Elizabeth K. McLean

LIZ MCLEAN focuses her practice on a broad range of litigation and dispute resolution, with a focus on intellectual property matters relating to copyright, trademark, and advertising. She represents a variety of clients including social media companies, e-commerce platforms, and biotechnology companies.

Prior to joining Sidley, Liz worked at another global law firm where she assisted clients in all phases of litigation matters. She has experience with copyright, trademark, breach of contract, trade secret, patent, bankruptcy disputes, and related commercial litigation matters.

While attending New York University School of Law, Liz served as notes editor of the NYU Journal of Legislation & Public Policy. During law school, she served as a judicial intern for the Honorable James C. Francis at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and as a legal intern at the Legal Aid Society and the Office of the Appellate Defender.

• Representing a major social media platform and its subsidiaries in a putative class action involving copyright infringement claims in the Northern District of California;
• Representing a prominent technology company in a litigation in the Southern District of New York involving direct and contributory trademark infringement claims;
• Advising major social media and e-commerce platforms on matters relating to copyright and trademark infringement and issues concerning the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Communications Decency Act (CDA);
• Representing innovator biotechnology company in winning a US$45 million trial verdict following five days of a trial in a Lanham Act false advertising litigation brought in Delaware federal court against a competitor;
• Representing a major pharmaceutical company in false advertising litigations in the Northern District of California;
• Representing an international e-commerce platform in litigations relating to direct and contributory copyright and trademark infringement in the Southern District of New York.
• Experience in rate court proceeding relating to music licensing.

*Some of the above matters were handled prior to joining Sidley.

Liz regularly works on various pro bono matters including immigration and reproductive rights matters. She helped secure asylum for a client in 2023.