Hon. John C. Lifland (Ret.) is highly regarded by counsel for his exceptional ability to handle complex litigation. He is perceived by parties as being well prepared, knowledgeable, courteous, and a consummate professional. Prior to his 19 years of distinguished service in the federal judiciary at the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, he was in private practice for 27 years concentrating on commercial litigation including antitrust, employment, construction, banking, intellectual property, and securities matters.

ADR Experience and Qualifications

• Facilitated settlement negotiations involving a full range of issues including:
  • Antitrust
  • Banking
  • Business
  • Class action
  • Complex commercial
  • Employment
  • Environmental
  • Government agencies
  • Health Care
  • Insurance
  • Intellectual property: patents, copyrights, trademarks, unfair competition, and licensing
  • Pharmaceuticals/Mass torts
  • Securities
• During the last several years while serving on the federal bench, cases presided over were mostly civil with an emphasis on intellectual property matters and included multidistrict litigation
• Managed such cases to settlement or judgment, and his decisions included resolving challenges to validity and enforceability of patents on various brand-name drugs by generic drug manufacturers, questions of infringement in such cases and questions of patent validity, infringement, and damages in other varied contexts including consumer products, construction materials, and electronic devices. His work also included evaluating infringement issues in trademark and copyright cases and resolving various issues in securities litigation.

A substantial part of Judge Lifland’s work involves serving alone or with other retired federal or state judges on mock panels organized by clients or law firms to evaluate upcoming trial or appellate presentations, or to evaluate legal or factual positions. Judge Lifland has been advised that these exercises usually provide valuable insights into litigation and settlement positions. The issues discussed include patent, contract, insurance, antitrust, bankruptcy, D & O Liability, corporate governance, toxic tort, advertising and copyright issues. Judge Lifland’s breadth of experience extends to include:

Representative Matters

• Admiralty
• Presided over admiralty personal injury trials
• Antitrust & Competition
• Presided over In re Neurontin Antitrust Litigation (multidistrict)
• Bankruptcy
• Addressed rights of mortgagees in bankruptcy litigation
• Civil Rights
• Presided over litigation against municipality, addressed rights of developer and municipality; Decided Fair v. Rumsfeld, involving the First Amendment in the military recruiting context which was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States
• Employment Law
• Presided over numerous trials alleging improper discharge and addressed issues regarding confirmation of arbitration awards, ERISA, and rights of former union-represented employees to lifetime benefits
• Environmental Law
• Addressed insurance coverage issues, water and air pollution responsibility issues, and penalty issues
• Health Care
• Cases involving off-label marketing by pharmaceutical companies, nursing home reimbursement under Medicaid, and medical malpractice
• Insurance
• Wrote opinion resolving automobile coverage issues when sitting by designation on Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
• Intellectual Property
• • Patent litigation: Wrote opinion addressing on-sale bar to patentability when sitting by designation on Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; presided over Pfizer et al. v. Teva Pharms. USA, No. 04-754 (D. N.J. 2007) and In re Gapabentin Patent Litigation (multidistrict)
  • Addressed liability of search engine for alleged trademark violations
  • Addressed many likelihood of confusion issues in trademark litigations
  • Served on panels of retired federal judges at seminars discussing various issues raised by Hatch-Waxman patent litigation
  • Served on CPR Patent Task Force
  • Participates in programs organized by American Conference Institute and Momentum
• International
• Served as JAMS neutral Chair of an arbitration panel on a case administered from Paris, France by the ICC
• Serving as panelist on an ICDR administered case
• Securities
• Presided over litigation alleging securities fraud against short sellers, addressed obligations of various parties having differing roles in transactions, such as issuer, accountants, and underwriters

Honors, Memberships, and Professional Activities

• Completed Virtual ADR training conducted by the JAMS Institute, the training arm of JAMS
• Founding member and active participant, John C. Lifland American Inn of Court (an association dedicated to fostering and developing the practice of intellectual property law and federal litigation)
• Sat by designation on the Federal Circuit and wrote opinion addressing on-sale bar to patentability
• Judicial Participant, Second National Forum on Presenting and Defending Pharmaceutical and Biotech Patent Litigation, December 2005; Speaker, Federal Circuit Judicial Conference and numerous other professional meetings related to patent and ADR issues, including Practicing Law Institute, New York Intellectual Property Law Association and New Jersey State Bar Association
• Member and Chairman, New Jersey Board of Bar Examiners, 1969-1977

Background and Education

• Judge, United States District Court, District of New Jersey, 1988-2007
• Private practice, Stryker, Tams and Dill, Newark, New Jersey, 1961-1988
• Law Clerk, Hon. Thomas F. Meaney, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
• LL.B., Harvard Law School
• B.A., Yale University