Neil Roman

Neil K. Roman has more than 30 years’ experience litigating a wide range of civil matters, including trademark, copyright, insurance coverage, and antitrust. Mr. Roman has litigated these matters for an equally wide variety of clients. He served for over a decade as lead national copyright litigation counsel for the National Football League and has since 2004 served as lead national trademark litigation counsel for the American Automobile Association (AAA).

He has recently tried two trademark infringement cases – one against clothing manufacturer and retailer Quiksilver, winning a multi-million dollar jury verdict, and one on behalf of a Washington, DC area automobile dealership, winning a permanent injunction.

More broadly, Mr. Roman has been involved in high stakes litigation, including the World Trade Center insurance coverage litigation, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill litigation, the Takata airbag litigation, and, most recently, the national opioid litigation on behalf of McKesson. Mr. Roman also represents pro bono clients, including Leigh Corfman in her defamation action against Roy Moore in Alabama state court.

A native New Yorker, Mr. Roman relocated in 2015 to the firm’s New York office from the Washington office, where he started his career. While in Washington, Mr. Roman served as the firm’s Managing Partner for Legal Personnel and hiring partner.

Education :

• Harvard Law School, J.D., 1985
• Bowdoin College, A.B., 1980

Judicial Clerkship : Hon. Thomas Penfield Jackson, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, 1985 – 1986

Bar Admissions :

• New York
• District of Columbia

Representative Matters :

• Trademark matters, including Select Auto Imports v. Auto Sales, No. 1:15-CV-00679 (E.D. Va.), and QS Wholesale, Inc. v. World Marketing, Inc., No. 8:12-cv-00451 (C.D. Cal.), in both of which he served as lead trial counsel, as well as Video Gaming Technologies, Inc. v. Castle Hill Studios, No. 4: 17-CV-00454-GKF (N.D. Okla.), which is scheduled for trial in early 2019.
• Insurance coverage matters, including National Presbyterian Church, Inc. v. GuideOne Mutual Insurance Co., 2015 WL 571655 (D.D.C. 2015), where he served as lead counsel and argued and won the key pretrial motion.
• Other civil litigation matters, including In Re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, MDL No. 2179 (E.D. La.), where he is serving as co-lead counsel for cases arising under the Oil Pollution Act, and In re Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos Human Rights Litigation, 536 F.3d 980 (9th Cir. 2008), where he took the deposition of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and others.

Previous Experience :

• Cable News Network, writer, Atlanta, Georgia (1981-1982)
• The Washington Star, writer, Washington, D.C. (1980-1981)