Forsgren Fisher staff members and lawyers alike prize the firm’s emphasis on being relentlessly direct and honest with one another and with clients and tribunals. “Honesty is a gift we can give each other, and our clients appreciate that they always get direct, honest advice from us, not just what we think they want to hear,” says partner David Wallace-Jackson.
The firm’s ethos has proven effective, as the team has already attained a number of significant victories, including district court and Eighth Circuit wins upholding a client’s First Amendment rights, a Ninth Circuit reversal and remand in a civil rights case that will go to trial next year in Washington state, and a rare Minnesota Supreme Court reversal of a murder conviction in State v. Noor, argued by Fisher. The firm continues its internal-investigations work, including completing a significant investigation earlier this year, in sensitive and important matters. Further, Forsgren Fisher was named a Tier 1 metropolitan law firm by U.S. News & World Report – Best Lawyers in 2021 and again in 2022.
Along with trials and investigations, Forsgren Fisher focuses on intellectual property. Indeed, the IP focus is part of the firm’s origin story. Partner Dan Tysver, who has devoted his 30-year career to patent law, practiced with partner James Urzedowski in an IP boutique firm before co-founding Forsgren Fisher.
“Over the years, we refined a strength for developing patent strategy in addition to patent applications,” Tysver says. “We were a small group with a great practice. But we wanted to get involved with the actual patent enforcement and litigation, and our firm couldn’t do that. I ended up turning to Bob (Gilbertson) and David (Wallace-Jackson) for help. We had a great time doing it and served our clients well. I realized that our mission was enforcement along with patent guidance and prosecution, and we needed to form a new firm where we could get together and work in an environment where people really value each other. It’s been just fabulous.”
Focused primarily on the areas of computers, medical devices, manufacturing systems, mobile-device apps, consumer electronics, and data storage, Tysver and Urzedowski help clients from individual inventors to Fortune 100 companies with patent and trademark strategy, prosecution, invalidity and non-infringement opinions, and litigation.