Founded in 1979, JDS Uniphase Corp. is a manufacturer of commercial, consumer and defense optical products. It holds more than 2,000 patents for products used in broadband, semiconductors, optical equipment, document authentication, medical devices and biotechnology. Based in Milpitas, the company is publicly traded on Nasdaq (JDSU) and Canada’s TSX (JDU). The company generated revenue of $1.3 billion in its fiscal year ending July 31, a 15 percent drop from 2008. It has 4,200 employees.

LEGAL TEAM AND OUTSIDE COUNSEL

So far, 2010 has been relatively quiet for Matthew Fawcett and his legal team. For the first time in several years, the company isn’t facing massive litigation — having prevailed in a 4 1/2-month toxic tort jury trial last year in Sonoma County, and in 2007 winning a rare securities fraud trial.