Download vCard- American Intellectual Property Law Association
- Illinois State Bar Association
- Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago
- Chair, Copyright Committee, 2017-present
312-527-1447
Admissions
- Illinois and Colorado
- United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Ninth Circuit, and Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Courts for the Northern District Of Illinois and the District of Colorado
Degrees
- Northwestern University School of Law, J.D. 1996
- University of Missouri, B.A., Phi Beta Kappa
RACHEL M. VORBECK
Partner
Rachel is a 1996 graduate of Northwestern University School of Law who joined TottisLaw after more than a decade litigating in large, national law firms where she was a litigation partner. Rachel concentrates her practice in intellectual property and business litigation. She has significant experience litigating in both federal and state court in a first-chair capacity and as part of a larger team at all phases of litigation and ADR proceedings. Rachel has conducted pre-filing investigations, crafted litigation and settlement strategies, overseen large-scale electronic discovery and document productions, taken and defended the depositions of fact and expert witnesses in a broad range of disputes, briefed and argued a large number of substantive and dispositive motions, and represented clients in both bench and jury trials.
Rachel also has significant appellate experience. She has represented parties and amicus curiae in prosecuting appeals before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh, Ninth, and Federal Circuits, as well as in the Illinois Appellate Court and the Colorado Supreme Court. In addition, Rachel has served as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, taught appellate advocacy at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and conducted CLE seminars to train attorneys in the fundamentals of appellate practice.
- Represented defendant/third party plaintiff, a global full-service investment bank, in action for violation of Oklahoma Securities Act, common law fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and rescission arising out of sale of leveraged non-recourse securities. Just before close of discovery, obtained favorable settlement.
- Represented defendant in action involving claims for violation of federal securities laws, fraud, and breach of contract arising out of sale of franchise. After moving for summary judgment and sanctions, case settled favorably.
- Represented defendant investment advisor in arbitration involving claims of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract arising out of advisor’s purchase of commercial paper issued by energy company immediately preceding ratings downgrade.
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- Represented senior secured lender, a hedge fund, in debtor’s adversary proceeding seeking to invalidate lending agreements that financed debtor’s business extracting coal bed methane gas. Following motion to dismiss, the parties reached settlement favorable to the client.
- In true “bet-the-company” case represented defendant against five claims of patent infringement and two claims of unfair competition. After motion in limine successfully limiting damage evidence, obtained business solution settlement with no money changing hands.
- Represented inventor at bench trial and on appeal before the Federal Circuit in inventor’s claims for patent infringement of “sync separator” television technology and alleged violations of federal and state unfair competition laws.
- Represented defendant, a global manufacturer of electronics and communications technology, in action involving claims of patent infringement of cellular phone technology. Case dismissed on defendant’s motion.
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- Represented defendant accused of infringing plaintiff’s patents claiming high frequency battery charger technology. After discovery and briefing both parties’ summary judgment motions, the parties negotiated a settlement of all claims.
- Represented defendant, a bicycle manufacturer, accused of patent infringement, breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets arising out of alleged infringement of patented bicycle rim technology. Discovery commenced, after which the district court granted our motion to dismiss all claims.
- Represented American Intellectual Property Law Association in filing amicus curiae brief before the United States Supreme addressing extraterritorial affect of U.S. Copyright Act’s “first-sale” defense.
- Obtained summary judgment in favor of two tenured university professors which rejected former post-doctoral researcher's claim that he was entitled to joint authorship of scholarly article.
- Part of team representing professional examination board in action for copyright infringement and numerous state law claims arising out of unauthorized copying of test questions. Obtained settlement providing for entry of consent judgment in client's favor awarding monetary and permanent injunctive relief, assignment of infringing website domain name as well as associated emails and business accounts.
- Represented plaintiff entertainment company before Ninth Circuit in action involving federal trademark, dilution and Lanham Act claims, as well as pendent claim for unfair competition under California law.
- Represented plaintiff, a distributor of mass market clothing and apparel, in action for trademark infringement. After expedited discovery obtained favorable settlement including defendant’s agreement to cease all use of marks at issue.
- Represented client wrongfully imprisoned for first degree murder from age 13 to age 30 in re-investigation of case, filing post-conviction petition based on new evidence, and appeal of initial order denying post-conviction petition. Client exonerated, conviction vacated, and client released. Court issued client Certificate of Innocence and client was awarded statutory compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
- Represented third parties in filing amicus curiae brief Seventh Circuit in action involving First Amendment challenge to prayers in the Indiana legislature.
Commercial
Intellectual Property
Patent
Trademark / Copyright
Other Appellate Matters
- “Copyright Year in Review,” American Intellectual Property Law Association 2014 Annual Meeting
Commercial and Intellectual Property Litigation