CASSANDRA B. MERRICK

representative cases

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• Securities & employment litigation. Representing an Air Force Academy graduate, former General Mills executive, and the former President of American Girl dolls, related to a dispute regarding her former employment with Tilray, Inc.—a large cannabis company formerly headquartered in Canada. In a five-day arbitration before the Honorable Thomas Fraser in December 2022, Judge Fraser held that Tilray’s former CEO, Brendan Kennedy, “…used [our client's] leadership to maximize EBITDA to maintain what negotiating leverage he could in the discussions with Aphria. The testimony by Kennedy and Levin that MH’s achievement of its EBITDA target was largely due to the efforts of [other of] Tilray’s executives is not credible.” He further noted that Tilray’s defense was “misleading at best,” and that our client's division “…was the only Tilray business unit with a positive EBITDA..." Tilray's last settlement offer was $186,000. We obtained an order awarding our client $4,001,524, including attorneys’ fees.

• Trademark and false-advertising litigation. Representing Dires, LLC (doing business as Personal Comfort Bed), Craig Miller, and Scott Stenzel in defending against Select Comfort Corporation’s allegations that Personal Comfort Bed’s advertising violated Select Comfort’s trademarks and that Personal Comfort Bed made false statements in its advertising. After a 14-day jury trial in which Select Comfort sought more than $17.1 million in damages, the jury found no trademark infringement, no trademark dilution, no unfair competition, and found in favor of our clients on multiple false advertising claims. In addition, the jury found that our clients prevailed on their counterclaim seeking a judgment that Select Comfort has no trademark rights in the phrase “number bed.” In total, the jury found that Personal Comfort Bed made several false statements and awarded Select Comfort $120,812 in damages against our corporate client only—the jury found no liability whatsoever for our individual clients. The jury thus awarded Select Comfort, a corporation currently worth over $1.32 billion, less than 1% of the damages it sought at trial.

• Trade-secret, copyright, & breach-of-fiduciary-duty litigation. Representing motorcycle and automotive design company Ciro, LLC, Tom Rudd, Ken Madden, Darron May, and Chris Lindloff in defending against Kuryakyn Holdings, LLC’s 18 claims, including allegations of trade-secret misappropriation, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty and duty of loyalty. After lengthy discovery and summary-judgment briefing, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin granted summary judgment in favor of our clients with respect to 17 of the 18 claims, dismissing claims of copyright infringement, federal and state trade-secret claims, breach of contract, and a statutory conspiracy to injure business claim. Four of our five clients were dismissed from the lawsuit entirely and only a portion of one claim remained against one of our clients. That remaining claim has since been resolved.

• Criminal Defense. Represented CEO in felony trial stemming from CEO's alleged assault of a neurosurgeon. Mr. Madel and Ms. Merrick obtained a complete acquittal.

• Trust litigation. Represented trustees of spendthrift trust, including former FBI Director Louis Freeh, against allegations that trustees committed certain actions disqualifying spendthrift nature of the trust.

• General business litigation.  NJK Holding v. The Araz Group, Inc./jury trial & appellate win.  In 2015, Ms. Merrick was co-counsel relating to a trial against The Araz Group, Inc. relating to a promissory note in the amount of $700,000.  Judge Thomas Fraser presided over the jury trial, and our client ultimately won a judgment of $1,782,149.80.  At the conclusion of trial, we moved for our attorneys’ fees and costs, which Judge Fraser granted in full. The Araz Group then appealed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and Ms. Merrick drafted the briefing on our client’s behalf.  On May 2, 2016, the Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Fraser’s judgment in a unanimous, published decision that held, for the first time under Minnesota law, that Minnesota’s statute of frauds applies to alleged agreements to extinguish debts (and not just agreements to modify debts).  See NJK Holding Corp. v. The Araz Group, Inc., 878 N.W.2d 515 (Minn. App. 2016).  The Minnesota Supreme Court denied review of the Court of Appeals' decision and awarded 100% of our attorneys’ fees and costs incurred through the appellate process. 

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PLEASE NOTE:  All cases are different and past results do not predict future case outcomes.

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awards

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• Named a “Minnesota Rising Star” by Super Lawyers (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)

• Named a Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in Commercial Litigation, Criminal Defense: White Collar, Litigation - Intellectual Property, and Intellectual Property Law (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)

• Named a “North Star Lawyer” by the Minnesota State Bar Association for providing at least 50 hours of pro bono legal services (2016)

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publications

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• Fourth Circuit Rules Company Challenging Statements on a Government Website Cannot Litigate Anonymously or in Secret
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Winter/Spring 2014)

• Copyright Decisions Demonstrate the Perils of Posting and Using Visual Content Online
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Winter/Spring 2014)

• Copyright Decisions Emphasize the Broad Protections of the Fair Use Doctrine in Infringement Cases
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Fall 2013)

• Courts Expand Protection for Online Speech, Define When Some Online Speech is Private
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Fall 2013)

• California Legislators Address Data Protection and New Technology on Several Fronts
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Fall 2013)

• U.S. Supreme Court Upholds First Sale Doctrine for Works Made Abroad in Major Copyright Decision
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Winter/Spring 2013)

• FTC State Attorneys General Set Their Sights on Consumer Privacy in the Mobile Industry
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Winter/Spring 2013)

• Media Organizations’ Use of Public Data Draws Privacy Concerns from Courts, Legislatures
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Winter/Spring 2013)

• Minnesota Courts Address Defamation Claims Stemming from Blog Posts and Online Review
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Fall 2012)

• New FCC Rule on Disclosure of Political Advertising Follows 2012 Election Spending
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Fall 2012)

• Copyright Cases Around the Country Address Illegal Downloading, the Sale of Foreign-Made Works in the U.S., and the Aggregation of Online Listings
  Silha Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Fall 2012)

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speeches

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• "The FTC Enters The Blogosphere: The Marketplace of Ideas and The FTC’S Regulation of Blogger Speech," Law & Policy Division, National Conference for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington D.C. (August 9, 2013)

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boards/community

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• Board Member, Minnesota Women Lawyers

• MSBA Mock Trial Volunteer Judge

• Former Board Member, Minnesota Special Hockey

• Former Mock Trial Assistant Coach

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bar admissions

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• Minnesota

• U.S. Supreme Court

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

• U.S. District Court, Minnesota

• U.S. District Court, Western District of Michigan

• U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin

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education

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• University of Minnesota (2014)

  • J.D., magna cum laude

• University of Minnesota (2014) 

  • Masters of Arts (M.A.), Mass Communication

• University of Missouri (2011)

  • Summa cum laude with University Honors

  • Bachelor of Journalism

  • Bachelor of Arts in Political Science