Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Business & Commercial Disputes

Partner - Litigation and Investigations

Global Department Leader – Litigation & Investigations

Lee Marshall focuses his practice on commercial, intellectual property, and appellate litigation. Lee is an experienced trial lawyer who has represented clients in the United States Supreme Court, argued appeals in numerous appellate courts, and tried cases in district courts across the country. He is the global department leader for Disputes and Investigations and is one of two chief allies for the firm's LGBTQ affinity group. He is also the former leader of the firm's Commercial Litigation Group and the firm's Appellate Team.

As a trial lawyer, Lee maintains an active intellectual property trial practice with an emphasis in complex technology cases. He has served as lead counsel in patent cases and successfully resolved patent, trademark and copyright cases in the most active districts - including the Northern District of Illinois, the Central and Northern Districts of California, the Eastern District of Texas, the District of Delaware and the Western District of Wisconsin. Lee has also tried numerous commercial cases, including contract, non-compete, unfair competition, and fraud cases in the software, banking, and pharmaceutical industries, and has first chaired several over the years. He has also worked with universities and biomedical institutions across the country on significant disputes and intellectual property issues. He is active in class action matters, having defended several cases with potential exposure into the nine and ten figures. Lee has also defeated multiple class certification motions in cases involving tens of thousands of putative class members and billions of dollars of exposure. He works with clients early on to assess their case and a strategy for resolution. When resolution is not appropriate or possible, however, he will prepare and try the case.

Lee has a background in organic chemistry and enzymology. He attended graduate school as a Ph.D. candidate at The Scripps Research Institute, where he was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. He received his bachelor's in chemistry from Washington University. Lee has represented clients in patent disputes involving a variety of biotechnology and pharmaceutical technologies, including DNA labeling technology, liquid biopsy, disease-causing mutations, drug development, single cell genomics, microfluidics, and nutraceuticals.

Lee has won appeals in state and federal appellate courts from coast to coast, including the United States Supreme Court. He has personally argued dozens of appeals before the Third, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits, as well as intermediate and supreme appellate courts in California, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. Among other victories, he acted as lead appellate counsel for Residential Funding Corporation, a division of Ally Financial, in reversing a $92 million punitive damage jury verdict on appeal. Lee recently assisted a large agricultural company with post-trial motions in two cases alleging that a popular herbicide caused cancer and was successful in eliminating over $2.2 billion in punitive damages. He also recently first chaired a jury trial win for Dr. Martens footwear.

Lee is also active in pro bono work. He served as lead appointed counsel in a rare instance in which the district court granted a writ of habeas corpus; handled appellate work for Voices for Children and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; served as special counsel to the Advisory Committee on St. Louis Public Schools, and filed amicus briefs in marriage equality cases on behalf of the Family Equality Council.  The “Voices of Children” amicus brief Lee helped author for the Family Equality Council was discussed at oral argument by Justice Kennedy in Hollingsworth v. Perry.

From 2003 to 2010, Lee served as an adjunct professor of law at Washington University, where he taught the Appellate Clinic. In 2007, Chief Judge James Loken appointed him to the Federal Advisory Committee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

Prior to joining the firm in 2000, he clerked for Judge Pasco M. Bowman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Lee received his J.D. from Washington University and while there served as editor-in-chief of the Washington University Law Review.

CIVIC INVOLVEMENT & HONORS BCLP LGBTQ Lawyers Affinity Group / Allies Program The Best Lawyers in America®, Appellate Practice, 2013-2014 Northern California Super Lawyers, 2013 Benchmark: Litigation, Future Star, Missouri, 2010 St. Louis Business Journal,“40 under 40,” 2009 Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2009 Missouri Lawyers Weekly, Up & Coming Lawyers, 2009