly took its designs. Obtained preliminary injunction.
HVAC servicing. Represented former owner of business accused of violating restrictive covenants incident to the sale of the business.
Tactical gear. Represented company which claimed its supplier and design information were misappropriated when employee joined competitor.
Fashion. Represented jeans company which alleged that a former employee downloaded its future designs and left for a competitor.
Elevators. Represented company in multi-jurisdictional fight over covenants not to compete for senior executives.
Casinos. Obtained preliminary injunction against management company for casino who hired a host that allegedly misappropriated list of high-end customers.
Digital analytics and advertising. Represented start-up accused of exploiting trade secrets and obtained.
Digital and print media. Represented firm following the sale of business accused of trade secret misappropriation.
Subscription services. Represented data management firm which claimed a competitor had hacked its security measures to gain access to subscribers.
Mortgage lending. Represented mortgage lending firm which hired an employee from competitor and was accused of loading files to cloud-based storage.
Commercial banking. Represented bank which had several employees leave and allegedly took client information to a competitor.
Independent insurance agencies. Represented multiple local, national and global insurance brokerages and agencies in disputes involving producers leaving and soliciting customers. Extensive injunction and trial practice.
Commercial insurance. Represented numerous local and national insurance brokerages and agencies in disputes involving producers leaving and soliciting customers. Extensive injunction and trial practice.

Professional Activities and Experience

Buchalter

Practice Expertise

Areas of Practice

WSG Practice Industries

Profile

Areas of Practice

Professional Career

Litigation

Articles

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