Overview
Bruce Genderson founded and is the senior trial lawyer of Williams & Connolly’s patent litigation practice. He is nationally-known for his work representing major corporations in patent disputes. Over the course of his more-than-three-decade career, he has represented some of the world’s largest companies in patent infringement suits involving billion-dollar-a-year pharmaceuticals, complex biotechnology inventions, computers and electronics, and medical devices. He has represented a number of emerging companies in patent litigation in different industries as well.
Bruce has litigated civil and criminal matters of all types — from intellectual property disputes to complex corporate and commercial cases to defending against criminal charges as diverse as tax fraud and capital murder. He has also represented individuals in both complex civil and criminal litigation, and defended prominent law firms in legal malpractice actions. Bruce has been named an “IP Star” by Managing Intellectual Property every year since 2013. The 2015 edition stated that he “has been described by peers as a ‘superb trial lawyer’ and a ‘brilliant strategist.’” LMG Life Sciences 2012 states that “peers consider [Bruce] to be ‘one of the best patent litigators in the country’,” and the publication recognized him as a “Life Science Star” from 2012 to 2024. In 2015, LMG inducted him into its Hall of Fame, and in 2019 Bruce was awarded “Branded Hatch-Waxman Litigator of the Year.” Bruce also received top rankings in intellectual property litigation in the 2013 to 2026 editions of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and was recommended in the 2015 edition of The Legal 500 in the area of commercial litigation. Since 2016, Benchmark Litigation has named Bruce a “Local Litigation Star” in the category of intellectual property litigation. In 2020, Benchmark also shortlisted Bruce with five others for Intellectual Property Attorney of the Year and recognized him as a “National Practice Area Star.”
Bruce began building Williams & Connolly’s patent litigation practice in the mid-1990s, and it is now among the firm’s largest practice groups. He has practiced in state and federal courts across the country, including Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, California, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Arizona and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has also assisted in litigation outside the U.S., including a trial in Australia. His pharmaceutical clients include Bayer, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, and Alcon, and his electronics clients include Samsung and Google.
Bruce was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2009. For many years, he was an officer in charge of programming of the Inn of Court for the Federal Circuit. Bruce received the 2019 Learned Hand Award given by the American Jewish Committee to “leading lawyers for their professional achievements and for their contributions to the law and to the wider community.” Bruce is listed in the 2010-2013 editions of Washington DC’s Best Lawyers and in the 2010-2012 editions of Best Lawyers in America under the categories of Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation and Intellectual Property Law. He is listed in the 2013-2021 editions of Best Lawyers in America under the same categories and under the category of Patent Litigation. Bruce is listed in the 2013-2016 and 2018-2019 editions of Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers Magazine as one of the Top 100 lawyers in D.C., as well as under the category of Intellectual Property Litigation. He has been recognized in the 2012-2025 editions of IAM 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners. The 2018 edition identifies Bruce as “a truly superb lawyer who believes in every case he takes.” The 2016 edition praises Bruce for having “masterminded the firm’s rise to prominence in the IP space,” and notes that he is “a brilliant strategist and indefatigable worker, with extraordinarily good judgement,” and that “he commands immense respect from opponents and judges; when he’s on a case, as if by magic, nobody wants to fight over inconsequential points.” In the 2014 edition, IAM 1000 describes Bruce as a “gold-standard litigator” who “has this wonderful mix of being likeable yet extremely tough,…cerebral, but with great street-smarts and tactical cunning….” In 2013, he was described as “smart, tough and highly articulate” and “one of the most respected trial lawyers” in Washington, D.C. The 2012 edition noted that clients “love IP leader Bruce Genderson for his strategic and tactical acumen, tenacity and ability to overcome any obstacles” and that he has “diverse experience [in] complex civil litigation.” He was also named one of the top 10 life sciences litigators in the United States in the June 2012 issue of Managing Intellectual Property.
Bruce was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Silver Spring, MD. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Duke University in 1974 and his J.D., magna cum laude, in 1977 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After clerking for Judge Irving L. Goldberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Bruce joined Williams & Connolly in 1978. He served as a member of Williams & Connolly’s Executive Committee from 2002-2006 and again from 2013-2018.
Bruce served on the Board and as an officer of his synagogue, B’nai Tzedek, for many years, including serving as President from 2010-12. He currently serves on the Board of the Washington Region of the American Jewish Committee. He is an amateur photographer, and he loves sports of all kinds – including tennis, golf, skiing, hiking, and swimming.
