John is a partner and trial attorney in the firm’s commercial litigation, intellectual property, catastrophic loss, and product liability practice groups. Across these practice groups, John applies his formal mechanical engineering education to the complex convergence of science, engineering, and law. John’s engineering degree enables him to quickly learn, understand, and appreciate the technical issues at the basis of a dispute and then explain those issues to a nontechnical audience in a simple, easy-to-understand manner.

John’s intellectual property practice focuses on trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, and unfair competition. He counsels plaintiffs protecting their IP rights and is experienced with seeking immediate injunctive relief. Likewise, John has represented companies and individuals accused of infringement and misappropriation. These cases often include additional legal issues relating to noncompete and nondisclosure agreements. John’s industry experience ranges from customer and financial information to mechanical devices and computer software.

In his commercial litigation practice, John handles a range of contract, directors and officers, and fraud issues. He has defended class actions relating to product labeling, statutory rental disclosures, and medical cryopreservation.

John’s catastrophic loss and product liability practice generally focuses on defending service providers, product manufacturers, and product distributors. John maintains a nationwide litigation practice involving high-exposure fires and explosions and other catastrophic events. His service-industry clients include propane suppliers, engineering firms, electricians, and HVAC companies. John’s experience further includes lawsuits involving computer dusting sprays (inhalation abuse), consumer products, semiconductor devices, FDA-regulated products, sensors, automotive manufacturing equipment, circuit breakers, and pneumatic conveying systems.

As a mechanical engineering student, he was the leader of a zero-gravity research group that conducted an experiment aboard NASA’s KC-135 microgravity laboratory. Although he lacks empirical research on the topic, John is rather confident that he is one of a miniscule number of attorneys that have flown in a zero-gravity environment. Before going to law school, John worked as a sales engineer with a small, high-tech company focusing on nanomechanical surface-testing techniques. John’s industry experience also includes working in product design and manufacturing groups at a process-control instrumentation manufacturer and a few summers working in a municipal civil engineering department.

Outside the office, John enjoys following the Minnesota Twins, cooking, reading, amateur astronomy, going to the lake, and spending time with his family. John previously served on the City of Eagan’s Energy and Environment Advisory Commission.