Bartlit Beck LLP

Sean Gallagher is an accomplished trial lawyer with experience across a broad range of complex commercial litigation matters. Most of Sean's representations have been for major U.S. and international companies in cases involving intellectual property (including patent infringement and Lanham Act claims), trade secret misappropriation, product liability, accountant liability, toxic tort, and breach of contract. Notably, Sean served as lead trial counsel for Ethicon/Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit claiming that pelvic mesh medical devices made by a J&J subsidiary caused personal injuries. The three-week jury-trial came to a complete defense verdict in the Philadelphia court of common pleas. Sean achieved a notable victory in an environmental tort case alleging more than $1 billion in alleged personal injury and property damage arising from a claim of a “cancer cluster” near the facility of Pratt & Whitney, an aerospace manufacturer facing the lawsuit. The case went on to summary judgment for the personal injury cases. Sean has also worked on a variety of other matters ranging from Gore v. Bush, where Sean was part of the Bartlit Beck team that represented President Bush at the trial court level in Newsome v. McCabe, where Sean helped obtain compensation for a man wrongfully convicted of murder.

Sean is a nationally recognized attorney. He is Chambers ranked and listed as a "Litigation Star" by Benchmark Litigation. Chambers and Partners noted his "expertise handling large class actions, including those with product liability and breach of fiduciary aspects" and quoted sources calling him an "effective courtroom advocate and strategist" and describing his lawyering as "measured, focused and persuasive." Sean has won numerous awards, including Notable Litigator & Trial Attorney by Crain's Chicago Business 2023, a Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America 2022, as well as being recognized by Reuters as a “Stand-out lawyer.”

Sean joined the firm in 1996 directly from a clerkship for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States, before which he served as law clerk to Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Sean graduated from the University of Michigan Law School magna cum laude and received his BA from the University of Michigan with Highest Distinction.

Adjunct Professor, Northwestern University School of Law: Taught "High-Tech Trial Techniques" class on the use of technology in the practice of law at trial and in preparation for trial

University of Michigan Law School, 1994, J.D., magna cum laude

Articles Editor, Michigan Law Review

University of Michigan, 1990, B.A., with Highest Distinction