Elizabeth (“Liz”) Brannen is the Managing Partner of Stris & Maher LLP, where she leads the firm’s strategic direction, operations, and continued growth as one of the nation’s preeminent litigation boutiques. Under her leadership, the firm has expanded its national footprint, strengthened its position in high-stakes litigation, and earned widespread recognition for excellence in complex trial and appellate work.
In addition to serving as the firm’s chief executive, Brannen remains an active trial and appellate lawyer and chairs the firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology practice. She is known for combining rigorous legal strategy with practical business judgment—both in her client work and in guiding the firm’s long-term vision.
Lawdragon Honors
| Honor | Year | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| The 2026 Lawdragon 100 Managing Partners You Need to Know | 2026 | Managing Partner |
Intellectual Property and Trial Practice
A veteran IP litigator, Brannen leads Stris & Maher’s Intellectual Property litigation practice, handling complex disputes nationwide. Her work spans district courts across the country, including in California, Utah, Virginia, and New York, where she has secured significant victories for global technology leaders and preserved those wins on appeal.
Brannen is widely recognized for her expertise in copyright, Lanham Act, and trade secret litigation. She served as the firm’s primary substantive authority in its copyright cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Fourth Estate v. Wall-Street.com, 139 S. Ct. 881 (2019), and Unicolors v. H&M, 142 S. Ct. 941 (2022). She also played a central role in the firm’s Lanham Act trial victory defeating a $180 million false advertising claim.
Before joining Stris & Maher in 2015, Brannen served as Director of Intellectual Property at Barnes & Noble, as Corporate Counsel in Oracle’s litigation group, and as a patent litigator at a leading global IP firm—experience that continues to inform her practical, business-oriented approach to litigation.
Leadership in Diversity and Inclusion
Brannen is deeply committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the legal profession. She is a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, a coalition of corporate chief legal officers and law firm leaders dedicated to fostering a more inclusive legal industry. As a “Leader at the Front,” she has pledged to take concrete, measurable action to promote diversity within the profession.
She is also one of 27 Champions of the Burford Capital Equity Project, an award-winning initiative that provides financing to support commercial litigation and arbitration led by women and racially diverse lawyers. Through this work, Brannen helps expand opportunities for underrepresented lawyers to build practices and leadership roles within the profession.
Background
Brannen received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, with honors, and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, magna cum laude. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Arthur J. Gajarsa of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.