Wilson Brown

Wilson M. Brown is one of the firm’s most experienced defense attorneys and has tried some of the firm’s largest and most complex cases in courts throughout the United States. His practice has concentrated on commercial litigation, intellectual property and technology litigation and insurance disputes, where he is recognized as one of the premier trial attorneys in the country.

He has also represented clients charged with antitrust, securities and consumer fraud violations in both individual and class actions. Wilson also currently heads the firm’s pro bono program and has handled a number of significant public interest matters.

Wilson’s efforts to vindicate three families victimized by the government’s improper claim of state secrets privilege in United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1, (1953), are the subject of Pulitzer Prize-winner Barry Siegel’s book Claim of Privilege (2008) and Peter Gallison’s and Robb Moss’s film Secrecy (2008).

Experience :

• Commercial Disputes : Wilson has litigated numerous complex commercial cases over the course of his career. His recent successes include :
  • A no-liability judgment for an international food company in an arbitrated earn-out dispute arising out of one of its acquisitions.
  • A successful defense of a world-wide supplier of industrial gases in a “bet the business line” arbitration.
  • A defense verdict of no liability and the recovery of legal fees for one of the Disney companies in a breach of contract action.
• Intellectual Property and Technology Litigation : Wilson has served as lead litigation counsel in a number of patent and trademark suits. His representative matters include :
  • Successful defense before a jury of one of an electronics industry client’s core technologies against claims of prior invention and ownership.
  • Successful enforcement of another electronic industry client’s patents against threatened infringement by a substantial competitor.
  • Defense of a software company against claims of infringement of patents relating to database encryption.
  • Defense of entertainment, pharmaceutical and retail sector clients in sizable trademark infringement cases.
• Insurance Litigation : Wilson has represented insurance company clients in cases of national significance involving coverage for environmental and toxic tort exposures and other cutting-edge issues. His representative matters include :
  • Served as lead counsel in the U.S. Gypsum coverage litigation in Chicago and the National Gypsum coverage litigation in New York, both involving key coverage issues for asbestos-related claims on which his clients prevailed at trial.
  • Successfully managed a portfolio of substantial claims for environmental coverage, litigating issues of coverage and allocation through trial and appeal and achieving effective final resolutions for insurers.

Education :

• University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 1977, Order of the Coif
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, A.B., 1974, highest honors

Bar Admissions : New Jersey, Pennsylvania

Court Admissions :

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania