Jack Regan is a partner in the firm’s Litigation/Controversy Department and a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation and Business Trial Practice Groups. He is the co-chair of the firm's Pro Bono and Community Service Committee, has chaired the Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group and recently served as the President of the Boston Bar Association. Mr. Regan joined the firm in 1978.
Practice
Mr. Regan's practice concentrates on pretrial, trial and appellate aspects of intellectual property and commercial litigation in federal and state courts and in administrative agencies. He has been involved with a wide range of legal matters relating to patents, trade secrets, computers, copyrights, trade dress, trademarks, contracts, licenses, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices cases.
Mr. Regan has litigated cases in such high technology areas as digital cameras, PDA devices, electronic commerce, Internet routers, enzyme electrodes, blood analyzers, glucose monitoring devices, electronic pre-press publishing, DNA amplification systems, videoconferencing, semiconductors, golf balls, ultrasound transducers, document imaging, electronic storage, paging and voice mail. In the patent area, he has litigated biotechnology, chemical, electrical, mechanical, medical device, software and Internet patents.
Mr. Regan has been counsel to such clients as: Apple, Bose, Intel, Research in Motion (RIM Blackberry), Eastman Kodak, Wyeth, Analog Devices, Broadcom, JPMorgan Chase, Harvest Technologies, Braintree Laboratories, Juniper Networks, Nova Biomedical, Wolfson Microelectronics, Campanelli Companies, SoundBite Communications, Inc., Art Technology Group, Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), American Superconductor, Roxbury Latin School, Microbia, Penwest Pharmaceuticals, Nitromed, Webloyalty.com and Thorn EMI, N.A.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts appointed Mr. Regan as the trustee in bankruptcy for Rare Coin Galleries of America, Inc. He also has served as an appointed arbitrator in complex commercial dispute proceedings before the American Arbitration Association.
During the year following law school, Mr. Regan served as a law clerk to the Honorable Andrew A. Caffrey, former chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He has also worked as a legal intern in the Special Criminal Prosecutions Division and in the Civil Division of the US Attorneys' Offices in Newark, New Jersey, and the Southern District of New York, respectively.
Prior to his legal studies, Mr. Regan served as a lieutenant in the US Navy aboard a destroyer escort, the USS Bagley, which was homeported in San Diego, California, and deployed to the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Tonkin and Persian Gulf areas.
Professional Activities
Before becoming President of the Boston Bar Association (BBA), Mr. Regan chaired the BBA’S Intellectual Property Litigation Committee, was co-chair of the BBA's Litigation Section, chaired the BBA's Nominating Committee and was a member of the BBA Council. He currently is a trustee of the Boston Bar Foundation. He also is a member of the Civil Litigation and Business Law Sections of the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Litigation and Intellectual Property Sections of the American Bar Association, the Federal Circuit Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Federal Bar Association and the Boston Patent Law Association.
The Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court appointed Mr. Regan in 2011 to the Court’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services. The Chief Justice for Administration and Management of the Massachusetts Trial Court appointed Mr. Regan in 2010 to a committee studying the consolidation of the Trial Court’s operations.
Mr. Regan has participated as an advisor in the Trial Practice Program at Harvard Law School. He also has been a member of the Subcommittee for Patent Litigation of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution.
Speaking Engagements
Mr. Regan has spoken on seminar panels at programs sponsored by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, the Boston Bar Association, the Boston Patent Law Association, the American Arbitration Association, the PricewaterhouseCoopers Intellectual Property Leadership Forum and the Pro Bono Institute.
Community Involvement
Mr. Regan is currently a member of Citizen Schools Massachusetts Board of Advisors and the Advisory Council of Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Mr. Regan is President of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Schools Foundation of the Archdiocese of Boston, which raises scholarship funds for 6,000 students at 60 inner city elementary and high schools. He also serves on the Catholic Schools Finance Council.
Mr. Regan chaired the Board of Regents at LaSalle Academy, a 1,400-student high school in Providence, Rhode Island. He also served as the board chair of Discovering Justice: The James D. St. Clair Court Public Education Project, which provides educational programs for children and adults about the Constitution, the judiciary, and our democracy and received its Champion of Democracy award.
Mr. Regan has also been a trustee of the Roxbury Latin School; a director of Young Audiences of Massachusetts, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that promotes the arts in schools; and a member of the Boston Bar Association's Task Force on Children's Outreach. Mr. Regan is the former president and a director of Milton Residences for the Elderly, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that provides low-income housing for elderly and handicapped persons.
Mr. Regan is co-chair of WilmerHale's Pro Bono Committee, which manages the firm's extensive pro bono legal services and community service programs, and its relationship with Harvard Law School's Legal Services Center.
Mr. Regan chaired the task force that created the firm's innovative Youth and Education Initiative, a partnership with four organizations that offer educational opportunities to elementary, middle school and teenage children in Boston’s inner city. The Youth and Education Initiative was featured in Common Interest, Common Good, a book published by the Harvard Business School Press that described creative models of corporate philanthropy.
Honors and Awards
Mr. Regan received WilmerHale's Reginald Heber Smith Award for his contributions to community service. He has also received awards from the US Department for Housing and Urban Development and the American Association of Housing for the Aging for his work in providing housing for low-income elderly persons.
Mr. Regan was honored with the prestigious "Good Guys" Award from the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus. The award is presented to men who have made significant contributions to their community and to the cause of equal political, economic and social rights for women.
Mr. Regan was named a “New England Super Lawyer” (formerly "Massachusetts Super Lawyer") in intellectual property litigation in the 2004 through 2011 editions of Boston Magazine. He was also recognized as a lead lawyer in the 2012 edition of Benchmark Litigation for his work in commercial and intellectual property litigation.