James F. Hurst, Partner

Jim Hurst is a veteran trial lawyer, a member of the firm’s Executive Committee, and the chairman of the firm’s 140-lawyer Intellectual Property Group, which IP Law & Business routinely ranks among the most active in the United States and The American Lawyer recognized in 2010 as one of the country’s top four intellectual property practices.

Mr. Hurst is one of Chambers USA’s Leading Lawyers, where Chambers describes him as “just exceptional: he’s experienced, has extensive knowledge and makes good judgment calls.” In each year since 2008, he has been named in “Lawdragon 500: Leading Lawyers in America,” an annual guide to the nation’s top lawyers. He has also been listed as a Illinois Super Lawyer every year since 2005. In 2002, Illinois’ leading bar journal identified Mr. Hurst as one of the state’s top 40 attorneys under the age of 40, describing him as “a terrifically bright, aggressive and relentless advocate for his clients.”

Mr. Hurst regularly serves as a lead trial attorney throughout the country in contested hearings of every kind, including jury trials, bench trials, and arbitration hearings. He also has argued many appeals, including appeals before the Seventh Circuit, the D.C. Court of Appeals, the Ninth Circuit, and the Federal Circuit.

Mr. Hurst handles a wide array of commercial cases, including patent, antitrust, class action, and employment cases. For instance, Mr. Hurst has handled dozens of patent cases concerning leading products with combined annual sales easily exceeding $20 billion. These include some of the largest pharmaceutical cases in history, such as cases involving the highest-selling cancer drug (Eloxatin), the then highest-selling AIDS drug (AZT), and the then highest-selling antidepressant (Prozac). The press called the Prozac case the “mother of all patent challenges,” which resulted in his client taking a significant portion of the $2 billion market for the drug. Fortune magazine said that the victory “stunned . . . the entire pharmaceutical industry.”

Mr. Hurst’s patent cases have involved a wide variety of products, including surgical devices, MRI systems, an Internet service platform, computer networks, DNA probe products, glucose monitoring devices, recombinant proteins, and blood diagnostic tests. As a result, he has examined and cross-examined dozens of experts in virtually every technical field, ranging from leading physicists to two Nobel prize-winning chemists.

In addition to his patent cases, he routinely represents leading companies in their highest-stakes cases. For instance, he recently acted as lead counsel for a Fortune 100 company in an ERISA class action arising from a $6 billion spinoff, which resulted in a complete victory after a 10-day trial in 2009 where Mr. Hurst handled the examinations of the company’s CEO and CFO. Among other examples, he’s also currently lead counsel for a Fortune 100 company in a massive antitrust case that spawned four government investigations, multiple class actions, and two successful appeals in the Seventh and Ninth circuits.

On the appellate front, Mr. Hurst regularly appears before federal appellate courts, including 10 times before the Federal Circuit. His noteworthy appeals include widely cited and precedent-setting cases, such as:

• In Re Abbott Laboratories Norvir Antitrust Litigation, 571 F. 3d 930 (9th Cir. 2009) (argued; prevailed)
• Abbott Laboratories and Regents of University of California v. Dako, 517 F.2d 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (argued; prevailed on key patent)
• Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories v. Forest Laboratories, 527 F.3d 1278 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (argued; prevailed)
• Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc. v. Sun Pharmaceutical Ind., 476 F.3d 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (argued; prevailed)
• Schor v. Abbott Laboratories, 457 F.3d 608 (7th Cir. 2006) (argued; prevailed)
• Medrad, Inc. v. MRI Devices Corp., 401 F. 3d 1313 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (argued; prevailed)
• 3M v. Barr Laboratories, 289 F. 3d 775 (Fed. Cir. 2002) (argued; prevailed)

In articles highlighting three of Mr. Hurst’s “high-stakes appellate cases,” the National Law Journal named Winston & Strawn on its “Appellate Hot List” in both 2009 and 2010.

Because of his vast experience, Mr. Hurst is often interviewed and quoted in articles in the national media, including numerous articles in the Wall Street Journal and Business Week.

Activities

In addition to chairing the firm’s Intellectual Property Group and serving as a member of the Executive Committee, Mr. Hurst also serves on the firm’s Finance Committee and previously chaired the firm’s Associate Evaluation Committee.

Mr. Hurst is the William M. Trumbell Adjunct Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law, an appointment awarded for excellence in teaching. He teaches an appellate advocacy course and frequently lectures on a variety of other topics, including trial skills.

In 1990, Mr. Hurst served as a law clerk in the Northern District of Illinois for the Hon. Marvin E. Aspen.

Pro Bono

Mr. Hurst’s pro bono cases have included representing a client in a successful age discrimination lawsuit, a church in a civil rights action, and many indigent defendants facing criminal charges ranging from distributing drugs to bank robbery to murder. In his most recent criminal case, he represented an indigent defendant in a first-degree murder trial that resulted in an acquittal despite the testimony of six prosecution witnesses against his client, including an eye witness and three other witnesses who claimed that his client had confessed.

Education