- Chairman: Martin R Lueck
- Managing Partner: Steven A Schumeister
- Number of partners: : 99
- Number of lawyers: 257
Firm Overview:
Founded in 1938, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP represents large corporations, insurance companies, other businesses and individuals as both plaintiffs and defendants. The firm is frequently engaged in high stakes, complex litigation.
Main Areas of Practice:
Antitrust & Trade Regulation:
This group has extensive experience bringing and defending private antitrust cases including price-fixing and other conspiracy claims, monopolization, unfair competition, Walker-Process claims, and Noerr-Pennington defenses. Members of the group-which include former senior officials from the DOJ and Minnesota Attorney General’s Office-also represent parties in government investigations. Fully fluent in all areas of antitrust, the group represents clients from a wide range of industries and is adept at handling antitrust allegations arising from complex business disputes, as well as matters involving the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property laws. Significant retentions include the defense of Fortune 500 companies against private Sherman Act allegations and the prosecution of a class action against Visa, MasterCard and financial institutions for price-fixing of merchant charges.
Business Litigation:
Recognized for its high-stakes trial experience, the group handles complex business issues - antitrust and trade regulation, class actions, corporate criminal and regulatory defense, distributorships and dealerships/franchising, entertainment, financial, healthcare, intellectual property, trademark and advertising disputes and special business situations. Litigate and try major complex cases for Fortune 500 to small, medium and very large businesses to government to individuals.
Entertainment & Media Litigation:
Represents the talent side of film, television, and music industry clients. Litigates matters in Federal and State Court, and arbitrations and proceedings before the entertainment guilds, the California Labor Commissioner, and the American Film and Marketing Association. Represents actors, directors, producers, writers, musicians, entertainment executives, performing rights organizations, independent motion picture and television distribution companies, talent agencies, personal managers, commercial and music video production companies, advertising agencies, and other owners of copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights and other intellectual property.
Financial Litigation:
Represents institutional investors, mutual funds, insurance companies, venture capital funds, and hedge funds as plaintiffs and as defendants. Cases involved issues relating to residential mortgage-backed securities and other structured finance products, alleged manipulation in the futures and derivatives markets, alleged misrepresentations in securities offerings, alleged financial statement misrepresentations, alleged misrepresentations regarding the success of mergers, SEC investigations, disputes among shareholders in closely-held corporations, disputes between the general and limited partners in investment partnerships, and ERISA fiduciary duty litigation.
Insurance:
National and international reputation for excellence in handling and trying property and liability insurance coverage matters, bad-faith claims, subrogation recovery claims, negligent inspection claims, reinsurance claims, challenges to insurance market practices, and other tort, contract, and class-action claims against insurers. Has handled some of the most complex cases the insurance industry has known, including cases arising out of the World Trade Center attack, Hurricane Katrina, Northridge earthquake, Big Dig, and the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
Intellectual Property Litigation:
Nationally recognized IP litigation practice. Has tried to verdict several high profile patent infringement cases including: Personal Audio LLC v. Apple Inc.; Grantley Patent Holdings, Inc. v Clear Channel Communications, Inc.; Ricoh Corp. v Pitney Bowes Inc.; TriStrata Technology, Inc. v Mary Kay Inc.; St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants, Inc. v Canon, Inc. et al.; and St. Clair v Sony. Settlements include: Advanced Micro Devices v. Samsung; Pitney Bowes Inc. v Hewlett-Packard Co.; TVI v Microsoft, and Intergraph patent cases.
Mass Tort:
Represents consumers injured by defective drugs and medical devices, individuals injured or killed in accidents and environmental disasters, and consumers harmed by unfair business practices. Representation includes property owners injured by the recalled Imprelis herbicide, the State of Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield in their historic suit against big tobacco, and individuals in their claims regarding the recalled St. Jude “Silzone” heart valves, the Parkinson disease drug Mirapex, the smoking cessation drug Chantix and recalled DePuy hip systems.
Trademark & Advertising Disputes:
Represents both plaintiffs and defendants in trademark and trade dress disputes including those involving product color, shape, and packaging; trademark dilution, tarnishment and disparagement; internet “Key Word” advertising; internet domain name disputes involving domain “tasting,” “parking” and “typo-squatting”; rights of publicity; and enforcement of co-existence and trademark licensing agreements. Also represents clients in advertising disputes arising under the federal Lanham Act and applicable state laws.
Real Estate Litigation & Franchise Litigation:
Represents clients in real estate litigation matters including, but not limited to, lending disputes, investor disputes, partnership disputes, contractor disputes, disputes involving brokerage commissions, and disputes involving technical development and construction obligations. Represents franchisors, licensors and suppliers in franchise litigation.