“California’s power grid operator said Monday it does not anticipate rotating outages but urged customers to prepare to conserve energy during the coming heatwave. We are headed into some record-breaking high heat territory, and we may call a Flex Alert if needed, Anne Gonzales, a spokesperson for California Independent System Operator, which oversees most of the state’s electric grid,” reports Reuters in their blog.

“We are working to give the public as much advance notice as possible,” Gonzales said, noting we believe that consumer conservation saved us from extended and more severe rotating outages, both in August and September in 2020.Last summer, a heatwave in August forced California utilities to impose rotating blackouts that left over 400,000 homes and businesses without power for up to 2-1/2 hours when energy supplies ran short.”

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“A U.S. judge suggested on Wednesday that Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) include a warning label on Roundup as part of a proposed $2 billion settlement to resolve future claims that the top-selling. Bayer asked U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco to give preliminary approval for the settlement deal, which would create a framework to resolve future lawsuits over claims Roundup,” reports Tom Hals in Reuters.

“For years I’ve been wondering why Monsanto wouldn’t do that voluntarily to protect itself, said Chhabria, of a warning label. He said a label would prevent further lawsuits and free up money to create a better offer for people already exposed. He even suggested wording for a label and tweaked it as he got feedback from Bayer’s lawyer.”

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“Legislators and regulators are increasingly targeting pharmacy benefit managers, middlemen that negotiate discounts with drug suppliers and administer pharmacy networks for health plans, to drive down rising pharmaceutical costs. Many of the nation’s largest PBMs have been accused of hiding behind complex, opaque contracts with government agencies,” reports Rebecca Pifer in Healthcare Dive.

“Those concerns have only heightened as the largest PBMs merge with payers, creating what many antitrust advocates see as a conflict of interest. The three biggest PBMs in the nation CVS Caremark, OptumRx and Express Scripts control more than 70% of the multibillion-dollar marketplace, and are owned by CVS Health (which owns Aetna), UnitedHealth Group.”

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“Michael Ellis a former staffer for Rep. Devin Nunes and current National Security Council (NSC) official—has been selected as general counsel of the National Security Agency. This set off alarm bells among commentators and those familiar with the agency, in part because it comes in the same week in which the top civilian leadership of the Department of Defense and installed loyalists,” reports Susan Hennessey in Lawfare Blog.

“The circumstances of Ellis’s selection, however, point to something different and in some respects worse than the developments at the Pentagon. The firings at the Defense Department involve political appointees, nearly all of whom will be gone as of Jan. 20. By contrast, selecting Ellis as NSA general counsel appears to be an attempt to improperly politicize an important career position.”

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“I’ve been writing about Big Law’s “innovation space” long enough to spot a cycle. A law firm announces new innovators or innovative ideas. These grab the attention of a cynical industry. The story becomes, “Big Law is finally changing!” The particular law firm becomes the proof,” reports Roy Strom in Bloomberg Law.

“But eventually, the firm’s grip on the prize—let’s call it the “Big Law Innovation Title”—slips, until a different firm comes along to grab it. There is no Big Law innovation dynasty, and this week showed proof of that. I reported Tuesday that David Cambria has left Baker McKenzie, where the long-time legal department change agent almost singlehandedly won the Big Law Innovation Title by taking on the chief services officer position at one of the world’s largest law firms.”

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Barnes & Thornburg has added eight prominent lawyers, consultants and staff in Delaware, including partners Thomas McGonigle, Shawn Tucker and Michael Maimone. Top level government relations consultants, Mary Kate McLaughlin and Doug Gramiak, are also joining the firm, along with Michael DeNote as of counsel, Sawyer Traver as an associate and Whitney Potts as a paralegal.

Joining from Faegre Drinker, the group collectively brings decades of experience and a deep understanding of Delaware’s critical role in corporate law, business disputes, and financial services, along with public policy and political issues. McGonigle is the partner-in-charge of the Delaware office and will participate on the firm management committee.

Barnes & Thornburg expanded into New York in February 2020 with the opening of a Midtown Manhattan office and lateral partners from some of the city’s elite law firms. Like the continued growth in New York, the Delaware additions are part of a broad firm-wide strategy to grow in strategic markets with top legal talent.

Government Experience in a Booming Market

McGonigle, an accomplished commercial litigator, has a strong background in Delaware state government. From 2009-2012, he served as chief of staff to then-Delaware Gov. Jack A. Markell and managed the governor’s office and cabinet, and was a key adviser as the state dealt with fiscal issues in the wake of the global financial crisis. McGonigle also previously served as chief legal counsel and policy director to former Gov. Thomas R. Carper, now Delaware’s senior U.S. Senator, and as a deputy attorney general in Delaware.

Tucker is a well-respected and seasoned real estate attorney who has successfully quarterbacked some of Delaware’s largest development projects. Tucker’s unique background in government has made him a natural choice for developers and business leaders over the past decade looking to expand in Delaware. Indeed, prior to entering private practice Tucker served as New Castle County’s First Assistant County Attorney responsible for overseeing all land use matters and related litigation in the State’s largest County. During that same time, Tucker led the rewrite and adoption of New Castle County’s zoning and subdivision code – the Unified Development Code. Following the code’s adoption into law, Tucker was then tapped to manage New Castle County’s Land Use Department while also overseeing the new code’s rollout.

Doug Gramiak, who joins as director of state government affairs, was chief of staff to then-Delaware Gov. John Carney from 2017 to 2019. Active with the Democratic Party for more than 30 years, Gramiak has provided senior counsel to several campaigns in Delaware, other states and nationally. He also previously served as director of an education nonprofit and as political editor for one of Delaware’s leading newspapers.

Mary Kate McLaughlin, who also joins as a director of state government affairs, previously served in two gubernatorial administrations in Delaware, including as chief of staff for the state Department of Education. She also worked as public policy manager for a national pharmaceutical company and as a government and public affairs specialist for an international energy corporation.
Corporate Law Experience and Strong New York Connections

Representing a wide array of companies and industries as well as investment funds, hedge funds and investment banks, Maimone is well known for his work in corporate transactions and litigation. He has significant experience structuring deals with safeguards against potential litigation, and as a litigator before the important Delaware Court of Chancery and Delaware Supreme Court, where he has a deep understanding of how the courts operate and of successful defense tactics.

The New York office opening, which followed expansions in late 2019 in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Salt Lake City, Utah, provides Barnes & Thornburg a strong presence in one of the world’s financial centers. The deal-making that happens in New York has strong connections to Delaware, where many companies choose to incorporate and where litigation is likely to occur.

In addition to McGonigle, Tucker, Maimone, Gramiak and McLaughlin, an of counsel and an associate are also joining the firm.

Michael DeNote, who joins as an of counsel, has more than a decade of experience in real estate law and focuses his practice on commercial real estate transactions, financings, land use and litigation. He works with corporate, government and individual clients on financings, development, acquisitions, leasing, low income housing tax credit transactions, and zoning and land use matters.

Sawyer M. Traver, who joins as an associate, handles a range of real estate-related activities, including financing, leases, contracts, litigation and land use. In addition to her judicial clerkship for the Hon. Paul R. Wallace of the Delaware Superior Court, she was a judicial intern to the Hon. Randy J. Holland of the state Supreme Court.

Compulsory licensing and IP waivers represent controversial topics in intellectual property. These mechanisms essentially suspend patent rights and permit countries to use a company’s intellectual property without the patentholders permission.

Talk about compulsory licenses and IP waivers has increased over the course of the COVID pandemic. Last week the Biden Administration even announced an IP waiver to help increase access to the Covid-19 vaccines. While it remains unclear how countries will proceed with respect to compulsory licensing or the IP waivers, it is time to start thinking about alternative mechanisms to increasing accessibility to the vaccines.

This article will first briefly explain the practical and technical hurdles to compulsory licensing and IP waivers and then provide three possible alternative mechanisms to increasing vaccine availability and accessibility.

Hurdles to Compulsory Licensing and IP Waivers

Before we can even consider waiving IP rights and allowing others to manufacture a product – in this case a vaccine – we have to consider the likelihood of success in such a scenario. While there have been success stories with compulsory licensing, namely Brazil issuing compulsory licenses for the HIV drug, efavirenz, those stories involve small molecule products that can be chemically synthesized. The Covid-19 vaccines that are manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna are very different from efavirenz and present a whole host of new issues. As a result, the efficacy of these proposals depends on a country’s internal technical capabilities to recreate the vaccine. Below are some issues presented by the Covid-19 vaccines that render compulsory licensing and IP waivers practically futile.

Covid-19 vaccines are new forms of vaccines

Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are not typical vaccines. Whereas traditional vaccines function by introducing parts of a virus — or a weakened form of a virus — Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines use messenger RNA to cause host cells to produce the protein themselves. These are the first vaccines to utilize this type of technology and, given their novelty, information about how to make these vaccines is limited. While the technology underlying mRNA vaccines has been in development for decades, there are likely specific technological hurdles associated with, for instance, the coronavirus, mass production and scale up, and delivery mechanisms, that needed to be developed for this specific application. This additional information is not found in scientific journals or magazine articles, and it cannot be found in any patent application, yet.

The lack of available information is even more compounded by the fact that much of the vaccine manufacturing process relies heavily on trade secrets. These trade secrets hold critical scientific know-how that could be necessary for accurately replicating these vaccines. Without information and know-how of how to make these mRNA vaccines, countries will encounter difficulties in recreating them.

Covid-19 vaccines are complex to manufacture

The complexity of these vaccines further exacerbates the difficulties in recreating them. The NY Times recently published Pfizer’s 19-step process for manufacturing its vaccine. (1) This 19-step process starts with pulling DNA from cold storage and ends with administering the vaccine. In between are all the steps required to grow cells, harvest DNA, transcribe the DNA into mRNA, and assemble the mRNA vaccine. At each point there are strict quality control measures designed to ensure that the end product will be what it is intended to be. Deviation at any point in this 19-step process can jeopardize the safety of the vaccine and put lives at risk.

In addition to the multi-step process of manufacturing these vaccines, obtaining the raw materials and having the proper manufacturing facilities to store them presents problems. There is currently a global shortage of raw materials to the point where even Pfizer is having difficulty obtaining the necessary materials for vaccine production. Moreover, the vaccines require storage at low temperatures and improper storage can result in lost vaccines. The spoiled vaccines in Emergent BioSolutions’ plant in Baltimore illustrate the difficulties of properly establishing manufacturing facilities. So even if countries possessed the necessary information about the vaccines, the complexity of manufacturing these vaccines on a large scale could be a particularly high barrier to overcome.

Alternatives to Increasing Access

Given the novelty and complexity of the Covid-19 vaccines, issues of safety, efficacy, and timing necessarily arise. Safety and efficacy because the lack of information surrounding these vaccines compounded by the complex manufacturing process increase the likelihood that any copycat vaccines will not be as safe or effective, and timing because figuring out, understanding, and scaling up the manufacturing process to the point where it can produce the desired amount of vaccine product will take time.

Instead of issuing compulsory licenses or IP waivers then, we should explore alternatives that will not only provide access to the vaccines, but do so in a safe, effective, and quick manner.

Collective Bargaining

Collective bargaining is one such alterative and this is not a new concept. Given the high cost of drugs, developing countries have often partnered with other developing countries or non-profit organizations to collectively bargain for lower drug prices. Dr. Anthony Fauci even helped negotiate a collective agreement in 2008 to help administer treatment for AIDS (2). Groups like the WHO, Gavi, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) are ones that can lead this approach. This is certainly a different approach than obtaining a right to use the underlying intellectual property for a treatment, and it requires countries or non-profits to have some financial strength to achieve an agreement as these entities will still have to pay for the treatment. Since there is strength with numbers, the cost per dose may be less if more groups are able to band together to facilitate a deal.

Provide Incentives

Another solution to this problem could be gleaned from the old adage of the “carrot and the stick.” While the compulsory licensing and IP waivers approach is akin to the “stick”, what is missing is the carrot approach. Under-developed countries could offer vaccine manufacturers other enticements that provide value other than monetary payment to secure deals for the vaccines. Such enticements could include public-private sector cooperation, the offer of real property such as facilities and equipment, name recognition, establishment of in-country programs for the development of trained labor, lowered tax rates for operation within their country, eliminated import-export tariffs/fees, and exclusive country-wide distribution as well as data collection on the offered vaccine or other products.

Corporate and Government Donations

Finally, it is important to recognize that Covid-19’s unique global impact is not lost on those involved, including vaccine manufactures and governments. Moderna has already recognized this and they have provided resources for not only using their intellectual property, but also have demonstrated a willingness to help countries that lack the ability to meet the needs of the country’s citizens (3). Moderna’s recognition of the problem that is facing the world provides a glimmer of hope for struggling countries. While it is unclear if their willingness to provide transparent access to provisional patents will ultimately lead to reduced prices, it does provide some hope that the developing world will not face an uphill battle when—and if—these countries seek to negotiate the cost of these vaccines.

Similarly, western governments have indicated that they would supply their access vaccine reserves to countries in need. The Biden Administration has, in fact, promised to make “excess” vaccines available, amounting to approximately 60 million doses. Together with industry, western governments can help ensure that struggling countries receive the necessary doses needed to combat this pandemic.

Conclusion

Countries face roadblocks for producing a viable vaccine candidate based on Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines due to the hurdles in manufacturing the vaccines. Compulsory licensing and IP waivers do little to mitigate those issues. Alternatives that will allow the vaccine manufactures to continue producing their vaccines should be the primary focus.

1. How the How the Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Works, NY Times, May 7, 2021 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine.html
2. The President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief: How George W. Bush And Aides Came To ‘Think Big’ On Battling HIV, Health Affairs, Vol. 31, No. 7
3. Moderna Press Release, Statement by Moderna on Intellectual Property Matters during the COVID-19 Pandemic, October 8, 2020 https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/statement-moderna-intellectual-property-matters-during-covid-19

Hill Ward Henderson is pleased to announce that the 2021 edition of Chambers USA recognized Hill Ward Henderson in seven practice areas and distinguished 13 attorneys for service in their respective areas of practice. This is the 20th consecutive year Hill Ward Henderson’s practice areas and attorneys have received high rankings and citations by the internationally acclaimed research group, Chambers and Partners, based in London.

Seven firm practice areas highlighted and ranked in the publication for excellence in service include: Construction; Corporate/M&A and Private Equity; Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation; Litigation: General Commercial: The Elite; Real Estate; Real Estate: Land Use & Zoning; and Tax.

In addition, 13 attorneys were recognized by Chambers USA for excellent legal knowledge and client-service in their respective practice areas:

E.D. Armstrong, III – Real Estate: Zoning/Land Use

John C. Connery, Jr. – Corporate/M&A and Private Equity

Ben Dachepalli – Construction

David S. Felman – Corporate/M&A and Private Equity

Timothy C. Ford – Construction

Katherine Frazier – Real Estate

Eric J. Hall – Corporate/M&A and Private Equity

Thomas N. Henderson, III – Real Estate

Timothy A. Hunt – Construction

Nicholas J. Outman – Corporate/M&A and Private Equity

James Robbins, Jr. – Real Estate

Dennis P. Waggoner – Litigation: General Commercial

Alton C. Ward – Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation

The Arent Fox Center for Racial Equality is pleased to announce a partnership with Howard University School of Law’s Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center to produce policy recommendations and research papers addressing institutionalized racism in the United States.

As part of the program, Howard Law professors and students will work with Arent Fox lawyers and administrative staff to identify, research, and produce policy analysis and research projects on systemic racism and racial injustice. Arent Fox attorneys will also serve as mentors.

Mike Brown Project

The first joint project between AFCRE and TMCRC will be the Mike Brown Project, which is designed to help pass legislation at the federal and state levels to provide mental health services to families and communities impacted by police violence.

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old Black man, was fatally shot by a White police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting ignited unrest in Ferguson – and nationwide protest – that continued for more than a week.

“The U.S. Supreme Court is clucking like a chicken about affirmative action in higher education. It just requested that acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar weigh in on the highly-watched Harvard College admissions policy case—which means the high court can duck the issue of race as a consideration in college admissions until later this year,” reports Vivia Chen in Bloomberg Law.

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“The NFL on Wednesday pledged to halt the use of “race-norming” — which assumed Black players started out with lower cognitive functioning — in the $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims and to review past scores for any potential race bias,” reports ESPN in their blog.

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“Harvard University law professor John Coates was named general counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, following a four-month stint as acting director for the division of corporation finance,” reports Hugo Guzman in Think Advisor.

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“A federal judge on Tuesday questioned a $2 billion proposal by Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE) that would create a framework for resolving future claims that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, casting doubt on the plan a day before a key hearing,” reports Tom Hals in Reuters.

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Zetlin & De Chiara was named a Band 1 Construction Law firm in the United States by the Legal 500 US in its annual guide.
Described as a “boutique construction law firm with a deep bench and understanding of how a construction project is built and how to address disputes when they happen,” Zetlin & De Chiara is routinely involved in projects across the US and internationally. Legal 500 selected Michael Zetlin, Michael De Chiara and Michael Vardaro to the Leading Lawyers list. Michael De Chiara was praised as an “expert in the field.” Michael Zetlin was lauded for his representation of national and multi-national construction companies as well as premier owners, developers and contractors. Other members of the “very pragmatic” team who recognized were Tara Mulrooney and Jim Terry.
Clients offered the following testimonials:
The ZD team are experts in construction disputes.
Michael De Chiara and Michael Vardaro stand out as amazing attorneys who are experts in the field of construction litigation. They are practical and effective, and they win.
They are outstanding in real estate and construction matters. They do not overload a matter. They are very pragmatic and do not waste time. They get results without drama. Extremely intelligent and knowledgeable. Very favorable results.
The Legal 500 US 2021 guide is a highly regarded legal directory which annually ranks law firms and legal professionals. It highlights legal teams who are providing the most cutting edge and innovative advice to corporate counsel. Rankings are based on feedback from clients worldwide, submissions from law firms and interviews with leading private practice lawyers.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Roy D. Campbell III, a partner in the firm’s Jackson office, was honored with the 2021 Capital Area Bar Association (CABA) Professionalism Award.

The CABA Professionalism Award is presented to an individual based on a lifetime of service to the profession and to the bar, demonstrating consistent adherence to professional standards of practice, encouraging respect for the law, and committing to public service. Mr. Campbell received the award at CABA’s annual “Evening Honoring the Judiciary” event.

Mr. Campbell has more than 40 years of experience litigating a variety of civil suits at both the trial and appellate levels, including antitrust claims, commercial lease disputes, contract breaches, business torts, insurance coverage and employment disputes. He has served as lead counsel in over 100 jury trials and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. Mr. Campbell is a past president of both the Capital Area Bar Association and the Mississippi Bar Association, and is a member of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance and of the Mississippi Bar’s Professionalism Committee.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Giovanni P. Giarratana, an associate in the firm’s Tampa office, has been elected to the Board of Governors of the Florida Bar’s Young Lawyers Division (YLD). He will serve a one-year term representing the 13th Circuit.

Giarratana is a member of Bradley’s Government Enforcement and Investigations Practice Group, where he assists clients faced with civil and criminal investigations, enforcement actions, and compliance issues across various industries. He also represents clients in complex litigation and issues related to securities fraud, shareholder disputes, employment discrimination, and patent infringement. Mr. Giarratana is recognized in 2021 edition of The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch in the area of Criminal Defense: White-Collar. He has served as co-chair of the YLD for the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and is an active member of the YLD of the Hillsborough County Bar Association.

The YLD of the Florida Bar is comprised of more than 26,000 members under the age of 36. The YLD is dedicated to encouraging the interest and participation of division members in the purposes of the Florida Bar through a full and complete program of activities and projects which promote the best interests of the legal profession.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Jon Paul Hoelscher, a partner in the firm’s Houston office, has been elected to serve as a council member for the Construction Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. He will serve a three-year term on the council.

A member of Bradley’s Construction and Energy practice groups, Mr. Hoelscher is board certified in Construction Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is often called to serve as a trusted legal advisor to his clients, providing a well-rounded approach to risk management, litigation and general business issues. He represents general contractors, subcontractors, oil field service companies, product and equipment manufacturers, as well as property owners and developers in a wide range of transactional and litigation matters. Mr. Hoelscher is recognized as a leading practitioner in Texas in the area of Construction in the 2021 edition of Chambers USA. He has also been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® since 2019 and in Who’s Who Legal: Construction since 2020 and was listed in Texas Super Lawyers in 2020.

The Construction Law Section of the State Bar of Texas is comprised of over 2,500 members consisting of legal professionals involved in the practice of construction law. The section’s goal is to provide quality continuing legal education to help members stay informed of the latest legal issues impacting the construction industry.

The International Association of Defense Counsel kicks off summer with its second quarter edition of its Defense Counsel Journal (DCJ), including in-depth analysis of issues such as cognitive fatigue impacting depositions, how the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act affects litigation risk and defense strategy, and property insurance law in Canada.

“The outstanding articles written by IADC members for our second-quarter issue of the Defense Counsel Journal take on topics that are critical to our insurance and business law attorney members and to the broader community of practicing attorneys and corporate counsel,” said IADC member and DCJ editor Christopher B. Parkerson.

IADC President Andrew S. Chamberlin added, “In a global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the legal concerns of our clients only grow, and the complexity of the practice of law only increases. The IADC continues to anticipate and address the professional concerns of our members and the clients they serve through vehicles that include our highly regarded Defense Counsel Journal that tackles critical legal issues of day.”

Frequently and favorably cited by courts and other legal scholarship, the DCJ is a quarterly forum for topical and scholarly writings on the law, including its development and reform, as well as on the practice of law in general. DCJ articles are written by members of the IADC, which is a 2,500-member, invitation-only, worldwide organization that serves its members and their clients, as well as the civil justice system and the legal profession.

The IADC’s second-quarter 2021 DCJ is available for free and without a subscription via the IADC’s website at https://www.iadclaw.org/documents/?CategoryId=4.

Hanzo, a pioneer in dynamic web content preservation from enterprise collaboration applications and complex websites, today announced it has joined IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) growing ecosystem of more than 100 Global Systems Integrators (GSIs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), SaaS providers, and FinTechs supporting the IBM Cloud for Financial Services. The IBM Cloud for Financial Services Framework is designed to address risk in the digital supply chain through a common set of security controls that are adhered to by the entire ecosystem.

A growing portion of the $1 trillion hybrid-cloud market opportunity is comprised of the financial markets industry, which is expected to increase nearly twenty percent by 2024.[1] Key findings in a recent IBM internal analysis suggests that Cloud is expected to account for about 60% of that future market opportunity as financial institutions are accelerating innovation to meet heightened customer expectations, deliver consistent services in the face of challenges like the global pandemic, and navigate the ever-complex regulatory environment.[2]

Hanzo brings context and a greater understanding of enterprise data to corporate legal and compliance teams by providing in-house control over dynamic and collaborative data sources. This control allows organizations to reduce millions of dollars in risk, litigation, and compliance costs and elevate their corporate legal and regulatory compliance responses. Hanzo will bring Hanzo Hold’s ediscovery and data risk management capabilities and Hanzo Dynamic Capture’s high-fidelity dynamic web archiving solution to the IBM Cloud for Financial Services to help enterprises preserve dynamic and complex content and mitigate risk proactively.

The industry’s first financial services-ready cloud, the IBM Cloud for Financial Services uses IBM’s fourth-generation confidential computing capabilities and “Keep Your Own Key” encryption delivered via IBM Hyper Protect to help partners and their customers retain control of their data and transact with financial institutions in a secure environment. The IBM Cloud for Financial Services Framework is designed to reduce third- and fourth-party risk in the digital supply chain through a common set of controls and processes that are adhered to by the entire ecosystem. The built-in controls are engineered to help customers accelerate innovation, unlock new revenue opportunities, and decrease the cost of compliance.

Hanzo is part of IBM’s partner ecosystem collaborating on the IBM Cloud for Financial Services to help partners accelerate transactions with financial services institutions. The IBM Cloud for Financial Services is designed to help financial services institutions as they address their requirements for their regulatory compliance, security, and resiliency. IBM’s partner ecosystem fuels hybrid cloud environments by helping clients manage and modernize workloads from bare-metal to multicloud and everything in between with Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform.

Monté T. Squire has joined Duane Morris LLP as a partner in the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group in its Wilmington office. Prior to joining Duane Morris, Squire served as an Administrative Patent Judge and member at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Alexandria, Virginia, from 2015 until 2021.

Prior to joining Duane Morris, Squire served for several years as an administrative patent judge at the USPTO. In this capacity, Squire heard and presided over numerous challenges to the validity of patents in inter partes review proceedings and related proceedings.

Prior to his time at the USPTO, Squire was an intellectual property litigation attorney at Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor in Wilmington, where he represented national and international corporations in federal court. He advised technology, life sciences and manufacturing companies in patent litigation, licensing and complex technologies cases.

Squire began his legal career clerking for Judge Gregory M. Sleet on the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.

Squire is a graduate of Widener University School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2005), where he was a managing editor of the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law, Wilmington College (M.B.A., high honors, 1999) and the University of Delaware (B. Chem. Eng., 1995). Additionally, he is the past chair of the Delaware State Bar Association Multicultural Judges and Lawyers Section and past president of the Delaware Barristers, and past member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee for the District of Delaware. Squire has served as a board member for numerous nonprofit organizations throughout Delaware.