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. Most recently, he co-authored a 130 page report for the NYC Bar Association proposing that Congress should pass a mandatory and enforceable ethics code for the Supreme Court.  Much of his pro bono practice centers on democracy issues.  He was counsel of record in Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court gerrymandering case, and has recently filed Supreme Court amicus briefs on whether the Fourteenth Amendment barred Donald Trump's ability to run for president and on whether Mr. Trump enjoyed immunity from prosecution. Last year, he sued Florida over its extreme racial gerrymandering before a three-judge federal court. He also has an active First Amendment practice and recently obtained a landmark ruling that decisions involving discipline by New York's Grievance Committee should be presumptively public.

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

Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers

Recognized in

• Chambers USA in the area of Intellectual Property (Senior Statesman; 19 years ranked)
• 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

• "We Need a Binding and Enforceable Supreme Court Ethics Code," The National Law Journal (October 25, 2024)
• "The Supreme Court Needs a Mandatory and Enforceable Code of Ethics," New York City Bar Association Report (October 1, 2024)
• "The Hateful Attacks on Adeel Mangi," The Atlantic (March 29, 2024)
• "The Pinckney Plan, Dubious History and Originalism," The National Law Journal (November 9, 2022)
• "The Filibuster Is Unconstitutional," The National Law Journal (March 31, 2021)
• "Biased Senators Should Be Disqualified From the Impeachment Trial," The National Law Journal (December 20, 2019)
• "Timed Trials: Worth a Try," Litigation (Fall 2016)
• "Trial Balloon: Rethinking Corporate Criminal Liability," Litigation (Winter 2008)
• "Time to Rethink Corporate Criminal Liability," New York Law Journal (August 2, 2007)
• "Terrorists' defender?" The National Law Journal (March 5, 2007)