NEWS
Bill Pentelovitch Inducted As Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers
April 14, 2007
Maslon partner Bill Pentelovitch was inducted as a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers in Chicago on April 14, 2007.
Membership in the Academy is limited to 500 Fellows from the United States plus 100 Fellows from outside the United States; there are currently Academy members in over 30 countries throughout the world. Members are engaged in civil and criminal trial practice from both the plaintiff's and the defendant's side of the counsel table. According to the Academy's website, "the members of the IATL represent the most exceptional attorneys in the world."
Pentelovitch has practiced law at Maslon since graduating from the University of Chicago Law School in 1974. He practices exclusively in the area of business litigation, and over the course of the past 33 years has tried hundreds of cases spanning subject areas such as antitrust, securities, racketeering, fraud, contracts, employment discrimination, banking, and intellectual property. During the past 20 years a majority of his cases have been concentrated in two areas, intellectual property disputes and disputes involving owners of closely-held business enterprises. The intellectual property cases have related to disputes involving trade secrets, intellectual property licenses, confidentiality agreements, and noncompetition agreements. With respect to disputes involving the owners of closely-held businesses, Pentelovitch is recognized as one of the leading experts in the field in Minnesota. In a seminal case more than 20 years ago, he won the first major shareholder oppression case under the revised Minnesota Business Corporation Act, recovering over $33 million for his clients; more recently, in 2005 a court ordered that another Pentelovitch client be paid nearly $300 million as the result of shareholder oppression.
Since January 2005, Pentelovitch has led teams of Maslon lawyers which have tried seven complex cases to verdict or final decision, winning all of them. In four of the cases Maslon represented the plaintiffs; in two of those cases, he obtained aggregate damages totaling more than $7 million, and in the other two he obtained injunctions. In the other three cases Maslon represented defendants in intellectual property disputes in which plaintiffs collectively sought damages aggregating more than $400 million; Pentelovitch's clients were vindicated in all three cases and the plaintiffs recovered nothing.
In addition to being a Fellow of the Academy, Pentelovitch is certified as a Civil Trial Specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and by the Civil Trial Certification Council of the Minnesota State Bar Association. He has been consistently listed for more than a decade in Best Lawyers in America and as a Minnesota Super Lawyer, Minnesota Top 100 Lawyer, and Minnesota Top 40 Business Litigator. He has also been identified by Chambers & Partners as one of the top seven business trial lawyers in Minnesota each year since 2004.
Membership in the Academy is limited to 500 Fellows from the United States plus 100 Fellows from outside the United States; there are currently Academy members in over 30 countries throughout the world. Members are engaged in civil and criminal trial practice from both the plaintiff's and the defendant's side of the counsel table. According to the Academy's website, "the members of the IATL represent the most exceptional attorneys in the world."
Pentelovitch has practiced law at Maslon since graduating from the University of Chicago Law School in 1974. He practices exclusively in the area of business litigation, and over the course of the past 33 years has tried hundreds of cases spanning subject areas such as antitrust, securities, racketeering, fraud, contracts, employment discrimination, banking, and intellectual property. During the past 20 years a majority of his cases have been concentrated in two areas, intellectual property disputes and disputes involving owners of closely-held business enterprises. The intellectual property cases have related to disputes involving trade secrets, intellectual property licenses, confidentiality agreements, and noncompetition agreements. With respect to disputes involving the owners of closely-held businesses, Pentelovitch is recognized as one of the leading experts in the field in Minnesota. In a seminal case more than 20 years ago, he won the first major shareholder oppression case under the revised Minnesota Business Corporation Act, recovering over $33 million for his clients; more recently, in 2005 a court ordered that another Pentelovitch client be paid nearly $300 million as the result of shareholder oppression.
Since January 2005, Pentelovitch has led teams of Maslon lawyers which have tried seven complex cases to verdict or final decision, winning all of them. In four of the cases Maslon represented the plaintiffs; in two of those cases, he obtained aggregate damages totaling more than $7 million, and in the other two he obtained injunctions. In the other three cases Maslon represented defendants in intellectual property disputes in which plaintiffs collectively sought damages aggregating more than $400 million; Pentelovitch's clients were vindicated in all three cases and the plaintiffs recovered nothing.
In addition to being a Fellow of the Academy, Pentelovitch is certified as a Civil Trial Specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and by the Civil Trial Certification Council of the Minnesota State Bar Association. He has been consistently listed for more than a decade in Best Lawyers in America and as a Minnesota Super Lawyer, Minnesota Top 100 Lawyer, and Minnesota Top 40 Business Litigator. He has also been identified by Chambers & Partners as one of the top seven business trial lawyers in Minnesota each year since 2004.
