Derek J. Meyer (“Rick”) is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm’s Chicago and Los Angeles offices.  He is a member of the Trial Department and serves as its Marketing Partner. 

Rick has tried or arbitrated nearly 30 large matters in Illinois, New York, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Georgia, Delaware, Utah and Iowa.  Widely varied, these cases generally fell within the description of complex commercial litigation. 

Rick has been cited by the Illinois Law Bulletin for his “extraordinary creativity” and “unusual ability to handle all of the litigation and negotiation aspects of a series of highly complex problems under trying procedural circumstances.”  Benefiting from perspectives earned from his active trial practice, Rick also has extensive experience evaluating cases in a variety of contexts, including the valuation of lawsuits against targets in M&A transactions, assisting existing trial counsel with settlement valuations and trial strategies, and assuming responsibility for trying cases previously defended by other law firms.  

Other Representative Experience

• Intellectual Property:  Rick and his partner, Jeff Stone, won a “bet the company” patent dispute in December 2007 on behalf of a biotech company in an arbitration brought by the licensor of certain patents relevant to the treatment of disease by targeting and destroying proteins.  Rick also first chaired and won a patent licensing dispute in 2004 between two different biotech companies relating to similar patents.
• Professional Liability:  Rick first-chaired the defense of one of the United States’ largest law firms in 13 related arbitrations alleging securities fraud.  After four years defending the claims of more than 300 separate plaintiffs seeking over $200 million, the matters settled for an amount roughly equal to future defense costs.  He also serves as lead national defense counsel for a large architect/engineering firm in asbestos litigation.
• Class Actions:  Rick conceived and first-chaired a $410 million interpleader action filed by the United States’ leading tobacco companies against the hundreds of plaintiffs’ attorneys who represented the States in the industry-wide tobacco litigation.  The successful resolution of this action involved the entry of two separate injunctions enjoining competing lawsuits, the certification of three defendant classes, and the dismissal with prejudice of $2.8 billion in counterclaims without payment by the plaintiff tobacco companies.  In 2007, Rick also served as lead national defense counsel for James Frey in over 15 consolidated class actions relating to the sale of Mr. Frey’s book, A Million Little Pieces.  At a prior firm, Rick was a plaintiffs’ antitrust class action lawyer.
• Injunctive Relief:  On numerous occasions, Rick has successfully obtained a TRO, preliminary injunction and/or a permanent injunction barring wineries from terminating long-term agreements with the firm’s client, a wine marketing company.  In 2006, Rick also defeated an effort by an incumbent pharmaceutical company to enjoin a leading pharmaceutical provider from selling pharmaceutical products to Cook County, Illinois pursuant to a new $276 million contract. 
• Appellate:  Rick successfully argued a $625 million appeal before the Supreme Court of New York, First Department, on behalf of three leading tobacco companies.  In addition, Rick was invited to serve as one of two lawyers who conducted a mock appellate argument before a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit at the ABA’s annual convention in 2005.

Rick has also authored a number of articles, including “Express Federal Preemption:  Where Is It After Cipollone?” 59 Defense Counsel Journal 491 (October 1992); “Preemption Succeeds With OTC Drug Labeling,” 6 Leader’s Product Liability Law and Strategy 1 (December 1991); and “Redefining the New Value Exception to the Absolute Priority Rule in Light of the Creditors’ Bargain Model,” 24 Indiana Law Review 417 (1991).  He is also the principal author of the “Discovery” chapter for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s treatise, Federal Civil Practice (2000 & Supp. 2006). 

Rick was listed in Law Bulletin Publishing Company’s 2005 “40 Under 40” feature publication.   

Practices & Industries

• Class Action
• Intellectual Property
• Professional Responsibility
• Trial

Related Information

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