Trevor K. Copeland

Patent Attorney, President - Chicago Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies

Trevor Copeland is a patent attorney and shareholder at the venerable Chicago law firm of Brinks, Hofer, Gilson, and Lione, where his practice is focused upon patent prosecution, client counseling, and patent litigation (i.e. practicing Constitutional Law under Article I, Sec. 8, cl. 8 “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;”).  He earned his Juris Doctor at the University of Minnesota Law School, and his Master of Science in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology, and Genetics, with a graduate minor in Bioethics, at the University of Minnesota.

Mr. Copeland serves as the President for the Chicago Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order – founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be.  Although it takes no formal positions on any political or legal issues, the Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities.  Mr. Copeland’s activities in the Society provide an active forum and productively creative outlet for his longtime interest in Constitutional values, with particular focus on federalism, free speech and religious exercise, Second Amendment rights, free enterprise, and the value of a strong but limited federal government with distinctive branches designed to check and balance each other.  In addition, he serves actively on the Executive Committee for the Society’s Intellectual Property Law Practice Group.

In addition, Mr. Copeland maintains an thriving interest at the intersection of science, law, and ethics as they relate particularly to human life and the practice of medicine.  For this reason, his is a longtime member and supporter of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity.  His other professional activities include active membership in the I.P.-focused Richard Linn American Inn of Court.  However, his most important duties and greatest honors are as a husband and father, including active participation in, and support with his family of, the church with which they work and worship, and of the classical school his children attend. 

What's New


Heartland Newsletters

The Heartland Institute offers free email subscriptions to all of its newsletters and monthly public policy newspapers.