Partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Jeff Jacobson defends consumer, privacy and securities class actions, and represents media, technology and other companies in general commercial litigation. With nearly two decades in private practice and several years of experience at the highest levels of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Jacobson assists his clients to resolve and minimize the reputational damage and business interruptions that can arise from litigation, particularly costly class actions. In addition, Mr. Jacobson has considerable and proven skills in managing the electronic discovery challenges presented by complex litigation and investigative matters.
During his tenure as director of the New Jersey Division of Law and chief counsel to the New Jersey Attorney General (2014-16), Mr. Jacobson oversaw law enforcement investigations involving consumer protection and data privacy, chaired the Attorney General’s Cyber Working Group, and oversaw more than 500 lawyers who represented all agencies of state government in defensive and affirmative litigation. Throughout his tenure, Jeff personally handled some of the state’s highest profile cases in state and federal court.
Because Mr. Jacobson has chaired both the prosecution and defense of major consumer fraud and privacy litigation, he is able to provide his clients with the benefit of a truly multifaceted and strategic perspective regarding even the highest-stakes claims. Mr. Jacobson has successfully defended consumer fraud and privacy-related class actions for media, electronics and consumer products companies, as well as securities class actions for U.S.-based and foreign private issuers in federal and state trial and appellate courts.
Class actions can be both costly and disruptive, so Mr. Jacobson strives to resolve such matters in his client’s favor as quickly and inexpensively as possible. This may mean moving the court to deny class certification at the earliest stage of a case, seeking quick summary judgment on key issues underlying the class motion, or devising a settlement that costs less than litigating the case. In matters requiring extensive discovery, Mr. Jacobson focuses on avoiding unnecessary tasks and minimizing vendor costs.
Mr. Jacobson has been selected to the Data Protection and Privacy and Securities Litigation lists by US Legal 500, a Legalease Publication. A description of the selection methodology can be found at www.legal500.com/assets/pages/about-us/how-it-works.html#rank. He has also been recognized as a Securities Litigation “Star” in the IFLR Benchmark Litigation Guide. A description of the selection methodology can be found at www.benchmarklitigation.com/general/research. (No aspect of these advertisements have been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.)
Mr. Jacobson has written extensively on class action defense and e-discovery strategies for the New York Law Journal, Class Action Litigation Report, Product Liability Law 360, and other publications. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists, and served on a New Jersey Supreme Court task force to assess attorney ethics issues arising from metadata in electronic documents.
Adjunct Professor, George Washington University Law School
President, New England Legal Foundation
Born in New York City; educated in the New York City public schools, Columbia University and Yale Law School. Joined Ropes & Gray, LLP in Boston in 1984; became litigation partner in 1993; retired in 2004. Joined New England Legal Foundation as General Counsel in 2004 and selected as President in 2006.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Mark A. Perry is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Co-Chair of the Firm’s nationwide Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation at both the trial and appellate levels.
Mr. Perry is an accomplished appellate lawyer who has briefed and argued many cases in the Supreme Court of the United States—including winning the landmark decisions in Lucia v. SEC, Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, and Janus Capital Group v. First Derivative Traders—and the federal courts of appeals. (See Overview of Section 101 Patent Cases Decided After Alice v. CLS (as of March 1, 2019)). He has served as chief appellate counsel to Fortune 100 companies in significant securities, intellectual property, and employment cases. He also appears frequently in federal district courts, serving both as lead counsel and as legal strategist in complex commercial cases. He has special expertise in class actions, and teaches the upper-level course in Class Action Law and Practice at Georgetown University Law Center.
Mr. Perry is ranked by Chambers USA in Nationwide Appellate Law, which noted that he “is described as a ‘master strategist and a brilliant writer.’” He has also been recognized by Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of Appellate Practice and Securities / Capital Markets Law, by Super Lawyers in the Appellate category, and by IAM Patent—which called him “undoubtedly one of the top appellate specialists in the country”—for his work in the Federal Circuit. Mr. Perry has been named a National Litigation Star for both Appellate and General Commercial by Benchmark Litigation (which has also awarded him Appellate Lawyer of the Year), identified as a “Securities MVP” and an “Appellate MVP” by Law360, and named a Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer. He is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Perry served as a law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States, and to Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also worked as what is now called a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. Mr. Perry earned his law degree with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Law Review. His undergraduate degree was conferred by the University of California at Berkeley.
Mr. Perry is the global co-editor, and co-author of the U.S. chapter, of the international publication Getting the Deal Through: Appeals, and he is the author of the class certification chapter in the PLI treatise Securities Litigation: A Practitioner’s Guide. Other recent publications and additional information are available below. Representative matters and references are available on request.
VP and Senior Counsel for Constitutional Litigation, Center for, PC
John Vail is an original member of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, where he is Vice President and Senior Litigation Counsel. He litigates issues dealing with the right to jury trial and the right of access to courts, appearing in state and federal courts throughout the United States, including the Supreme Court.
Mr. Vail has written broadly with regard to these topics, in popular and academic publications. In speaking engagements he both informs and amuses audiences. He has shared his insights with law students as Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School.
Prior to his current employment Mr. Vail worked with legal aid organizations in Tennessee, New Mexico, and North Carolina for seventeen years, with time out doing human rights work in Eastern Europe.
He has been recognized by the legal services community for “inspired vision and outstanding leadership” and has received the Public Justice Achievement Award from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for his “outstanding work and success” in preserving the right of access to justice.
Mr. Vail is a graduate of the College of the University of Chicago and of Vanderbilt Law School.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Don Willett serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Before joining the federal bench, Judge Willett served 13 years on the Supreme Court
of Texas. His career spans decades of public service, including roles as legal counsel to
a Texas Attorney General, a Texas Governor, a U.S. Attorney General, and the
President of the United States.
Raised by a heroic widowed mom in a doublewide trailer in a town of 32, Judge
Willett is his family’s first college graduate. He earned a triple-major B.B.A. from Baylor
University—where he serves on the Board of Regents—and three degrees from Duke
University—where he serves on the Board of Visitors: a J.D. with honors, an A.M. in
political science, and an LL.M. in judicial studies. After law school, he clerked on the
Fifth Circuit and practiced at Haynes and Boone before entering public service.
Judge Willett publishes widely in both leading law reviews and national media, including
The Yale Law Journal, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Wall Street
Journal. The longtime editor-in-chief of Judicature—the Scholarly Journal for Judges, he
holds academic appointments at various law schools and has received more than a
dozen Green Bag honors for “exemplary legal writing.” He was named Distinguished
Jurist of the Year by the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and he is a member of the
American Law Institute and a Life Fellow of the American, Texas, and Austin Bar
Foundations.
A onetime bull rider and professional drummer, Judge Willett was named “Tweeter
Laureate of Texas” in 2015. He is the namesake of Don R. Willett Elementary
School—home of mighty Willett Wranglers—located just a mile from where he grew up.
He and his radiant wife, Tiffany have three children—Jacob, Shane-David, and
Geneviève—plus the family pup, Amicus.
Partner, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Jeff Jacobson defends consumer, privacy and securities class actions, and represents media, technology and other companies in general commercial litigation. With nearly two decades in private practice and several years of experience at the highest levels of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Jacobson assists his clients to resolve and minimize the reputational damage and business interruptions that can arise from litigation, particularly costly class actions. In addition, Mr. Jacobson has considerable and proven skills in managing the electronic discovery challenges presented by complex litigation and investigative matters.
During his tenure as director of the New Jersey Division of Law and chief counsel to the New Jersey Attorney General (2014-16), Mr. Jacobson oversaw law enforcement investigations involving consumer protection and data privacy, chaired the Attorney General’s Cyber Working Group, and oversaw more than 500 lawyers who represented all agencies of state government in defensive and affirmative litigation. Throughout his tenure, Jeff personally handled some of the state’s highest profile cases in state and federal court.
Because Mr. Jacobson has chaired both the prosecution and defense of major consumer fraud and privacy litigation, he is able to provide his clients with the benefit of a truly multifaceted and strategic perspective regarding even the highest-stakes claims. Mr. Jacobson has successfully defended consumer fraud and privacy-related class actions for media, electronics and consumer products companies, as well as securities class actions for U.S.-based and foreign private issuers in federal and state trial and appellate courts.
Class actions can be both costly and disruptive, so Mr. Jacobson strives to resolve such matters in his client’s favor as quickly and inexpensively as possible. This may mean moving the court to deny class certification at the earliest stage of a case, seeking quick summary judgment on key issues underlying the class motion, or devising a settlement that costs less than litigating the case. In matters requiring extensive discovery, Mr. Jacobson focuses on avoiding unnecessary tasks and minimizing vendor costs.
Mr. Jacobson has been selected to the Data Protection and Privacy and Securities Litigation lists by US Legal 500, a Legalease Publication. A description of the selection methodology can be found at www.legal500.com/assets/pages/about-us/how-it-works.html#rank. He has also been recognized as a Securities Litigation “Star” in the IFLR Benchmark Litigation Guide. A description of the selection methodology can be found at www.benchmarklitigation.com/general/research. (No aspect of these advertisements have been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.)
Mr. Jacobson has written extensively on class action defense and e-discovery strategies for the New York Law Journal, Class Action Litigation Report, Product Liability Law 360, and other publications. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists, and served on a New Jersey Supreme Court task force to assess attorney ethics issues arising from metadata in electronic documents.
Adjunct Professor, George Washington University Law School
President, New England Legal Foundation
Born in New York City; educated in the New York City public schools, Columbia University and Yale Law School. Joined Ropes & Gray, LLP in Boston in 1984; became litigation partner in 1993; retired in 2004. Joined New England Legal Foundation as General Counsel in 2004 and selected as President in 2006.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Mark A. Perry is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Co-Chair of the Firm’s nationwide Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation at both the trial and appellate levels.
Mr. Perry is an accomplished appellate lawyer who has briefed and argued many cases in the Supreme Court of the United States—including winning the landmark decisions in Lucia v. SEC, Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, and Janus Capital Group v. First Derivative Traders—and the federal courts of appeals. (See Overview of Section 101 Patent Cases Decided After Alice v. CLS (as of March 1, 2019)). He has served as chief appellate counsel to Fortune 100 companies in significant securities, intellectual property, and employment cases. He also appears frequently in federal district courts, serving both as lead counsel and as legal strategist in complex commercial cases. He has special expertise in class actions, and teaches the upper-level course in Class Action Law and Practice at Georgetown University Law Center.
Mr. Perry is ranked by Chambers USA in Nationwide Appellate Law, which noted that he “is described as a ‘master strategist and a brilliant writer.’” He has also been recognized by Best Lawyers in America® in the fields of Appellate Practice and Securities / Capital Markets Law, by Super Lawyers in the Appellate category, and by IAM Patent—which called him “undoubtedly one of the top appellate specialists in the country”—for his work in the Federal Circuit. Mr. Perry has been named a National Litigation Star for both Appellate and General Commercial by Benchmark Litigation (which has also awarded him Appellate Lawyer of the Year), identified as a “Securities MVP” and an “Appellate MVP” by Law360, and named a Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer. He is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Perry served as a law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States, and to Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also worked as what is now called a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. Mr. Perry earned his law degree with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Law Review. His undergraduate degree was conferred by the University of California at Berkeley.
Mr. Perry is the global co-editor, and co-author of the U.S. chapter, of the international publication Getting the Deal Through: Appeals, and he is the author of the class certification chapter in the PLI treatise Securities Litigation: A Practitioner’s Guide. Other recent publications and additional information are available below. Representative matters and references are available on request.
VP and Senior Counsel for Constitutional Litigation, Center for, PC
John Vail is an original member of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, where he is Vice President and Senior Litigation Counsel. He litigates issues dealing with the right to jury trial and the right of access to courts, appearing in state and federal courts throughout the United States, including the Supreme Court.
Mr. Vail has written broadly with regard to these topics, in popular and academic publications. In speaking engagements he both informs and amuses audiences. He has shared his insights with law students as Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School.
Prior to his current employment Mr. Vail worked with legal aid organizations in Tennessee, New Mexico, and North Carolina for seventeen years, with time out doing human rights work in Eastern Europe.
He has been recognized by the legal services community for “inspired vision and outstanding leadership” and has received the Public Justice Achievement Award from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for his “outstanding work and success” in preserving the right of access to justice.
Mr. Vail is a graduate of the College of the University of Chicago and of Vanderbilt Law School.
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Don Willett serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Before joining the federal bench, Judge Willett served 13 years on the Supreme Court
of Texas. His career spans decades of public service, including roles as legal counsel to
a Texas Attorney General, a Texas Governor, a U.S. Attorney General, and the
President of the United States.
Raised by a heroic widowed mom in a doublewide trailer in a town of 32, Judge
Willett is his family’s first college graduate. He earned a triple-major B.B.A. from Baylor
University—where he serves on the Board of Regents—and three degrees from Duke
University—where he serves on the Board of Visitors: a J.D. with honors, an A.M. in
political science, and an LL.M. in judicial studies. After law school, he clerked on the
Fifth Circuit and practiced at Haynes and Boone before entering public service.
Judge Willett publishes widely in both leading law reviews and national media, including
The Yale Law Journal, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and The Wall Street
Journal. The longtime editor-in-chief of Judicature—the Scholarly Journal for Judges, he
holds academic appointments at various law schools and has received more than a
dozen Green Bag honors for “exemplary legal writing.” He was named Distinguished
Jurist of the Year by the Texas Review of Law & Politics, and he is a member of the
American Law Institute and a Life Fellow of the American, Texas, and Austin Bar
Foundations.
A onetime bull rider and professional drummer, Judge Willett was named “Tweeter
Laureate of Texas” in 2015. He is the namesake of Don R. Willett Elementary
School—home of mighty Willett Wranglers—located just a mile from where he grew up.
He and his radiant wife, Tiffany have three children—Jacob, Shane-David, and
Geneviève—plus the family pup, Amicus.
Litigation: Business Cases in the Roberts Court: Perception and Reality
Jeffrey S. Jacobson, Alan B. Morrison, Martin J. Newhouse, Mark A. Perry, John Vail, Don R. Willett
2012 National Lawyers Convention
The Litigation Practice Group hosted this panel on "Business Cases in the Roberts Court: Perception...
Litigation: Business Cases in the Roberts Court: Perception and Reality
Jeffrey S. Jacobson, Alan B. Morrison, Martin J. Newhouse, Mark A. Perry, John Vail, Don R. Willett
2012 National Lawyers Convention
The Litigation Practice Group hosted this panel on "Business Cases in the Roberts Court: Perception...