Melissa H. Maxman
Managing Partner
Cohen & Gresser LLP
Melissa H Maxman is the Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. She has decades of litigation experience at both the trial and appellate levels, primarily in the areas of antitrust, RICO, environmental law, complex commercial disputes, and white collar defense. She has extensive experience advising domestic and foreign corporations on global antitrust issues. She has represented clients in complex civil and criminal matters before the Federal Trade Commission, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and in private civil matters. Melissa has been recognized in The Legal 500’s U.S. guide in the commercial litigation and corporate investigations and white collar defense categories, where she is described as a “brilliant thinker and lawyer.” She has also been named one of Washington, D.C.’s Super Lawyers each year since 2011.
Prior to joining Cohen & Gresser, Melissa was the Chair of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice Group in the Washington, D.C. offices of two large national law firms. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and was a law clerk for the Honorable Harry T Edwards of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Melissa is a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review.
Melissa has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2003. She is also an Advisory Board member for the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies and is Co-Chair of the ABA National Institute on Class Actions. She is the immediate past chair of the Dean’s National Advisory Council for the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences at the George Washington University. She serves as Co-Chair of the Exemptions and Immunities Committee of the ABA Antitrust Section.
J. Manly Parks
Partner
Duane Morris LLP
J. Manly Parks represents clients nationally in the areas of antitrust law, complex business litigation, international dispute counseling, franchise and distribution law, and intellectual property litigation. He also has extensive experience with election law matters.
An experienced commercial litigator, trial attorney and appellate advocate, Mr. Parks has handled numerous class action, multi-party, and other complex litigation matters on behalf of clients in a variety of industries including motor vehicle distribution, banking and finance, ocean shipping, duty-free customs warehouses, real estate and insurance.
A member of the firm's Antitrust and Competition Group, Mr. Parks represents and counsels manufacturers, distributors, dealers, franchisors, franchisees, financial institutions, healthcare providers, joint ventures and trade associations in matters involving all aspects of the antitrust laws, including government investigations and private claims of price fixing, dealer/distributor termination, group boycotts, tying, competitor collaboration, monopolization and attempted monopolization, and price discrimination.
Mr. Parks' experience in the area of franchise and distribution law includes prosecuting and defending against commercial contract, business tort and intellectual property claims, including dealer/distributor termination, tortious interference with contract, unfair trade practices, copyright and trademark violations, breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Mr. Parks also serves as chairman of the firm's Dealer Network Services Group, representing manufacturers as well as truck and equipment distributors and dealers in a wide range of legal matters, including contract and business negotiations, regulatory and compliance matters, buy-sell agreements, and the litigation and mediation of commercial disputes.
Mr. Parks is also a member of the firm's Intellectual Property Litigation Division and has handled a number of cases involving claims of copyright and trademark infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. Mr. Parks' copyright litigation experience includes matters involving website photographs, consumer goods, computer software, large product databases, popular music and materials associated with food service franchises. His trademark experience includes matters involving truck bodies, restaurants, franchises and medical equipment.
His practice includes a significant international component, including international arbitrations in several jurisdictions and before a variety of tribunals, as well as counseling international clients on a wide range of commercial issues as well as dispute avoidance. Mr. Parks has long been active in the Multilaw legal network, and served as Chairman of Multilaw’s Global Litigation Practice Group as well as Chairman of Practice Group Oversight for Multilaw. Manly served as global editor of the Multilaw Foreign Judgement Enforcement Database and has handled a number of matters involving the domestication of foreign judgments in the United States. He formerly served for several years as Chancellor of the Multilaw Academy, and received the Distinguished Service Award from Multilaw in 2015.
Mr. Parks helped manage the 2019 Government Transition in Delaware County (PA) and currently serves as Solicitor for the Delaware County Board of Elections and Voter Registration Commission. He served as Solicitor of the Delaware County Democratic Committee from 2010-2018. He has represented several candidates and elected officials in election law-related matters, including nomination petition challenges and election recounts. He was also involved as counsel to Petitioners in the successful challenge to the 2012 Legislative Redistricting Plan before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He currently serves as a member of the Election Protection Steering Committee for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and served as Co-Chair of that Committee from 2017-2018. He served as County Counsel for Delaware County, Pennsylvania for Democratic U.S. Presidential Campaigns in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
He is a former judicial clerk to the Honorable Donald W. VanArtsdalen of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland. In 2005 he was one of only 35 attorneys across Pennsylvania named a "Lawyer on the Fast Track" by the publisher of The Legal Intelligencer. He was also identified as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyers "Rising Star" in antitrust law in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and has been listed in Pennsylvania Super Lawyers in antitrust law multiple times.
Mr. Parks is a 1994 graduate of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of the College of William and Mary, where he served as senior professional articles editor of the William and Mary Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. He is also a cum laude graduate of Colgate University and a graduate of Woodberry Forest School.
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