Chad Pehrson

Mr. Pehrson is a member of KNH’s litigation group specializing in intellectual property and corporate governance disputes. He directs various types of complex commercial litigation, with a focus on intellectual property, including patent and trademark infringement, as well as securities and antitrust litigation. Mr. Pehrson is a registered patent attorney with litigation experience in venues across the country, including federal courts in Delaware, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Georgia, California, New York, Virginia, Washington, and Utah. In patent disputes, he finds his language training (M.A., rhetoric) to be as useful as his scientific training (M.S., chemistry) in distilling complex scientific material into organized information sets for non-specialist judges and juries. Mr. Pehrson also enjoys handling administrative actions in front of the SEC, Utah Division of Securities of other government agencies.  Mr. Pehrson was recently appointed by the SEC and the United States District Court for the District of Utah to act as a receiver, with the goal of efficiently recovering resources stolen through an illegal securities scheme.

In his practice, Mr. Pehrson handles disputes for large and small companies within the technology and financial sectors, including Cisco Systems, CoolIT Systems, Elpida Memory, Intel Corp., Standard BioTools, Michaels Stores, Hellman & Friedman, Silver Lake, Brigham Young University, Scripps Research Institute, Sony Mobile Communications, the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York, and former officers and directors of Lehman Brothers, Inc.

Mr. Pehrson believes in Abraham Lincoln, and that nearly every dispute ought to take a shot at early resolution. He has enough work and does not want your dispute to continue past tomorrow, if at all possible. He nearly always proposes that parties explore the possibilities of resolution through early and ongoing mediation, and often recommends entering into express post-dispute-initiation med-arb or arbitration agreements.

Mr. Pehrson maintains an active interest in education, pro bono legal practice, and civic involvement. He finds expertise, advocacy and teaching closely related. Since 2015, he has been an adjunct professor, teaching courses on corporate governance, intellectual property, and contract disputes. He has also coached high school students participating in the Constitutional Rights Foundation Mock Trial Program, and mentored engineering students enrolled in technology entrepreneurship courses at Stanford, BYU, Weber State and other universities.

Mr. Pehrson believes in maintaining an active pro bono docket. He has defended residential tenants from improper unlawful detainer proceedings, aided minors facing deportation proceedings, and defended private individuals wrongly accused of frivolous money-grubbing copyright infringement claims.  Recently, acting at the behest of a client in the automotive business, Mr. Pehrson successfully obtained discretionary relief from the Department of Justice, cancelling deportation proceedings brought against a longtime mechanic supporting children in local high schools. His favorite pro bono cases involve efforts to protect individuals against overreaches by powerful yet out-of-touch governmental agencies.

Presently, Mr. Pehrson enjoys his decade-long role as volunteer secretary (and mediocre coach) at a local elementary school’s chess club team.  Every winter, he volunteers with multiple local non-profit youth ski teams. He is not a good skier but nonetheless loves his role as a volunteer, certified USSA coach and race referee.  For many years, Mr. Pehrson was a volunteer accompanist for a children’s choir.  (They recently let him go, because he plays the piano poorly.)

Prior to joining KNH, Mr. Pehrson was a shareholder at Parr Brown Gee & Loveless, an associate with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in Palo Alto, and a law clerk to United States District Judge Kim R. Gibson of the Western District of Pennsylvania. (Judge Gibson, a distinguished military professional, taught Mr. Pehrson that excuses are not relevant, and that professional courtesy is an inherent part of our profession’s public trust.)  Mr. Pehrson also worked as a law clerk with Debevoise & Plimpton in Washington, D.C. and with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta. For many years, Mr. Pehrson owned and managed a small landscaping business. He misses his landscaping accounts, and shall return one day.  He learned then something back then that the legal monopoly sometimes seems to not know: a successful business works to solve problems as quickly as possible in exchange for as little money as possible.  Mr. Pehrson has lived in 31 cities and believes that is because of an explorer’s heart and definitely not due to an inherent inability to get along with others.

Mr. Pehrson earned an honors degree from the University of Utah, where he appreciated assistance from National Merit and University Presidential scholarships. He enjoyed working in the office of former University President Bernard J. Machen. Mr. Pehrson also earned an MA in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon University and an MS in Chemistry from Lehigh University. While completing his law degree at Vanderbilt University Law School, Mr. Pehrson was voted by his peers as “Outstanding Third-Year Editor” of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. Mr. Pehrson adores his five children R, G, C, F, and D, each of whom thinks that he cares only about chores and swears too much.

Due to a significant volume of ongoing matters, Mr. Pehrson’s dispute and counseling practice is fully booked.  While he reserves time to help current KNH clients with urgent matters, he is not presently available to handle new litigation for businesses that are not currently clients.  He appreciates your understanding and looks forward to revisiting future opportunities when his schedule allows.  Despite the restriction on new commercial clients, Mr. Pehrson will always consider pro bono representations and encourages those in need to schedule a consult via email to cpehrson@knh.law and acoats@knh.law.