Rebecca Bact

Rebecca Bact focuses her practice on a wide variety of business litigation matters, from telecommunications litigations to intellectual property litigation and appellate matters. She has represented clients in trade secret and patent disputes involving a variety of technologies, including medical devices, smartphones, and content delivery networks.

Ms. Bact handles matters at every stage of litigation, including conducting pre-suit investigations, drafting pleadings and motions, participating in all aspects of fact and expert discovery, taking depositions, and drafting briefs for appeals at state appeals courts, the United States Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States. She also has experience with matters at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and the International Trade Commission. Additionally, Ms. Bact has advised clients on matters of policy, legislation, and litigation risk. Ms. Bact has also represented clients in other complex litigation matters, including representing a major university in Title IX cases and representing a government entity in regulatory and administrative proceedings.

Ms. Bact is committed to pro bono work, focusing her practice on LGBT rights and immigration matters. Ms. Bact has represented a transgender inmate seeking adequate medical care, numerous immigrants seeking relief from removal in the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Ninth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States, and various amici in Supreme Court appeals related to same-sex marriage and transgender rights.

Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Bact worked for many years at a major national law firm and was, prior to that, a law clerk for the Honorable Norman H. Stahl of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Before beginning law school, she was an investigator with the Office of the Bar Counsel of the Board of Bar Overseers of the Supreme Judicial Court in Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Bact has served as a judicial intern with the Supreme Court of the United States, and also completed internships for the Honorable Nancy Gertner of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and for the Honorable Joan H. Lefkow of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Education

• Northwestern University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude (2011); Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Editor-in-Chief (2010-2011)
• Smith College, B.A., cum laude (2005)

Representative Matters

Drafted trial and appellate briefs in $41 million breach of contract suit resulting in successful dismissal from the bench and affirmance on appeal one day after oral argument (prior to joining Robins Kaplan).

Key team member in 12 patent cross-suit in federal court, including developing strategy, drafting successful motions, handling face-of-the-company witness (prior to joining Robins Kaplan).

Served as appellate advisor in complex breach of contract case involving patent issues, including attending multi-week trial, drafting trial and appellate briefs, and advising client on strategy and likelihood of success (prior to joining Robins Kaplan).

Counseled transgender inmate over the course of five years in case asserting Eighth Amendment violations, including witness examination in federal bench trial (prior to joining Robins Kaplan).

• Named "Attorney of the Year" by Minnesota Lawyer (2023)
• Named to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s High Pro Bono Honor Roll (2023)
• Named a "Massachusetts Rising Star" Super Lawyers (2021)

Civic

• Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women: Vice Chair (2020-present), Secretary (2018-2020), Commissioner (2017-present)
• Volunteer Lawyer, Hillary for America (2016)
• Co-Chair, Massachusetts Lawyers for Transgender Rights (2013-2014)

Professional

• Boston Bar Association
• Massachusetts Bar Association
• Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association
• Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association
  
  

Media Mentions

• "Minnesota Lawyer Announces Attorneys of the Year," Minnesota Lawyer (December 21, 2023)
• "Transgender Inmate Settles $495K Lawsuit With State Prison Over Discriminatory Policies," ALM (June 12, 2023)
• "Transgender Woman Will Move From Men's To Women's Prison In Settlement," The Patch (June 1, 2023)
• "Transgender Inmate to Move to Minnesota Women’s Prison after Settling Lawsuit Against DOC," Pioneer Press (June 1, 2023)