Hugh is a well-known business litigator and adviser with decades of experience representing companies and entrepreneurs in sectors ranging from finance and tech to sports and pharmaceuticals. His broad experience allows him to undertake a range of sophisticated engagements in multiple areas of the law.
Hugh’s practice focuses on the prosecution and defense of complex claims before the Delaware Court of Chancery. Hugh represents companies, officers, trustees, financial institutions, and investors in a wide range of business disputes, including litigation related to M&A transactions, escrow and earnout disputes, shareholder demands, corporate control disputes, and class and derivative lawsuits. He is knowledgeable about the court’s unique rules, procedures, timelines, and judicial norms.
Hugh is also a preeminent intellectual property litigator and co-chair of the firm’s national Copyright Practice. He handles patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, breach of contract, business torts, and other proprietary issues that come before federal courts, including Delaware District Court. Hugh has successfully led bet-the-company IP matters concerning cutting-edge technologies, from digital encryption to electron magnifiers to monoclonal antibodies.
He has substantial experience representing clients in arbitration proceedings and has won more than $3 billion in arbitration claims in aggregate. Hugh has particularly deep experience handling arbitration proceedings under Delaware law, which remains the industry standard, and has first chaired arbitrations in multiple forums, including AAA, JAMS, IDCR, ICC, and HKIAC.
Given his rare combined strength in both corporate and IP litigation, clients often turn to Hugh for high-level strategic advice on issues and challenges at the intersection of technology, business, and law.
Hugh is an elected member of the prestigious American Law Institute (ALI) and a contributing author to ALI’s widely cited Restatement of the Law, Copyright and Restatement of the Law, Torts: Defamation and Privacy.
Hugh earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics & economics from Pomona College, where he played varsity baseball. He earned his law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School and completed Harvard Business School’s Law Leadership Program.