Introduction to Genentech Legal Counsel and Vice President, 1976-1988, and Entrepreneur

Authors

Rebecca Sue Eisenberg, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Introduction

Publication Date

2002

Abstract

I first met Tom Kiley at a deposition in San Francisco in 1981. Although I can't recall the witness, I remember the setting vividly. We were in a conference room in the law offices of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe, high above the ground in the heart of the financial district, facing north across the San Francisco Bay. It was a clear day, and it seemed that there were almost as many lawyers in the room as there were sailboats in the water. As a new associate in the firm, I had just been added to a growing litigation team at work on an interesting new case in the office involving rights in a cell line that had been used in the course of cloning an interferon gene. On one side of the dispute was our client, Hoffmann-La Roche, and its research partner, Genentech. On the other side was my alma mater, the University of California. Hoffmann-La Roche, having agreed to absorb the full cost of any potential damage award in order to remove a potential cloud on Genentech's initial public offering of stock, had assumed control of our side of the litigation.

Recommended Citation

Eisenberg, Rebecca S. Introduction to Genentech Legal Counsel and Vice President, 1976-1988, and Entrepreneur, by D. Kiley Thomas. University of California, Berkeley: Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, (2002).