Sander J. Morehead
Shareholder | Managing Director
(605)978-0629| Email | vCard | PDF
Areas of Practice
Bankruptcy / Creditor’s Rights
Intellectual Property
Litigation
Mediation/Alternative Dispute Resolution
Education
University of South Dakota, B.S., J.D., Sterling Honors
American Academy of ADR Attorneys & Calkins Academy of Dispute Resolution - 40 Hours of Advanced Training in Mediation, Mediation Advocacy, and Arbitration
ADMITTED TO:
Iowa
South Dakota
Federal District Court for the District of South Dakota, Federal District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals of Appeals, Federal Circuit Court of Appeals
EXPERIENCE:
Growing up on his family's farm in northwestern Iowa, Sander learned the value of hard work. He applied that work ethic in law school, graduating at the top of his class. Since arriving in 2005, Sander has worked just as hard for the firm’s clients.
Sander's practice is devoted almost entirely to complex, high-risk commercial litigation including internal entity disputes (partnerships, corporations, and limited liability companies); trust and estate disputes; contract, warranty, product liability, and commercial disparagement claims; insurance coverage disputes, defamation claims; lender liability claims; and collections, foreclosures, and Chapter 7, 11, and 12 bankruptcy matters. He is one of the most experienced intellectual property lawyers in the area and has litigated multiple patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and non-compete cases on behalf of area businesses in courts in South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Tennessee, California, and Texas. He also has experience with trademark opposition and cancellation matters before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark office.
Sander has learned that any complex litigation matter requires more than hard work. There is also a need for strategy and balancing of rewards and risks. Sander communicates with his clients to develop a litigation strategy that meets their needs. He then pursues it by zealously and tirelessly advocating. This maximizes his clients’ litigation position if a judge or jury has to resolve the case. But he is also sensitive to the financial and other risks inherent in litigation. Each client has a different tolerance for those risks. So, Sander also helps clients resolve cases through practical business solutions, using his strong litigation advocacy to provide an equally strong negotiating position.
Sander is now working to offer parties his balanced perspective and his diverse litigation experience as a neutral mediator. He recently completed 40 hours of advanced training from the American Academy of ADR Attorneys and the Calkins Academy of Dispute Resolution, including training in mediation, attorney advocacy in mediation, the psychology of conflict, arbitration law and practice, mediation techniques, conference mediation, caucus mediation, and conciliation, with further emphasis on the importance of AI, Online Dispute Resolution, and Cybersecurity in the field of alternative dispute resolution.
Sander is the chair of the South Dakota State Bar’s Ethics Committee. He also serves on the South Dakota State Bar’s Practice Rules Revision Committee and Debtor-Creditor Committee. He was recently selected to serve a three-year term on the South Dakota Legislature’s Commission on Uniform Legislation. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law, teaching Secured Transactions during the Spring semesters in 2021 and 2022 and Civil Procedure II during the Spring semester in 2023.
He and his wife Wendie live in Tea, South Dakota, where they raised their five children, and spend time with their six grandchildren.
BV Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell
2023 Calkins ADR Masterclass Completion
