Melissa Eubanks is a Senior Counsel at Johnson & Johnson
Professional Experience
Ms. Eubanks is a seasoned litigator with extensive experience managing complex, high stakes disputes from pre-lawsuit negotiations through trial. Her diverse practice includes contract disputes, civil and business torts, partnership and shareholder disputes, professional liability, insurance coverage, civil rights, publicity and defamation, trade secret misappropriation, and copyright and trademark infringement. Melissa's passion lies in soft intellectual property and entertainment and she maintains a pro bono practice focused on helping young and emerging artists develop, produce, and protect their creative endeavors.
Representative Matters
- Represents a former community college president in a breach of contract and civil rights action against his former employers. Successfully argued a highly publicized interlocutory appeal before the Seventh Circuit that resulted in a scathing opinion against the defendants and secured the client's breach of contract and procedural due process claims.
- Represented a transformer manufacturing plant in Mississippi in a complex insurance coverage action. Authored a successful opposition to a motion for summary judgment based on an obscure legal concept that preserved the client's claims for over $100 million in insurance coverage.
- Represented a motor manufacturer against breach of warranty claims. Developed an effective strategy for motions on the pleadings that led the plaintiff to drop its claims before discovery.
- Represented a conveyor system manufacturer in a breach of joint venture and trade secret misappropriation lawsuit. Defeated a motion for summary judgment arguing that a conveyor system design could not constitute a trade secret as a matter of law, which quickly led to a favorable settlement for the client.
- Represented a municipality in a 100+ day eminent domain bench trial. Authored a successful motion in limine to preclude the admission of survey evidence to prove “disparate impact” in public housing that was instrumental in defeating counterclaims for violations of the Fair Housing Act.
- Second-chaired two arbitrations representing a large international law firm in disputes against former partners.
- Second-chaired arbitration in multi-million-dollar real estate partnership dispute.
Education:
- Northwestern University School of Law (J.D. 2010)
- Executive Editor, Journal of Law and Social Policy
- Co-Director & Choreographer - Wigmore Follies
- University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A. 2005)
- College Honors & Honors in Major
- Phi Beta Kappa
Professional Recognitions
- Leading Lawyers Network (Emerging Lawyer 2015 – 2021)
- Profiled in Emerging Lawyers Magazine (2016 ed.)
Practice Areas:
- Complex Business Litigation
- Entertainment Litigation
- Intellectual Property Litigation
- Defamation, Media, and First Amendment Law
- Rights of Privacy and Publicity
Admissions:
- California
- Illinois
- United States District Court – Northern District of Illinois
- United States Court of Appeals – Seventh Circuit