Ronald M. Wawrzyn, a partner for over 25 years, began his legal career at the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. He worked as a trial lawyer in the Patent Section of the Antitrust Division. During his tenure as Justice, he worked on various complex cases dealing with the interface between patent and antitrust law.
Ronald went directly from the Justice Department to Foley, where he was a member of the IP Litigation and Antitrust Practices. During his tenure at the firm, he was involved in various pieces of complex litigation in many venues throughout the United States. The subjects of this litigation have included antitrust, patents, and general commercial litigation.
Ronald worked on a number of cases involving patent issues, including the Tetracycline and Ampicillin litigations, while he was at the United States Department of Justice. In addition, he handled grand jury investigations while at Justice relating to fraud on the Patent Office and the antitrust ramifications of enforcing patents which were known to be invalid. In addition to the patent litigation, Ronald served as lead counsel in numerous jury trials. Ronald’s experience in trial settings has included subjects as diverse as RICO, securities fraud, product liability, patents, legal malpractice, and assorted other subjects.
Several of Ronald’s cases are of particular note. The first of these related to his client’s claim against a bank, which allegedly defrauded her in order to save the bank’s loan position with a closely held company. After a three-week jury trial, the jury returned a verdict finding the bank liable for fraud and guilty of outrageous conduct against the plaintiff. A second case involved a claim of patent infringement against a large national retail chain and other parties. The jury returned a verdict of willful infringement and the judge entered an immediate injunction. A subsequent motion for contempt for violating the injunction was granted. The case settled quickly thereafter with a judgment well in excess of seven figures. The most remarkable aspect of the litigation was that Ronald tried the matter to a conclusion and secured the settlement in less than a year.
In addition, Ronald was lead trial counsel in a case relating to one of Michael Milken’s last junk bond deals. Bonds with interest rates as high as 21 percent were sold to purchasers, including Ronald’s clients. Although the Prospectus disclosed that the issuer company was struggling in certain respects, the bondholders did not know that the issuer was insolvent. After discovery, the case settled for a seven-figure payment to Ronald’s clients.
Finally, Ronald has been active in defending clients against antitrust attacks relating to their distribution systems. He has represented “Fortune 500″ companies nationally on these issues and has successfully secured no liability defense judgments in many of these cases.
In recognition of his achievements, Ronald was Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell’s peer review rating system.
Ronald received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, majoring in Pharmacy. Within the School of Pharmacy, he studied a range of subjects with emphasis on inorganic, organic and biochemistry. After graduating from the School of Pharmacy, Ronald worked as a registered pharmacist at various hospitals and retail pharmacies. He also taught at the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy. His J.D. was conferred by the University of Wisconsin in 1972.