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Wilson M. Brown, III is one of the firm's most experienced defense attorneys. Since joining Drinker Biddle in 1977, he has prepared, managed and tried some of the firm's largest and most complex cases in courts throughout the United States. His practice is concentrated in the areas of commercial litigation, intellectual property and technology litigation, and insurance coverage disputes, where he is recognized as one of the premier trial attorneys in the country. He also manages antitrust and securities matters. Wilson has served as a managing partner of the firm and as chair of the Commercial Litigation Practice Group.
Commercial Disputes. Wilson handles a wide range of large commercial cases for different types of clients. Recent engagements include the prosecution and defense of litigation over the proper reach of state, county and local regulation of Pennsylvania’s waste industry; the defense of communications service providers against multimillion dollar contract claims by resellers and business customers; the defense of consulting firms against contractual and professional liability claims; and the prosecution and defense of claims for executive compensation.
Intellectual Property and Technology Litigation. Wilson has served as lead litigation counsel in a series of intellectual property cases in coordination with the firm’s patent and trademark attorneys. These have included the successful defense, before a jury at trial and on a subsequent appeal, of one of an electronics industry client's core technologies against claims of prior invention and ownership; the successful enforcement of another electronic industry client’s patents against threatened infringement by a substantial competitor; and the defense of pharmaceutical, manufacturing and retail sector clients in several sizable trademark infringement cases. Wilson has also brought and defended claims arising out of the provision of custom computer technologies and software.
Insurance Litigation. Wilson has represented insurance company clients in cases of national significance involving coverage for environmental and toxic tort exposures. He has served as lead counsel in the U.S. Gypsum coverage litigation in Chicago, and the National Gypsum coverage litigation in New York, both involving cutting-edge issues of coverage for asbestos-related claims on which his clients prevailed at trial. He has likewise served as lead counsel, at both the trial and appellate levels, in cases involving questions of coverage for environmental contamination, in courts ranging from Massachusetts to Texas. Wilson also defends insurers against bad faith and other extracontractual liability claims, and has dealt with an array of coverage issues under D&O, E&O and other special liability lines. He has also regularly counseled both insurance company and manufacturing clients on insurance coverage, products liability and toxic tort matters.
Antitrust and Securities Litigation. Wilson has represented clients charged with antitrust and securities violations in a number of different contexts. He has defended manufacturing concerns charged with criminal price-fixing and bid-rigging against those charges and in companion civil class action suits. He has also represented old and new technology clients against claims of monopolization and attempted monopolization and Robinson-Patman Act violations. In the securities arena, Wilson has represented issuers, directors, accounting firms and other professionals in large class actions and has defended brokerage firms in complex customer disputes.
In General. Wilson, a Morehead Scholar, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with highest honors in 1974. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1977, where he served on the law review and was Order of the Coif. He is a member of the American, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar Associations. | 