Sanjeet represents private companies, family businesses, technology startups, and their owners and managers in a range of business disputes.
He specializes in fiduciary disputes among founders, investors and managers of corporations, LLCs and partnerships. He provides pre-litigation counselling to owners and managers to secure their rights as to each other, including as to management fees, profit sharing, control of operations and finances, and access to financial information. If litigation is necessary, he aims to litigate forcefully, but efficiently, to achieve the best result for his client.
He also litigates insurance coverage cases (on behalf of policyholders), contractual disputes and business torts, including solicitation of employees and customers, theft of trade secrets and usurpation of business opportunities. He takes a pragmatic approach to such disputes to achieve sensible, cost-effective results.
Sanjeet represents clients in pretrial and trial proceedings in a variety of forums, including in mediation, arbitration and state and federal court. He has substantial courtroom experience, has argued (and prevailed) before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and has tried several cases. His wins on behalf of clients include:
- A favorable, court-approved settlement on behalf of investors against the manager of a prominent restaurant in San Francisco, who embezzled company funds, which resulted in the manager giving up his ownership of the Company (worth millions) and paying $500,000 in additional damages. The settlement followed a two-week bench trial in San Francisco Superior Court, one of the early fully-remote civil trials held in that court.
- A $1.6 million settlement for a property developer client from a contractor for negligent destruction of property, which was collected in full from insurer.
- A $2 million award in arbitration for the owners of a restaurant against a manager who embezzled company funds. The award issued after a multi-day arbitration involving several witnesses and experts. The award was confirmed by the Superior Court and the case settled on terms favorable to his client.
- A court order removing a director who breached his fiduciary duty to the company by secretly usurping a business opportunity for himself. The Court issued the order following a multi-day, expedited bench trial involving several witnesses and experts.
- Injunctions returning day-to-day control of a prominent San Francisco restaurant to its Board of Directors. The manager had taken over complete control of the restaurant’s finances, refused to obey Board decisions, refused to allow the Board to inspect the accounts, and stopped distributing profits to shareholders.
- A pre-litigation buyout of a minority shareholder in a technology startup before significant legal expenses.
- A $3.5 million default judgment for a retail client against a solar energy contractor, following a prove-up hearing in federal court.
- A $200,000 judgment in court for a real estate developer against a contractor who failed to perform.
- $100,000 in refunds for an event organizer from several vendors who failed to deliver on their commitments, before significant litigation expenses.
- $100,000 in liquidated damages for his client under a multi-year supply contract, before significant litigation expenses.