Overview
For more than 30 years Gene has represented businesses and individuals in various litigation matters. He has tried more than 30 cases to verdict, including 11 jury trials. He also serves as outside general counsel for a number of businesses, handling a variety of day-to-day matters faced by his clients.
As a member of the firm’s Business Litigation Service Group, Gene enjoys representing clients who are passionate about their work. He represents everyone from artists to manufacturers. Though his clients work in diverse fields, he takes the time to understand their businesses as well as they do. He guides his clients through a variety of legal issues including, employment, contractual, products liability, and copyright and trademark matters.
Gene often represents artists, gallery and museum owners, and individual collectors in a variety of matters. In a memorable case, he prevailed in a title dispute over Norman Rockwell’s Russian Schoolroom after it was stolen and then innocently purchased by his client at an auction.
Outside his legal practice, Gene serves on the advisory board of the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, RI, whose mission is to exhibit and educate the public about American illustration art.
Experience
Membership & Involvement
- Member: American Bar Association; Illinois State Bar Association; Missouri Bar Association
- Advisory Board Member: National Museum of American Illustration
- Past Chairman - Franchise and Pro Bono Committees: Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis
Honors
- Selected to The Best Lawyers in America® in Commercial Litigation: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Selected to The Best Lawyers in America® in Litigation - Intellectual Property: 2024
Resources & Insights
Alerts
Firm News
- 107 Amundsen Davis Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers® in 2024 in America107 Amundsen Davis Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers® in 2024 in America
We are extremely excited to congratulate 107 of our attorneys on being recognized by Best Lawyers® in 2024 in America.
- 45 SmithAmundsen Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers in America© 202345 SmithAmundsen Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers in America© 2023
Congratulate to our 45 attorneys on being recognized by Best Lawyers in America© 2023!
- AI Under Attack Again for Copyright InfringementAI Under Attack Again for Copyright Infringement
On the heels of a class action lawsuit filed by visual artists against Stability AI and others, alleging copyright infringement by image-generating web sites, Getty Images (US) Inc. has filed its own lawsuit against Stability AI. Getty filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Getty alleges that Stability AI copied over 12 million of its copyrighted images from its websites, along with associated text and metadata, in order to train its Stable Diffusion model. According to Getty, Stability AI is now competing with Getty for those seeking creative visual imagery. Getty also alleges that Stability AI has been valued as high as one billion dollars, though it is barely a few years old.
- Artists Challenge AI Alleging Copyright ViolationsArtists Challenge AI Alleging Copyright Violations
On January 13, 2023, a group of artists filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California, alleging that the use of their work by art generator makers to train their AI tools is a copyright violation. The lawsuit, based on the Copyright Act, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and other state laws alleges that the defendants have scraped billions of images from the web and are using them to train their AI programs to create new images.
Education
University of Virginia, B.A., 1981, with honors
Washington University School of Law, J.D., 1985
Admissions
- Illinois
- Missouri