For attorney Kelly Tillery, a day’s work might easily—and actually did—involve representing an extreme right-wing organization in the morning, defending The Grateful Dead in the afternoon, then partying late into the night with the “Dead” and members of the Carter administration.

As a youth, Tillery dreamed of being a drummer in a rock band—but he didn’t consider himself talented enough. Later, after graduating from Swarthmore with High Honors in history, he wanted to indulge a passion for history and love for his alma mater by becoming a Swarthmore history professor—but academic jobs in his area were scarce. So, following in his father’s footsteps, he became a lawyer, specializing in intellectual property, with an emphasis on anti-counterfeiting. “Unable to be an artist myself,” he says, “I consider myself very fortunate to be contributing to the artistic, intellectual, and scientific development of this country by protecting the art and discoveries of those who do have creative abilities.”

Chair and senior partner of the Intellectual Property and E-Commerce Group of the Philadelphia-based law firm of Leonard, Tillery, and Sciola LLP, Tillery, affectionately known as “Mr. Search and Seizure,” has garnered a national reputation chasing down bootleggers from the music, movie, computer software, pharmaceutical, and fashion industries. His haul of confiscated products includes phony Rolex watches, counterfeit photos and posters of stars like Ricky Martin and The Backstreet Boys, Power Ranger and Jurassic Park action figures, bootlegged sneakers, and copied concert T-shirts. His clients range from Madonna to Meatloaf, Barney to Bruce Springsteen, The Who to U2, The Rolling Stones to Rod Stewart, Adidas to Nike, Microsoft to Mobil Oil, The Wharton School to Warner Brothers, and Bill Graham to Bill Gates.

Since his first case in 1979 representing heavy-metal rockers Black Sabbath, he says, “I’ve represented virtually every major pop or rock-and-roll artist in a variety of intellectual property matters.” Using informants, investigators, and lawyers or the victims themselves, who see their pirated products being sold on the street, he roots out the counterfeiters, comparing them to roaches—tenacious and pervasive vermin who can never be completely eliminated. “But when the light goes on, you can see them, and then you can stamp on them, and that’s a large part of what I do.”

Vehement in his condemnation of electronic copyright infringement, he agrees wholeheartedly with the injunction upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals against Napster. “Quite clearly, based upon the case law and the statutes, it is theft of intellectual property and should have been stopped from day 1,” he says. Although the current development of new systems will enable the artists and the people who create the artistic material to be appropriately compensated, he adds: “The Internet is a vast Wild West of intellectual property infringements and violations of lots of laws otherwise, and that’s going to continue for a while. It is controllable, by a combination of both law and technology. Neither one alone will be sufficient to stop it.”

Describing legal activities “that can range from the sublime to the ridiculous,” Tillery recalls appearing before a federal judge then, later that night, while backstage after a Grateful Dead concert, clothing a naked Jerry Garcia groupie by offering her a counterfeit T-shirt. He has also defended both a major religious institution and an adult entertainment organization, all in one day.

Life can be dangerous, too. “My life has been threatened on several occasions,” he says, “and my tires slashed by people in the counterfeiting industry who know I’m after them.” Wearing a wire and a bulletproof vest and accompanied by large men “with big muscles, big guns, and big badges,” he orchestrates raids on warehouses, homes, or trucks that result in the seizure of millions of dollars worth of bootlegged goods.

For someone claiming to be uncreative, Tillery has carved himself quite a colorful niche in the legal world. “I enjoy it immensely,” he says, “and it’s certainly different from doing wills or mergers and acquisitions.”

Comments about the College drift through the conversation. “Excluding the last eight years of my life as a husband and father, my four years at Swarthmore were the most wonderful of my life,” he says. He credits his Swarthmore professors with teaching him to think critically and analytically and dissect evidence and argument and reassemble them into cogent thought. “Swarthmore also greatly reinforced my passion for truth, equality, and justice. It was an invaluable time.” As a native of the Deep South, he sees himself as a beneficiary of the College’s striving for a diversified student body, saying, “The College hasn’t had many students from the bayous of Louisiana.”

Tillery likes to laugh, and he does it a lot. He feels grateful and privileged to be leading such a full and successful professional life. Yet, the real joys in his life are his wife, Susyn, and three young children, Alexander, 7; Erin, 4; and Kate, 2. His leisure time is spent primarily with them, teaching them to read and ride their bikes, and, recently, giving Alexander drum lessons. He even took the two older ones to a concert of his clients ’N Sync. Because of a delay, by the time the concert began, both children were fast asleep. “But they got their T-shirts and little lights,” he says, “so they were happy.” Just like their dad.

—Carol Brévart-Demm