Chicago, Ill., USA - June 28, 2010, Chicago, Ill., USA - Jenner & Block announced that Bradford P. Lyerla has joined the firm as a partner in its Chicago office.
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During a career that has spanned three decades, Mr. Lyerla has been first-chair in nearly 40 patent litigation matters and lead counsel in numerous other trials and arbitrations, representing some of the most prominent corporations in America. His work has also included handling Lanham Act, antitrust, and trademark and copyright infringement litigation matters across the country.
Among Mr. Lyerla's significant accomplishments are successfully defending the Solo Cup Company in a suit seeking nearly $100 million for alleged infringement of three patents relating to the microstructure of pleats in the rims of paper plates; breaking new ground in trade secrets law in what has become the leading case for a trade secrets doctrine known as "inevitable disclosure".
Mr. Lyerla was representing Business Records Corporation in what is now a leading Illinois case regarding enforcement of non-compete agreements ancillary to the sale of a business. Mr. Lyerla, whose career began at Jenner & Block, was most recently a partner at Chicago IP boutique firm Marshall, Gerstein & Borun.
Mr. Lyerla's intellectual property practice has been consistently recognized in Chambers USA, Leading Lawyers and Super Lawyers. He was recently appointed Chair of the Antitrust Committee of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago, the oldest intellectual property bar association in the United States.
In 2009, Mr. Lyerla was a member of the seven-lawyer committee that drafted proposed local rules for patent litigation in the Northern District of Illinois and he is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. In addition to his work in the intellectual property arena, Mr. Lyerla has tried more than a dozen criminal trials on a pro bono basis, including the successful defense of two death penalty cases.
For his pro bono trial work, he has received the John Powers Crowley Justice Award.
Mr. Lyerla received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Illinois, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and awarded the Donald W. Doerscher Memorial Prize as the outstanding senior in the Philosophy Department. ■