Speaker details

Biography

Robert L. Byer is a partner and head of the appellate practice at Duane Morris LLP, where he is resident in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh offices. He concentrates his practice in appellate and legal issues litigation. Mr. Byer is a former judge of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court and Pennsylvania Court of Judicial Discipline. A Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, he has argued or briefed over 275 appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, District of Columbia and Federal Circuits, and the appellate courts of Pennsylvania, California, Maryland and Washington. Mr. Byer has also briefed and worked on appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court. His appellate work covers a wide range of legal areas, including real estate, eminent domain, environmental, corporate governance, intellectual property, administrative agency law, taxation, constitutional law, insurance coverage, contracts, professional liability, product liability and toxic torts. Before choosing to concentrate his practice in appellate and legal issues litigation, Mr. Byer was an active trial lawyer for over 12 years, focusing on complex commercial and intellectual property litigation. He is a member of the American Law Institute, a former member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and a founding member of the Third Circuit Bar Association. Mr. Byer served six terms as a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Appellate Court Procedural Rules Committee, and he chaired that committee for five years. He served two terms as Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Civil Litigation Section and served for 12 years in the House of Delegates. Mr. Byer is a former adjunct faculty member at Duquesne University School of Law, where he taught Pennsylvania Civil Procedure. He has also served on the faculty of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, where he taught courses on judicial review of administrative agency adjudications. Mr. Byer is recognized in Best Lawyers in America (Appellate, Bet-the-Company and Commercial Litigation), and Pennsylvania Super Lawyers and Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition (Appellate). He is the author of a treatise on Pennsylvania civil practice and numerous published articles, monographs and course materials on various legal topics. Mr. Byer is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh (B.A., 1973, J.D., 1977), where he was an editor of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. He engaged in post-graduate studies at Harris Manchester College, Oxford University (1973-1974).