Patrick Arenz is a partner at Robins Kaplan LLP and a fellow in both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. Arenz’s practice spans patent and copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, rights of publicity, defamation and high-stakes personal injury litigation.

As lead trial counsel, he won a $42.4 million jury verdict in Willis Electric v. Polygroup, reported to be the largest patent jury verdict in the District of Minnesota’s history, resulting in a $71.4 million final judgment. He also won a $27.8 million jury verdict on behalf of a Twin Cities plastic surgeon who lost a leg after an air evacuation company refused to transport him from Mexico for proper medical care. In 2022, he served as lead trial counsel for two Hollywood screenwriters in a high-profile copyright case against Disney over the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

He earned his law degree magna cum laude from William Mitchell College of Law in 2006.

Jason Asmus is a partner and firmwide co-chair of the Commercial Litigation practice at Taft, based. He earned his undergraduate degree from Concordia College in 1999 and his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law in 2002. He is admitted to practice in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, as well as several federal courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Asmus focuses his practice on banking litigation, commercial real estate and construction defect litigation, land use planning and zoning, professional liability, and environmental litigation. He represents a broad range of corporate and individual clients in complex business disputes, including trade secret, securities, non-compete and shareholder matters.

His courtroom results include a complete defense verdict following a nine-day lender liability jury trial in Clay County, Minnesota, and multiple Rule 12 dismissals in professional liability and legal malpractice cases on behalf of law firm clients.

Barbara Podlucky Berens is the majority shareholder and president of Berens & Miller P.A. in Minneapolis, where she practices in antitrust, complex business and commercial litigation, patent and copyright litigation, securities, and shareholder disputes.

Before entering law, Berens worked as an investment broker, reinsurance broker, and insurance agent, including as one of the first female stockbrokers at Merrill Lynch in New York in the 1970s. After law school, she clerked for Judge David Doty of the U.S. District Court, then worked as a law firm associate before co-founding the practice with her husband, Michael Berens.

Berens has represented high-profile clients across multiple industries, including the NFLPA, KFC, Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, and VantageScore. She worked on the 2011 NFL antitrust litigation challenging the player lockout. She also advises clients on employment matters and has served as outside general counsel for several companies.

Berens & Miller holds certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise and is a member of the National Association of Women and Minority Owned Law Firms.

Theresa Bevilacqua is a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP where she serves on the firm’s Management Committee and previously served as co-chair of the Commercial Litigation Practice Group and chair of the Minneapolis Trial Group.

Bevilacqua has a proven record of leading trial teams across litigated forums and securing total defense verdicts in both jury and bench trials. Her experience spans manufacturing, energy, agribusiness, aviation, and technology.

Among her notable matters, Bevilacqua served as trial counsel for 3M Company in Meda v. 3M Company, defending a breach of contract and fraud claim arising from the divestiture of 3M’s European pharmaceutical business, resulting in a complete defense judgment.

She is a fellow of both the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers,.

“Theresa consistently demonstrates mastery of facts, law, and strategy that inspires confidence in clients, colleagues, and courts. She excels at simplifying the most intricate disputes and presenting them with clarity and credibility. Opposing counsel respect her, clients trust her, and younger lawyers look to her as a role model,” said Dorsey Managing Partner Peter Nelson.

Robins Kaplan LLP Partner Elizabeth Burnett serves as deputy chair of the national business litigation group and member of the executive board. Burnett represents plaintiffs and defendants nationwide in products liability, commercial and disaster litigation, including toxic tort and class action cases. Much of her practice involves fires and explosions caused by combustible dust or natural gas, with clients ranging from product manufacturers and plant owners to subrogated property insurers.

Her results include a $15.4 million settlement for a burn victim from an industrial accident, a $3.4 million settlement for a victim of a dust explosion at a manufacturing facility, and dismissal with prejudice for a product manufacturer following an explosion and fire at a natural gas refinery that killed more than 30 people.

A former claims adjuster, Burnett also brings practical experience to property and commercial insurance coverage disputes for industry leaders. She earned her law degree cum laude from the University of St. Thomas School of Law and her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Creighton University.

Michael R. Carey is a member at Dykema where he serves as office managing member and co-leader of the firm’s electric and autonomous vehicles and advanced mobility team.

Carey focuses his practice on automotive liability and products liability defense, representing clients in state and federal courts across the country. He counsels mobility industry clients on risk mitigation strategies for emerging automated driving technologies and serves as editor of The Open Road, Dykema’s automotive blog.

Among his most notable matters, Carey led Tesla’s defense in Molander v. Tesla, the first wrongful death case involving Autopilot technology to reach a jury. Plaintiffs sought more than $400 million in damages; after a five-week trial, the jury returned a 9-3 defense verdict. In Rios v. Nissan, he led a three-week jury trial in which plaintiffs sought more than $750 million over claims that a recalled wire harness caused a fatal vehicle fire, resulting in an 11-1 defense verdict after fewer than six hours of deliberation.

Michael Ciresi, a founding partner at Ciresi Conlin LLP, has represented individuals, corporations, and governmental entities, obtaining nearly $12 billion in verdicts, awards, and settlements. His practice focuses on product liability, intellectual property, and business and commercial litigation.
Before co-founding Ciresi Conlin in 2015, Ciresi spent 43 years at Robins Kaplan LLP, where he served as a name partner and chairman of the executive board. He served as lead counsel in the Minnesota tobacco litigation and as chief counsel to the Government of India in litigation arising from the Bhopal gas leak disaster. Other significant representations include Pitney Bowes Inc. v. Hewlett Packard, Honeywell v. Minolta, and the Kraft Foods v. Starbucks arbitration, which produced a $2.7 billion award.
Ciresi is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. In 1999, he founded the Ciresi Walburn Foundation for Children, which has distributed more than $23 million to support Minnesota children and education initiatives.

Michael F. Cockson is a partner at Faegre Drinker where he focuses on complex corporate and chancery litigation, class actions, and commercial disputes.

With more than 20 years of experience as a trial attorney, Cockson has practiced in state and federal courts across 15 states, representing financial institutions, Fortune 500 companies, private companies, banks, hedge funds, shareholders, insurance companies, manufacturers, and technology companies. He handles complex M&A disputes, shareholder litigation, and corporate disputes for private equity clients, and also litigates landlord/tenant class actions on both the plaintiff and defendant sides.

In a notable pro bono matter, Cockson led a trial team on behalf of a nonprofit tenant advocacy organization against one of Minneapolis’ largest private landlords, winning a record-breaking Rent Abatement Order and a record-breaking sanction for bad-faith litigation conduct.

Earlier in his career, Cockson clerked for Hon. Gerald W. Heaney of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit from 1997 to 1999.

Michael Collyard recently joined Greenberg Traurig as a shareholder. He was formerly a partner at Robins Kaplan LLP, where he chaired the banking and financial fraud litigation group and the eDiscovery group. Collyard represents receivers, bankruptcy trustees, litigation trusts, banks, hedge funds and companies of all sizes in commercial litigation, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and antitrust matters.

Collyard is known for having secured the largest jury verdict in Minnesota history — a $564 million verdict against BMO Harris Bank for its role in the Petters Ponzi scheme, one of the largest in U.S. history, which grew to a total award of more than $1.1 billion after a federal judge added pre- and post-judgment interest.

On the defense side, he served as lead counsel for U.S. Bank in a multibillion-dollar case brought by the People of the State of California, which settled with U.S. Bank paying $0. He also first-chaired a $2 billion evidentiary hearing in New York federal court on behalf of U.S. Bank as securitization trustee, successfully defeating a request for terminating sanctions.

Jan M. Conlin is a founding partner at Ciresi Conlin LLP where she focuses on high-stakes intellectual property and complex commercial litigation. Over her career, she has obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts, awards, and settlements, including multiple nine-figure outcomes.

Among her landmark results, Conlin served as trial counsel in a patent infringement case that produced a $520.6 million jury verdict against Microsoft in 2004, secured a $400 million settlement for Pitney Bowes against Hewlett-Packard in a patent dispute, and obtained a $96.3 million verdict for Honeywell against Minolta. She also served as lead trial counsel in a $375 million settlement in a REIT governance dispute.

Conlin is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. She has served on the board of trustees of The Minneapolis Foundation, the board of governors of the University of St. Thomas Law School, and as board chair of Ascension Catholic Academy.