Practice Expertise

  • Appellate
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Class Action Litigation
  • Biotechnology

Areas of Practice

  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Appellate
  • Biotechnology
  • Class Action Litigation
  • Complex Commercial Actions
  • Intellectual Property Litigation
  • Life Sciences / Health Care
  • Litigation
  • Media, Entertainment and Sports
  • Patent Litigation
  • Securities and Derivatives Litigation
  • Securities Enforcement & Litigation
  • Securities Litigation
  • View More

Profile

Gregory Diskant is a senior litigator at Patterson Belknap, where he served as chair from 1997-2007. As part of his active trial practice, Mr. Diskant regularly tries cases in federal and state courts and before arbitration panels, focusing on complex commercial and intellectual property litigation. He has secured billions of dollars in judgments and settlements for his clients, with multiple verdicts greater than $100 million. In jury trials around the country, Mr. Diskant has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants. Two of his jury victories for plaintiffs were cited as major plaintiff's verdicts of the year; two of his jury wins for defendants were cited as major defendant's verdicts of the year.

Mr. Diskant also has an active pro bono practice.  He is a member of the National Governing Board of Common Cause and Chair of its Litigation Committee.  As such, much of his pro bono practice centers on democracy-related issues.  Most recently, he filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of disqualifying Donald Trump from running for president and he is now suing Florida over its extreme racial gerrymandering before a three-judge federal court.

Prior to joining Patterson Belknap Mr. Diskant served as Assistant United States Attorney and as Chief Appellate Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He also served as a Law Clerk to the Hon. Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court of the United States and the Hon. J. Skelly Wright, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Representative Matters

Licensing/Contract Disputes
Handled a variety of contract and licensing disputes, including successfully pursuing through both preliminary injunction and two prolonged trials a major pharmaceutical company's rights to a multi-million dollar pharmaceutical, winning damage awards of $164 million and $152 million; as defendant, defeated effort to terminate multi-billion dollar licensing contract. After trial, he obtained a settlement valued at over $3 billion resolving distribution rights to a blockbuster arthritis drug.

Patent
Tried numerous complex patent cases, focusing on medical devices and pharmaceuticals. As plaintiff, won jury verdicts of $271 million and $324 million in cases involving coronary stents (both cited by The National Law Journal as among the major plaintiff's verdicts of the year) and arbitration award of $425 million. The series of stent cases resulted in total recoveries of $3.7 billion. As defendant, won jury verdicts defeating claims on contact lenses, stents and endoscopic devices (the last cited by The National Law Journal as one of the major defense verdicts of the year).

False Advertising/Libel and Media Law
Participated both as plaintiff and defendant in numerous false advertising cases, including successfully defending a Fortune 50 pharmaceutical company from a comprehensive attack on its advertising in a case the District Court called “the largest and most complex false advertising case ever tried."

Successfully defended the publisher of a major national newspaper in a three-month jury trial labeled by the ABA Journal one of the "Major Defense Verdicts" of the year; handled multiple libel and slander cases for major media companies.

Multiple trademark and copyright cases, including successfully defending parody of Cliffs’ Notes using Cliffs’ trademarks; defending a magazine’s right to print an unpublished letter by a well-known writer; defending a publisher against claimed unauthorized publication of Marilyn Monroe photographs.

Bar Admissions

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit; Third Circuit; Fifth Circuit; Eleventh Circuit; Federal Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York
  • New York State

Education

  • Columbia Law School (J.D.)
    • Kent Scholar
    • Editor-in-Chief, Columbia Law Review
  • Princeton University (A.B.)
    • Chemistry degree

Areas of Practice

  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Appellate
  • Biotechnology
  • Class Action Litigation
  • Complex Commercial Actions
  • Intellectual Property Litigation
  • Life Sciences / Health Care
  • Litigation
  • Media, Entertainment and Sports
  • Patent Litigation
  • Securities and Derivatives Litigation
  • Securities Enforcement & Litigation
  • Securities Litigation

Professional Career


Professional Activities and Experience

Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers

Recognized in

  • Chambers USA in the area of Intellectual Property (Band 1)
  • The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Commercial Litigation, Bet-the-Company Litigation and Intellectual Property
  • Super Lawyers as one of the Top 100 lawyers in New York and in the area of Intellectual Property Litigation
  • Benchmark: Litigation as a "Litigation Star" for New York and a "National Star" for Intellectual Property
  • Managing Intellectual Property as an “IP Star” for New York


Articles

Blogs

Antitrust Update

Antitrust Update Blog is a source of insights, information and analysis on criminal and civil antitrust and competition-related issues. Patterson Belknap’s antitrust lawyers represent clients in antitrust litigation and counseling matters, including those related to pricing, marketing, distribution, franchising, and joint ventures and other strategic alliances. We have significant experience with government civil and criminal/cartel investigations, providing the unique perspectives of former...

Data Security Law Blog

DataSecurityLaw.com is the firm’s resource for the latest news, analysis, and thought leadership in the critical area of privacy and cybersecurity law. Patterson Belknap’s Privacy and Data Security practice provides public and private enterprises, their leadership teams and boards with comprehensive services in this critical area. Our team of experienced litigators, corporate advisors and former federal and state prosecutors advises on a broad range of privacy and data protection matters...

Misbranded

Misbranded is Patterson Belknap’s blog covering false advertising litigation—both consumer class actions and competitor suits—with a particular focus on FDA-regulated products (foods/beverages, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and dietary supplements).

New York Commercial Division Decisions

The blog is a source for insights and developments related to practice in the Commercial Division of the New York State Supreme Court. This blog reviews key developments in the Commercial Division, including important decisions handed down by the Commercial Division and appellate court decisions reviewing Commercial Division decisions. The blog also covers changes and proposed changes to Commercial Division rules and practice, including revisions to the rules since January 2015. The...

NY Patent Decisions Blog

NYPatentDecisionsBlog.com is a source for the latest patent decisions from the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. The blog is authored by Patterson Belknap’s Patent Litigation practice group, whose members are highly experienced trial attorneys with extensive technical knowledge. Many have advanced scientific degrees and industry experience in fields such as communications, electrical and electro-optical technology, semiconductor technology, metallurgical...

Second Circuit Criminal Law Blog

The Second Circuit Criminal Law Blog is your place to follow the criminal law decisions rendered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. With a rich 225-year history of legendary judges like Learned Hand and Henry Friendly, the Second Circuit has long been known for writing important and thoughtful opinions on many subjects, including the criminal law. We review every published criminal law opinion handed down by the Second Circuit in order to provide you with a summary of the...

Meet our Firms and Professionals

WSG’s member firms include legal, investment banking and accounting experts across industries and on a global scale. We invite you to meet our member firms and professionals.