Roy Ginsburg is a partner in Dorsey’s Advocacy Group. Roy joined Dorsey & Whitney LLP in 1980, following his graduation from the University of Virginia School of Law. For more than 20 years, Roy was a Partner in the firm’s Trial Department; he now is a Partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department.
Roy’s practice involves a wide range of commercial litigation matters. For many years, he has focused on commercial disputes affecting the employment relationship, including, misappropriation of trade secrets, corporate raiding, usurpation of corporate opportunity, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract (such as post-employment restrictive covenants), and related claims. Roy also defends class, multi-party and individual employment discrimination litigation (such as sexual harassment, age, disability, race and sex discrimination claims) as well as the related common law claims invariably pled in connection with a discrimination lawsuit. In addition, Roy handles other types of commercial and insurance litigation.
Roy has been selected for recognition by Chambers USA every year since the publication began in 2004. In 2008, Roy was one of just five Minnesota employment attorneys given the Band 1 rating (the highest Chambers rating). (Dorsey is the only Minnesota law firm that has received the Chambers Band 1 Rating for its employment law group every year since Chambers began rating Minnesota firms.)
Roy also has been selected as a Minnesota Super Lawyer virtually every year since the inception of that publication. Roy also was routinely selected as one of Minnesota’s “Leading Employment Attorneys” by the Law & Leading Attorneys publication.
In 2006, Roy was selected by Minnesota Lawyer magazine as a 2006 'Attorney of the Year', following his successful representation of Cisco Systems, Inc. and individual defendants in a misappropriation of trade secrets, usurpation of corporate opportunity, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit. The plaintiff corporation, which had been seeking $1.3 Billion in damages received nothing, following an 8-week trial. The case was dismissed at the close of the plaintiff’s case-in-chief. This lawsuit marked Roy’s second successful representation of Cisco Systems, Inc. in significant litigation. In the first lawsuit, filed in the federal court for the District of Minnesota, the plaintiff corporation sought $450 Million in damages for corporate raiding, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty and other claims. Cisco prevailed in that lawsuit on summary judgment, a decision affirmed by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In addition to the Cisco lawsuits, other representative recent litigation handled by Roy includes: a) representation of Piper Jaffray & Co. in a lawsuit against another company and former Piper employees for misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and other claims; case resolved on the eve of trial when the defendants agreed to the entry of a permanent injunction; b) representation of Sun Microsystems, Inc. and two Sun employees, who had been sued by a former employer; the plaintiff’s motion for a TRO was denied, at which point, the plaintiff dropped its lawsuit; c) representation of Amcom Software, Inc. and an Amcom employee who had been sued by another corporation on various legal theories; the federal court in New Hampshire denied the plaintiff company’s motion for a preliminary injunction, after which it dropped its lawsuit; d) representation of KMG America, Inc. and another corporation, and six of KMG’s executives in a lawsuit by another insurance company involving claims of breach of fiduciary duty, raiding, misappropriation of trade secrets and numerous other claims; plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction against KMG and the other defendants was denied, a decision affirmed by the Minnesota Court of Appeals; later, defendants brought a successful motion for summary judgment, resulting in the dismissal of 10 of the Complaint’s 12 counts, and 6 of 9 defendants, including the two corporate defendants; the case settled soon after; e) representation of six executives of AgriBioTech, Inc., including the CEO, CFO, General Counsel and others, in a lawsuit brought by a bankruptcy trustee under the “zone of insolvency” theory; after first obtaining a reversal of the coverage denial decision under a Directors and Officers’ Liability Policy, the case proceeded; ultimately, the lawsuit was settled though none of Roy’s clients contributed a penny toward the settlement; and f) representation of a Minnesota-based defense contractor in connection with a series of age discrimination lawsuits (at one point, there were 54 separate claimants); after defeating a motion to certify the group as a class, the defendant prevailed on a series of summary judgments, after which the remaining plaintiffs either dismissed their claims or settled for nominal amounts. Roy also represents numerous executives and former executives in connection with contract negotiations and disputes with their employers. As referenced above, Roy also has defended innumerable individual and multi-party discrimination claims, in both federal and state court and before federal and state administrative agencies.
Roy is a frequent lecturer at CLEs on a wide variety of topics. He also makes regular presentations for clients on client-specific topics. In addition to being the principal author of the Quirky Questions Blog analyses, Roy also writes regularly for various other publications. Recent articles written by Roy are listed below:
Attorney Articles
"The Impact of Technological Developments on the Workplace," Employment Law Strategist, January and February 2009
"Lawsuits by In-House Counsel Against Their Employers," (Part 1), December 23, 2008
"Lawsuits by In-House Counsel Against Their Employers," (Part 2) BNA's Corporate Counsel Weekly, December 23, 2008
"Is Bizarre Behavior 'Notice' for FMLA Purposes?," August 8, 2008
"Conducting Investigations of Wrongful Workplace Conduct," Business Law Today, May 2008
"Workforce Reduction Done Right," Employment Law 360, December 17, 2007
