Kurt Wm. Hemr

Kurt Hemr’s practice focuses on securities and insurance product litigation, intellectual property litigation, corporate governance disputes, and other forms of complex civil litigation. Mr. Hemr, a member of the Skadden team selected as a finalist for The American Lawyer’s 2018 Litigation Department of the Year, also has represented individual and corporate clients in internal investigations and in proceedings before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators.

Mr. Hemr’s experience includes representing:

• ZeniMax Media Inc. in litigation, co-leading a team that won a $500 million verdict on copyright infringement, breach of nondisclosure agreement and other claims relating to misappropriated virtual reality technology;
• the directors of EMC Corporation in post-merger litigation that resulted in a landmark Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision establishing the standard for such litigation in Massachusetts;
• Aspen Technology, Inc. in litigation in Texas, co-leading a team that won an $11 million verdict on trade secret misappropriation and other intellectual property claims, and successfully defending that verdict on appeal before the Fifth Circuit;
• MassMutual in a putative class action challenging that company’s payment of dividends and retention of policyholder surplus under Massachusetts statutes;
• MassMutual in a putative class action involving deferred compensation plans for its senior sales personnel, which resulted in a complete victory for the client that was subsequently affirmed on appeal by the First Circuit;
• a global financial services firm in obtaining summary judgment on antitrust claims in an action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts;

From 2000 to 2017, Mr. Hemr headed the Boston office’s pro bono program. In 2007, he represented the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in a widely publicized dispute with an artist who had stopped work on an artistic installation in the museum’s largest gallery. He also has successfully represented refugees seeking asylum, prisoners seeking protection of their civil rights, and nonprofit groups trying to avoid regulatory pitfalls.

Education:

• J.D., Harvard Law School, 1994 (cum laude)
• A.B., University of Michigan, 1991 (with distinction, and with highest honors in Classical Languages and Literatures)

Admissions:

• Massachusetts
• New York