Benesch Adds Litigation Partner in Chicago

Benesch welcomes partner J. Scott Humphrey to the firm’s Litigation Practice Group in Chicago, where he will be the National Chair of the Trade Secrets, Restrictive Covenants and Unfair Competition Group.

Scott has extensive litigation, arbitration, and counseling experience involving a wide range of complex commercial contract disputes and business torts, including matters arising from trade secret appropriation, breach of restrictive covenants, contract disputes, manufacturing and distribution issues, fraud, and insurance disputes. As a result, Scott currently serves as lead litigation and consulting counsel for a broad range of clients, including financial services companies; commercial and consumer product manufacturers; consulting firms; pharmaceutical, surgical, and medical companies; processing companies; commercial real estate firms; commercial product distributors; health care organizations; media firms; commercial transportation companies; food and beverage companies; insurance companies and technology organizations. His clients range from small business owners and startups, to Fortune 100 companies.

Scott has worked with numerous companies, associations, individuals, and organizations about the protection of trade secrets and enforcement of restrictive covenants.  In doing so and using his Six Sigma Green Belt accreditation, Scott has worked with clients to develop, implement and monitor “best practices” for the protection of trade secrets and confidential information.  When necessary, he has successfully obtained (and defeated), in courtrooms and before Arbitration Panels throughout the country, temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, and permanent injunctions for clients in the technology, securities, financial services, pharmaceuticals, insurance, transportation, medical and surgical sales, electronics, health care, media talent, data processing, business consulting, food and beverage manufacture and distribution, and consumer products space.  He has also successfully taken numerous restrictive covenant and trade secret cases to verdict, and argued restrictive covenant and trade secret matters before state and Federal Appellate courts. Scott also regularly speaks on these topics through client presentations, industry seminars, and national presentations. In doing so, Scott regularly counsels companies about the potential impact of the National Defend Trade Secrets Act and other state law changes to restrictive covenant laws. 

Scott’s practice also focuses on commercial and business-related litigation involving complex commercial contract disputes and other business torts.  In this capacity, Scott has litigated commercial litigation disputes in courtrooms and Appellate courts across the country.  More recently, Scott has developed expertise in the area of litigation finance.  In this capacity, Scott has worked with clients to obtain litigation financing, worked with funders on evaluating potential cases to fund, and spoken at various trade organizations about the impact litigation finance has (and will continue to have) on the legal market.  

He received his MBA from Northwestern, Kellogg Graduate School of Management and his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School and holds a B.A. from Wittenberg University.

Scott is one of over 40 new attorneys to join Benesch so far this year. Since making its debut on the AmLaw 200 list in 2016, Benesch has advanced 37 places and is currently ranked at number 168.