​Robert Trenchard is a litigation partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a member of Gibson Dunn’s Intellectual Property Practice.  He has maintained a diverse litigation practice in New York for 20 years.  He represents corporate and individual clients in complex civil and regulatory matters in federal and state courts through and including trial, and before governmental bodies. Mr. Trenchard is recognized in IAM Patent 1000, LMG Life Sciences and has been named a New York “SuperLawyer” since 2011.

Mr. Trenchard has extensive first-chair experience in life-science patent litigation, including in U.S. district court and before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board. He has litigated cases involving pharmaceuticals, biologics, genetics, siRNA and medical devices.

Mr. Trenchard has also represented clients as first- or second-chair in domestic and international market manipulation and antitrust matters, securities cases and many others. He has represented clients in individual and class actions in multiple courts around the country, and before the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), State AG offices and other governmental bodies.

Representative non-confidential matters include the following:

Life-Science Patent Disputes:

• Novartis: Mr. Trenchard has represented Novartis as the Patent Owner in various matters related to the first-ever oral multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya®, Novartis’s best-selling drug in 2018 with almost $1.8 billion in sales. These matters have included a successful inter partes review trial before the PTAB on a dosing method-of-use patent, and litigation following that victory in Delaware District Court against 23 ANDA filers. In the Delaware District Court, Mr. Trenchard co-led the team with partner Dr. Jane Love that secured a preliminary injunction preventing a launch-at-risk by multiple generics, a ruling handed down from the bench after a one-day evidentiary hearing. In addition to that matter, Mr. Trenchard has co-led teams with Dr. Love in PTAB proceedings regarding a formulation patent for Gilenya;; in district court litigation regarding formulation and compound patents for Gilenya; and in district court litigation for patents covering Novartis’s Reclast and Zometa zoledronic acid products.
• Merck Sharp & Dohme: Mr. Trenchard co-led the successful district court defense and related IPR against a formulation patent asserted by Mayne Pharmaceuticals based on sales of Merck’s Noxafil anti-fungal product. Mr. Trenchard and Dr. Love persuaded the PTAB to institute and IPR, then succeeded in having the district court action stayed, and then successfully persuaded the PTAB to invalidate the patent.
• Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research: Mr. Trenchard and Dr. Love successfully represented the JFCR in a patent interference trial before the PTAB concerning the invention of interferon-beta, one of the first human proteins ever cloned.
• Alnylam: Mr. Trenchard and Dr. Love represented Alnylam in a patent interference trial before the PTAB concerning siRNA for the treatment of cancer.
• Hologic: Mr. Trenchard and Dr. Love successfully represented Hologic in a patent interference trial concerning a breast biopsy device.

Antitrust and Market Manipulation Disputes:

• Statoil:  Mr. Trenchard represented Statoil in multi-district class action litigation concerning the alleged manipulation of Brent North Sea oil prices.
• Sumitomo:  Mr. Trenchard represented Sumitomo Corporation in multiple criminal, civil and regulatory disputes in Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. arising from rogue trading by a prominent copper trader.
• The Hartford:  Mr. Trenchard represented The Hartford insurance company in State AG investigations and multi-district class actions in the District of New Jersey involving allegedly anticompetitive conduct in the market for insurance broker services.
• Tower Research LLC:  Mr. Trenchard represented Tower in class action litigation concerning alleged market manipulation in high-frequency securities trading.
• Becton Dickinson:  Mr. Trenchard represented BD in connection with competitor antitrust claims related to alleged monopolization in the market for safety needles.

Securities Disputes:

• Goldman Sachs:  Mr. Trenchard represented Goldman in high-profile regulatory and class-action civil litigation concerned alleged trading ahead and interpositioning by NYSE Specialists.
• Royal Bank of Scotland:  Mr. Trenchard represented RBS in a $100 billion class-action litigation arising out of RBS’s collapse in the 2008 financial crisis.
• Credit Suisse:  Mr. Trenchard represented Credit Suisse in class-action litigation concerning the market for initial-public offerings.

Other Disputes:

• Citibank:  Mr. Trenchard represented Citibank in multiple consumer class actions and State AG lawsuits arising out of credit card add-on products.
• Millbrae:  Mr. Trenchard represented an oil and gas investment fund in an intra-partnership dispute in New York State Court, including at trial and in multiple appeals.
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation:  Mr. Trenchard represented the PBGC at trial in the Harry & David bankruptcy.

Before joining the firm, he practiced with Wilmer Hale since 2003, and at Paul Weiss before that.  He served as a clerk to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1994.