People

Brian Mead

Partner
Areas of focus

Litigates employee mobility, restrictive covenant, and trade secret cases across all industries, including private equity, healthcare, professional services, technology, and manufacturing.

Advises private equity firms and strategic buyers and sellers on employment aspects of M&A transactions, including employment risk assessment and mitigation.

Drafts employment agreements, multijurisdictional restrictive covenants, and termination and separation agreements for nonexempt employees through CEOs.

Counsels employers on noncompete and nonsolicit agreements, employee handbooks and policies, leaves of absence, disability accommodation, and independent contractor relationships

Brian Mead is an employment litigator and transactional advisor who leads McDermott’s employee mobility practice. Clients call upon Brian for his substantial experience prosecuting and defending employee mobility, restrictive covenant, and trade secret litigation cases across various industries, including private equity, healthcare, professional services, technology, and manufacturing.

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“He is a great strategic partner who thinks outside of the box.”

Results
  • Successfully litigated for a US healthcare provider on an arbitration related to dozens of employees violating their non-solicit and non-compete agreements
  • Represented an employee of a trucking company on a non-compete issue before the Delaware Chancery Court
  • Successfully affirmed a summary judgment for a manufacturing company on a discrimination case
  • Successfully defended healthcare company against a TRO for claims of trade secret theft and breach of a non-compete
  • Briefed the Fifth Circuit on a petition for rehearing en banc to issue a new, more favorable opinion for a national accounting firm
  • Advising individual physicians on their non-compete and non-solicit agreements in the healthcare
Recognitions
  • Chambers USA, Labor & Employment, 2024-2026
  • The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, Labor and Employment Law – Management, 2022-2024
Capabilities and industries
Regional markets
Community
  • McDermott Will & Schulte, Employee Mobility Practice, leader
Credentials
Education
  • Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, JD, cum laude
  • University of Iowa, BA, with highest distinction
Admissions
  • Illinois
Courts/Agencies
  • Supreme Court of Illinois
  • US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
  • US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
  • US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
  • US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
  • US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin