JEFFREY SOOS
Jeffrey Soos, a member of Saiber’s business litigation practice group in Florham Park, has been appointed co-chair of the John C. Lifland American Inn of Court, an association dedicated to fostering and developing the practice of intellectual property law and federal litigation. Soos focuses his practice in business litigation, intellectual property litigation, class action litigation and antitrust, trade regulation and unfair competition. He is a member of the American Bar Association, New Jersey State Bar Association, and the Association of the Federal Bar of the State of New Jersey. He received his B.S. from Syracuse University in 1991, and his J.D. from the University of Utah in 1994.
Thomas Prol Moderates First Amendment Free Speech Program at NJ Law Center
ROCK THE 1ST AMENDMENT: At right, Thomas Priol and Simon Tam (on left), on Sept. 23 at the NJ Law Center in New Brunswick.
On Sept. 23, Thomas Prol, a partner at Laddey, Clark & Ryan in Sparta, moderated a legal education program regarding controversial Supreme Court decisions at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick. The program featured remarks by Simon Tam, the lead singer of the rock group “The Slants,” and his attorney before the U.S. Supreme Court in Matal v. Tam. Tam recently won a landmark decision at the U.S. Supreme Court under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. He successfully fought to trademark his rock band’s name, which was previously denied as disparaging speech. The Supreme Court struck down the part of the trademark law that called for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office staff to make assessments about whether speech is offensive or not, stating, “[w]e now hold that this provision violates the Free Speech Clause of the 1st Amendment…It offends a bedrock 1st Amendment principle: Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend.” Following the keynote address from Tam, Thomas Prol hosted Tam’s counsel, Rutgers Law School Dean Ronald Chen, and other attorneys for a roundtable discussion regarding some of the most important cases of the nation’s history, asking: “Did the Court get it right or wrong?” Licensed to practice law in both New Jersey and New York, Prol is admitted before numerous federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Prol is a graduate of NY Law School and holds a master of public health and a bachelor’s degree from Emory University. Prior to law school, he worked as an environmental scientist and enforcement officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also served two years as a volunteer in the U.S. Peace Corps in Nepal and has held internships with the U.S. Attorney’s Office (EDNY), the NYC Commission on Human Rights, CNN and the Carter Presidential Center.
