Joseph P. Beckman

A commercial lawyer for over twenty years, Joseph P. Beckman is chair of the firm's Business and Corporate Practice Group. In this capacity he provides counsel to clients ranging from entrepreneurial start-ups to high growth companies. Joe's practice is focused in the following areas:

• E-commerce and technology
• General corporate and business representation
• Conflict resolution (strategy & prosecution)
• Business litigation

In addition to general corporate and business law, Joe has extensive hands-on experience with e-commerce business models and contracts (domestic and international), hardware and software licenses/sales/acquisitions, Internet law, payment processing, privacy law and complex insurance coverage issues (with a focus on health, professional errors/omissions, and bad faith claims).

Technology Transactions

Over the past decade, Joe has negotiated scores of hardware, software (both hosted applications and on site installations) and e-commerce agreements. Such agreements typically include sophisticated software licensing components, separate service level agreements, data privacy obligations or agreements, preparation/ownership of custom code, and multiple types of implementation obligations (acceptance/payment milestones, training, ongoing professional services, multiple SOWs, etc.)

Joe has negotiated multiple seven figure agreements in each of the following styles (alphabetically): Co-Location/Internet Data Services Agreements, Database Licenses, Data Privacy and Data Security Agreements, Hardware Acquisition Agreements, IP Rights Assignment Agreements, sophisticated domestic and international Service Level Agreements, Software Development Agreements, Source Code (and other Technology) Escrows, and Telecommunications Agreements. The vast majority of these agreements involved contract partners who are Fortune 500 companies or whose names are commonly known to the average person.

Joe has more than half a decade of service in the on-site general counsel role for two publicly traded technology companies, including the corporate secretary role. He has been involved in multiple business negotiations and sales. His time "in house" provides substantial real world experience and insight into the diverse and often complex legal needs of corporate clients. By combining the skills of a seasoned business attorney with his courtroom expertise, he provides clients with pragmatic risk management advice, yet remains well equipped to provide front-line leadership when a matter must move from the corporate office suite to the courthouse.

Trial Experience

Prior to moving to Minnesota and establishing his business practice, Joe spent eleven years as a full time trial attorney. He handled high stakes, high profile commercial litigation – practicing for 7.5 years with one of the 100 largest firms in the U.S. in his native Chicago, and then in Helena, Montana with that state's oldest firm. In 2010 he played a substantial in court role in a three-week, 14 party construction defect case in Dakota County.

Joe has more than a dozen verdicts to his credit, a substantial majority of which had over $500,000 at issue. This includes meaningful trial experience in areas as diverse as: a challenge to the largest (at the time) government contract award in Montana history (a managed mental health care contract); an eight figure bankruptcy voidable preference claim; multiple insurance coverage/fraud claims; seven figure partnership disputes; six and seven figure employment contract disputes; seven figure shareholder derivative actions; and even getting a campaign finance law declared unconstitutional. He has briefed and argued appeals at the Federal Circuit level, and briefed multiple cases at the state appellate and supreme court levels.

Professional Organizations

Joe is active in the ABA Business Law Section, the Association of Corporate Counsel and the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), where he holds the Certified Information Privacy Professional credential. Joe is also a graduate of the famed National Institute of Trial Advocacy ("NITA") national session.

A member of the ABA Section of Litigation Leadership since 1996, Joe is currently the Editor-in-Chief for Litigation News, the Section's quarterly flagship publication. Prior to this, he served in the Executive Editor and Managing Editor positions. Before that Joe was published six times annually as Associate Editor.

Joe has also presented on topics including technology, contracts and indemnity issues at Minnesota Continuing Legal Education (“MCLE”) and ABA Section of Business Law events. He is currently working on an installment of MCLE’s popular Summary Guide series covering Data Privacy and Protection.

Joe also gets into the courtroom regularly in another capacity – as a volunteer with the Ramsey County Guardian ad Litem program. Joe has maintained an active caseload as a guardian since 2002, and brings the same passion to this aspect of his practice as he brings to his business counseling and dispute resolution practice.

Joe earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1988, where he was the Business Editor for the American Criminal Law Review. He earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Loyola University of Chicago, cum laude, between 1982 and 1985.

Since 1996, Joe has been AV® Peer Review Rated. AV® is the highest possible Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell. Joe is also a qualified neutral under Rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rules of Practice.