Adam Gershenson
Massachusetts
Cooley LLP
500 Boylston Street
14th Floor
Boston, MA 02116-3736
Tel: +1 617 937 2379
Email:
agershenson@cooley.com
Web:
www.cooley.com
Adam is co-chair of Cooley’s issues & appeals group. At trial and on appeal, he is an established courtroom lawyer who helps clients win bet-the-company cases. Adam has secured victories in national and international disputes involving unfair competition, breaches of contract, false advertising, patents, trademarks and trade secrets.
In his appellate practice, he has represented clients at the US Supreme Court, multiple state Supreme Courts, the International Trade Commission and circuit courts, including the Federal Circuit. Adam has been recognized multiple times in The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week column. As a trusted adviser, Adam has designed programs to protect the most valuable confidential information of some of the world’s most sophisticated companies. He is co-chair of the American Bar Association Intellectual Property Law Section’s Joint Task Force on Model Trade Secret Practice and recognized as a key lawyer in Cooley’s trade secret practice by The Legal 500.
Adam used to write stories for The New York Times. Now he tells stories to judges and juries. He has used his writing background to draft dozens of winning briefs for trial and appellate courts, including the Supreme Court. Before entering private practice, Adam clerked for Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Education
- Harvard Law School
- JD, 2007, cum laude
- Boston University
- MA, 2002, Fiction Writing, Honors Thesis
- Columbia University
- BA, 1994, Literature Writing, magna cum laude
- Representing the National Association of Realtors in a Supreme Court case regarding multiple listing services (MLSs) for home buyers and sellers
- Representing Pie Insurance in a district court victory and US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit appeal concerning a $60 million trade secret dispute
- Representing the US House of Representatives in cases across the country seeking to enjoin rollbacks of service at the US Postal Service prior to the 2020 presidential election
- Representing Senate Democrats in a Supreme Court defense of the Affordable Care Act to protect healthcare coverage for hundreds of millions of Americans
- Winning a major habeas victory based on the confrontation clause of the US Constitution, successfully achieving a US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit habeas challenge establishing not only “the right to cross-examine” a witness, but also “the right to share with the jury the information the cross-examination reveals”
- Securing freedom to operate at Boston Logan International Airport for Turo, a peer-to-peer car sharing company, in a case that reached the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- Representing Uber at trial and on appeal in a $750 million dispute and obtaining sweeping victories on all claims at the district court and in the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, earning recognition for the appellate win in The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week column
- Representing CharityWatch in a Supreme Court case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Rodriquez, to preserve regulations that compel the disclosure of information from major donors to public charities and to help donors make informed decisions
- Successfully defending a data storage unicorn in a dispute concerning allegations of trade secret theft, unfair competition and deceptive practices – EMC v. Pure Storage
Inside Counsel
- Co-author, “Watch out: The federal Trade Secrets Act provides for ex parte seizure,” June 3, 2016
- Co-author, “Trade secret bill could redefine protection for company secrets,” April 28, 2016
- Co-author, “Are they going to federalize trade secrets law?,” March 30, 2016
Harvard Law Review
- Author, “Public Employee Speech” (in “Leading Cases – Garcetti v. Ceballos”), vol. 120, no. 1, p. 273, November 2006
- Author, “Constitutional Law – Establishment Clause – Middle District of Pennsylvania Holds That the Teaching of Intelligent Design Violates the Establishment Clause – Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa. 2005),” vol. 119, no. 7, p. 2268, May 2006
The New York Times
- Author, “Amputee Hopes for New Limbs, And a Return to His Family in Ecuador,” February 22, 1999
- Author, “A Hard Life to the Hardwoods: An Ex-Inmate Tries to Justify His Reprieve,” February 2, 1997
“Cochair of Cooley LLP’s issues and appeals practice Adam Gershenson is an experienced trial and appellate litigator who has handled a wide array of commercial disputes and IP litigation.”