Alan D. Albert

Overview

Alan Albert is a nationally-honored trial lawyer who has represented clients from Muhammad Ali to multinational corporations across the country in a broad array of commercial and corporate governance disputes, white-collar criminal investigations and prosecutions, intellectual property litigation, labor and employment litigation and environmental litigation.

The breadth of Alan’s experience is reflected by his recognition in The Best Lawyers in America for 30 years, culminating in his present recognition in nine distinct categories – including business litigation, white-collar criminal defense, intellectual property litigation, patent and trademark litigation, trademark law, environmental litigation and governmental relations. He has been recognized as “Litigator of the Year” by Best Lawyers in both patent litigation and intellectual property litigation, and as the criminal lawyer of the year by Virginia Business in its compilation of that state’s “Legal Elite.”

Alan’s experience in two of the nation’s most prominent federal venues – the district courts of Delaware and Eastern Virginia’s “Rocket Docket”– make him a highly sought-after advocate in those courts, especially in high-stakes intellectual property and business disputes. As a member of the Delaware bar and Managing Partner of the firm’s Delaware office, Alan also litigates regularly in Delaware state courts, including the Court of Chancery, often referred to as “America’s Business Court,” in which he defends fiduciary claims against officers and directors, litigates corporate governance battles, and handles specialized Delaware corporate actions including merger and acquisition challenges, contested director elections, and books and records demands.

In the public and civic sphere, Alan has served as a top policy and legal adviser to governors, the executive director of a state political party, general counsel to numerous campaigns, and as chairman and a longtime member of Virginia’s Board of Conservation and Recreation, which oversees Virginia’s award-winning state park system and conservation programs throughout the Commonwealth. He also has served as a board leader for arts and cultural institutions, including the Virginia Opera, the Virginia Symphony and Virginians for the Arts.

Experience

Intellectual Property Litigation

• Recovered, through aggressive declaratory judgment action, legal rights of former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali to his life story, clearing obstacles to production of 2001 Academy Award-nominated feature film Ali.
• Frequently represent drug manufacturers in ANDA patent infringement actions, including leading case striking down six issued patents on one of world’s top ten revenue-producing drugs.
• Won permanent federal injunction barring infringement of trademarked business names, logos, and associated trade dress.
• Secured, and successfully defended on appeal, defense summary judgment in Lanham Act false advertising claims asserted against NASA high technology contractor by competitor.
• Obtained defense summary judgment on alleged patent infringement of transceiver utilized in provision of digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband service.

Business & Corporate Governance Litigation

• Won $6.6 million jury verdict in action arising out of fraudulent conveyances from one of Kazakhstan’s largest commercial banks and accomplished by intricate web of transfers of proceeds through sham entities and financial accounts in well-known money laundering jurisdictions around the globe.
• Secured multimillion-dollar settlement for independent television station in multistate construction litigation arising out of collapse of nearly 1000-foot-tall broadcast antenna tower during construction.
• Secured judicial reversal of adverse zoning decisions denying approval for wireless telecommunications towers in chronically underserved areas.
• Regularly represent principals in closely-held entity control disputes, including shareholder squeeze-outs, partnership dissolutions and dissenters’ rights disputes.
• Advise and defend corporations, directors, officers and special litigation committees in shareholder derivative actions, books and records disputes, and other corporate governance disputes.

Labor & Employment Litigation

• Won precedent-setting Delaware decision upholding employer’s placement of departing professional on “garden leave” based solely on employer’s contractual right to control and direct activities of employee.
• Regularly defend employers in discrimination, retaliation, wage and hour, and noncompetition matters.
• Litigated dozens of trade secrets cases to successful resolution, including in fields as diverse as health care, hospitality, aeronautical engineering and military armaments manufacturing.

White-Collar Criminal Defense

• Secured dismissal at conclusion of government’s evidence of 31-count bank fraud case against bank president and sitting state senator, and million-dollar award of attorneys’ fees against the United States for vexatious prosecution that was the largest such award in the nation for more than a decade.
• Negotiated with SEC favorable civil resolution of securities fraud claims arising out of nationwide trading practices relating to demutualization of savings institutions.
• Won reversal of felony public record forgery conviction of sitting state court judge.
• Regularly represent businesses, professionals and other individuals (including health care professionals, financial institution officers, broker-dealers, government contractors, real estate professionals, legal professionals, elected officials) in federal and state criminal cases, grand jury proceedings and investigations.

Environmental Regulation & Litigation

• Regularly represent potentially responsible parties in CERCLA (“Superfund”) enforcement and contribution claims, with experience with diverse contaminants of interest including PCBs, chlorinated solvents, heavy metals, lead, and volatile organic compounds such as BTEX.
• Guide site owners through “brownfields” remediation effort and voluntary remediation programs that serve to restore environmentally-impacted properties to productive use.
• Extensive experience in wetlands regulation and litigation, including jury trials in civil penalty actions for alleged Clean Water Act violations arising out of wetlands activity.

Honors

• AV Preeminent Rating (Peer rating 5.0 out of 5.0), Martindale-Hubbell
• Fellow, Virginia Law Foundation
• Fellow, American Bar Foundation
• Best Lawyer, presently listed in nine categories, including Business Litigation, White-collar Criminal Defense, Intellectual Property Litigation, Patent and Trademark Litigation, Trademark Law, Environmental Litigation, and Governmental Relations, The Best Lawyers in America, Listed continuously for 25+ Years
• Best Lawyers, Norfolk Litigation - Intellectual Property Lawyer of the Year, The Best Lawyers in America, 2014
• Best Lawyers, Norfolk Litigation - Patent Lawyer of the Year, The Best Lawyers in America, 2013
• Virginia's "Legal Elite” in multiple categories over past two decades, including Business Litigation, Criminal Defense, and Administrative Law, Virginia Business magazine
• Featured lawyer in Criminal Law, Virginia Legal Elite, Virginia Business magazine, 2012

News

Professional

• Fellow, Virginia Law Foundation
• Fellow, American Bar Foundation