Nicolaides Fink Thorpe Michaelides Sullivan LLP is pleased to announce that Adrienne H. Nelson has joined the firm’s Dallas office as a partner.

Nelson brings to the firm years of experience representing insurance companies in a wide variety of coverage-related matters, with a particular focus on first-party and general liability matters arising from construction defect, premises liability, and commercial transportation claims. Nelson is licensed in Texas and Florida and regularly advises insurers on coverage issues under commercial and personal lines policies. Nelson monitors changes to legislation, regulations, and case law pertaining to claims handling and provides training and counsel to clients accordingly.

In addition, effective June 1, 2021, Nicolaides Fink Thorpe Michaelides Sullivan LLP has moved its Dallas office to Harwood International’s Saint Ann Court, located at 2501 North Harwood Street, Suite 1210. Saint Ann Court is situated in the Harwood District near Uptown Dallas.

The firm opened its Dallas office in December 2020 with the addition of partner Ellen Van Meir, partner Mariah Quiroz, and associate Conor J. McCall. Since then, the firm has added associate Nicholas K. Low and now partner Nelson.

Global law firm Hogan Lovells announced today that IP litigator Nitin Gambhir has joined the firm’s Intellectual Property, Media and Technology (IPMT) practice as a partner based in its San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices. He joins the firm from Polsinelli.

Gambhir represents plaintiffs and defendants who work with a broad range of technologies, including computer networking, telecommunications, smartphones, memory controllers, medical imaging, sensor technology, entertainment and gaming, and internet-related systems.

He brings a strong technical background in computer-related technologies to complement his deep experience advocating for clients in a variety of complex IP lawsuits, which includes successfully defending them in bet-the-company patent infringement and trade secrets cases. Adding to his technology bona fides, he holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of California Los Angeles, and received a Certificate in High Technology Law while attending the Santa Clara University School of Law.

“One of our strategic priorities has long been to add technology-focused IP litigators in Northern California,” said Celine Jimenez Crowson, IPMT Practice Leader for the Americas. “Adding a partner like Nitin to our market-leading IP litigation team allows us to strengthen our position even further.”

“For many technology companies, protecting IP is akin to protecting the business. So adding a deeply technical and experienced litigator like Nitin in NorCal is a huge boon for our clients,” said Patrick Michael, co-managing partner for Northern California. “We are excited to continue to grow our strong bench of¬ technology lawyers across practice areas — including IP, litigation, and M&A — in Northern California.”

The addition of Gambhir follows a string of several strong hires within Hogan Lovells’ IPMT practice, including prominent IP partners like Patrick Michael and Krista Schwartz in Northern California as well as renowned trademark and copyright IP litigation partner Joel Smith in London.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that nine of the firm’s partners have been named by Who’s Who Legal as among the world’s leading construction lawyers. The Bradley attorneys listed in the 2021 edition of Who’s Who Legal: Construction are Jim Archibald, Axel Bolvig, Ian P. Faria, Jon Paul Hoelscher, Douglas L. Patin, J. David Pugh, William R. Purdy, E. Mabry Rogers and Robert J. Symon.

WWL: Construction provides in-depth analysis to the world’s elite construction lawyers and experts as well as future leaders in the field. Lawyers are selected for their outstanding experience and expertise in resolving complex multi-jurisdictional construction disputes through litigation, mediation and arbitration while the experts gain recognition for their impressive work on disputes and claims arising from both quantum and delay issues on major projects.

Bradley’s Construction Practice Group was named a “2020 Practice Group of the Year” by Law360, and was named the nation’s “Law Firm of the Year” for Construction Law in the 2020 and 2018 editions of U.S. News & World Report – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms.” Attorneys in the firm’s Construction Practice Group counsel clients on projects in the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as more than 35 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and South America. Many of the firm’s construction attorneys have degrees in engineering, building science or architecture and have previous practical experience working in the construction industry.

In an exciting expansion of its hospitality sector capabilities, Stroock welcomes partner Michael S. Kosmas to the firm’s D.C. office.

A leader in real estate and corporate law for the hospitality industry, Michael joins from Kelley Drye & Warren, where he was Deputy Chair of its Global Hospitality and Leisure practice.

Michael has represented some of the world’s largest hotel owners and operators in the drafting and negotiation of complex franchise and management contracts, as well as matters involving the development, acquisition, disposition and financing of hotel and resort properties across the globe. His industry work also includes structuring of sophisticated transactions not only for owners, operators and developers, but also for investors and lenders as well.

Over his career, Michael devoted significant pro bono efforts to the Archdiocese of Washington and Catholic Charities. Prior to private practice, Michael spent nearly a decade as a senior aide to late U.S. Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley.

Michael earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and his B.A. from Loyola College in Maryland.

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP is pleased to announce that Tiffany Burba has been elected to the leadership team of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law Section. As a member of that team, called the council, Burba will help drive education and networking for intellectual property attorneys across the state.

The NCBA Intellectual Property Law Section examines copyright, patent, trademark, and other intellectual property issues impacting North Carolina. The section helps mold the NCBA’s legislative agenda, sponsors continuing legal education (CLE) programs and a newsletter, and provides networking opportunities for lawyers and patent agents.

Burba has served as co-chair of the section’s Licensing Committee since 2019. At Parker Poe, she helps clients protect their intellectual property rights and negotiate technology contracts. She has particular experience at the intersection of intellectual property and technology, including with contracts involving cloud software, data sharing, and cybersecurity consulting.

Burba has also counseled national companies on compliance with international, federal, and state data privacy regulations. She serves on the CLE Committee of the NCBA Privacy & Data Security Section as well.

Raleigh Magazine recently named Burba among the city’s top 20 up-and-coming leaders who are in their 20s.

RALEIGH (June 7, 2021) – Michael Best is pleased to announce the addition of Partner Carrie Meigs and Associate Justin May to the Raleigh office. Both Meigs and May come from the California-based law firm of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP to join Michael Best’s Litigation Practice Group.

With more than 20 years of experience, Meigs has advised clients across an array of industries. Meigs’ practice focuses on the healthcare sector clients, including representing and advising individual health care providers and behavioral health institutions. At Lewis Brisbois, Meigs served as the vice-chair of the Behavioral Health and Healthcare Practices and has successfully tried cases of general liability and professional malpractice to verdict throughout North Carolina. Her years of experience as a trial lawyer have been recognized by her admission to the American Board of Trial Advocates, a national association of experienced trial lawyers and judges dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the civil jury trial right provided by the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

May advises clients on the complex legal and regulatory issues facing health care providers and businesses in government investigations. He is well versed in false claims litigation, Medicaid audit and recoupment actions, malpractice and more. He also works with companies seeking advice on non-competition agreements and employment discrimination.

Meigs earned her B.A. and J.D. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. May earned his B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin, and his J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law.

DALLAS – Simon Greenstone Panatier trial lawyers secured a total $12 million verdict on behalf of an 83-year-old Korean War veteran who contracted mesothelioma after years of working with asbestos-containing packing material.

On Friday, following the jury’s unanimous decision for punitive damages, Lorain County Court of Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery added $6 million to the initial jury award of $6.1 million.

Robert Mitchell worked in the stock room at the Pfaudler Co. plant in Elyria, Ohio, for more than 40 years. His responsibilities included assisting in the shipping of specialized glass-coated steel bowls used in chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The work required spending several hours every week cutting rope packing with a band saw, which threw asbestos particles into the air. Despite the packing material’s high concentration of blue crocidolite asbestos, Pfaudler was never warned of the potential dangers or advised on proper handling by Crane Packing Co. (now John Crane, Inc.), the material’s manufacturer.

Diagnosed in 2016, Mitchell passed away from the effects of mesothelioma later that year at the age of 83. Single, with no children, his only surviving relative is his 86-year-old brother, James.

Mitchell was represented at trial by Ms. Peterson, Frank Wathen and Sean Kerley of Simon Greenstone Panatier, and Joshua Grunda of Bevan & Associates.

The case is the Estate of Robert William Mitchell v. John Crane Inc., Lorain County Ohio Court of Common Pleas, 18-CV-196597.

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP has expanded its national antitrust practice with the addition of former Federal Trade Commission attorney Kaj Rozga as counsel in its New York office. A seasoned antitrust litigator, Rozga has extensive experience in both government and private practice.

Rozga has reunited with DWT partners and former FTC attorneys Litvack and Christopher Renner, adding more depth and complementary expertise to the firm’s antitrust capabilities. Rozga brings more than a decade of significant experience handling U.S. antitrust matters, international cross-border transactions, and international cartel investigations and follow-on damages suits.

Rozga joins DWT from bpv Hügel in Vienna, Austria, where he represented international clients in various European competition law matters, including mergers and acquisitions, dispute resolution, and tech counseling. Previously, he practiced at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where he managed complex civil litigation, defended companies and individuals in criminal cartel matters, and provided M&A and other antitrust counseling. He began his career at the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, where he was an integral member of trial teams that successfully challenged two hospital mergers in federal courts and the FTC administrative court, and was awarded for meritorious service and excellence in litigation for his contributions to those cases.

Rozga received his undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Economics from the University of California, San Diego and his law degree from Boston University School of Law. He is the founder of Tech Law Decoded, which tracks major worldwide developments in tech laws and regulations.

Blank Rome Adds Mexican Counsel in Houston to Growing Corporate Practice

Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that Cecilia Ibarra-van Oostenrijk has joined the firm’s Houston office as Mexican Counsel* in the Corporate, M&A, and Securities group. Oostenrijk has nearly 30 years of experience in practicing international law, with an emphasis on energy industry matters. She brings to Blank Rome a strong platform of longstanding business relationships that she has cultivated in Mexico and across Latin America, notably with regards to counseling on cross-border transactions, litigation proceedings, and compliance. Oostenrijk previously served as senior counsel at McKool Smith and, prior to that role, as regional compliance officer for North America operations and senior legal and compliance counsel for Mexico operations with TechnipFMC, a leading energy services company.

At Blank Rome, Oostenrijk’s practice will focus on counseling clients on their international business transactions as well as dispute resolution proceedings, both litigation and arbitration. Her experience practicing in Mexico and the Unites States enables her to counsel businesses in a range of cross-border transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, commercial contracts, and joint ventures. She also provides clients with compliance advice related to anti-corruption matters, international trade, sanctions and export controls, and data privacy. Furthermore, Cecilia helps ensure that clients with cross-border operations are in compliance with internal codes of conduct, internal ethics policies, and other compliance procedures.

While in-house, Oostenrijk led internal investigations, managed an international litigation docket, negotiated settlement agreements, developed and presented anticorruption training, and routinely offered guidance on anti-bribery and corruption, trade controls, anti-fraud, money
laundering, human rights, antitrust, and other high-risk compliance areas. While practicing in Mexico, Oostenrijk gained substantive experience in international M&A, joint ventures, contracts, antitrust, international trade, and internal investigations.

Outside of her practice, Oostenrijk is a member of the International Bar Association, American Bar Association’s Internal Law Section, and Houston Bar Association’s International Law Section, of which she previously served as council member and chair. She is also a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.

Oostenrijk earned her LL.M. from the University of Houston Law Center and her law degree from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. She is a native Spanish speaker and is conversant in French.

* Mexican Counsel not admitted to practice law in the State of Texas.

Since January 2020, Blank Rome’s Corporate, M&A, and Securities group has welcomed a number of leading attorneys across its U.S. offices, enhancing the firm’s services and capabilities throughout its various practices:

Eastman & Smith LTD is pleased to announce that David W. Carter and Lynn Vuketich Luther have been elected to the firm’s Executive Committee for three-year terms, effective June 1. In addition, Fadi V. Nahhas has been re-elected as Executive Committee chair for the third consecutive year. All three are based in the firm’s Toledo office.

The firm’s other Executive Committee members are Matthew D. Harper, Steven D. Reinbolt, and Mark A. Shaw.

Carter concentrates his practice in the areas of estate planning; probate and trust administration; estate, gift and income taxation; and business succession planning.

Luther focuses her practice on representing management in labor and employment matters. She is a member of the firm’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation and Labor & Employment practice groups.

Nahhas concentrates his practice in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, general corporate law, commercial transactions, and immigration.

The Eastman & Smith Executive Committee is the primary decision-making body responsible for overseeing the economic performance and long-range planning and direction of the firm.

Eversheds Sutherland is pleased to announce that Owen J. Pinkerton has rejoined the firm’s Capital Markets & Investments Practice Group in the Washington DC office as partner. Pinkerton previously worked at Eversheds Sutherland as counsel and is now joining from Thompson Hine, where he was a partner in the Corporate Transactions & Securities and Investment Management practice focused on advising business development companies (BDCs) and registered closed-end funds.

In addition to BDCs, Pinkerton advises registered closed-end funds and interval funds on regulatory and transactional matters, including public and private offerings and ongoing regulatory compliance with the federal securities laws. Additionally, he has extensive experience advising real estate investment trusts (REITs). He provides ongoing regulatory advice to his clients regarding general corporate governance matters, including preparing and reviewing periodic reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Investment Company Act of 1940 and dealing with disclosure issues under the federal securities laws. He also advises clients on issues arising under state “Blue Sky” laws and processes and FINRA regulation of public offerings and marketing efforts.

Prior to his role at Thompson Hine, Pinkerton was a partner in the Corporate, Securities, Real Estate Capital Markets, and Funds & Alternative Investments practices of another national firm. Prior to joining Eversheds Sutherland in 2007, he worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission as an attorney-adviser and senior counsel within the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance. In this capacity, he served as a reviewer of 1933 Act and 1934 Act registration statements, periodic reports, and proxy statements filed by real estate investment trusts (REITs), business services companies and commodity pools. Prior to this role, he worked at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the Division of Trading and Markets and for the US House of Representatives.

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“After years of debate and prosecutorial overreach, the Supreme Court has now narrowed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). In Van Buren v. U.S., the Court ruled that obtaining information by “exced[ing] authorized access” is limited to information on the computer that one is not authorized to access at all, rather than to information simply gathered for an improper purpose,” posts Michael Risch in their blog.

“To explain, consider the facts of Van Buren. Van Buren had rightful access to a database of DMV license plate information. He accessed that database using valid credentials, but looked up information for an improper purpose. He was convicted under the CFAA for exceeding his authorized access. I have blogged about this issue before. The broad reading that sent him to jail is a really scary interpretation< of the statute, one in which many ordinary people could go to jail for innocuous use of the internet.”

Read the article.

“Established in 1855 as the United States Court of Claims, the COFC was granted bid protest jurisdiction through the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491, as amended by the Administrative Dispute Resolutions Act (ADRA) of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-320, § 12, 110 Stat. 3870, 3874 (1996),” posts DBL Lawyers in their blog.

“The Tucker Act grants the COFC jurisdiction to decide any claim for damages against the United States founded upon the Constitution, an Act of Congress, agency regulation, or express or implied-in-fact contracts with the United States (with the exception of torts). Through the ADRA, the COFC was granted jurisdiction to hear pre- and post- award bid protests.”

Read the article.

“Judicial Watch today announced that it obtained 280 pages of documents from the Department of Health and Human Services revealing that from 2014 to 2019, $826,277 was given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci” posts Judicial Watch in their blog.

“The documents, some of which were redacted or withheld in their entirely, were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking records of communications, contracts and agreements with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (No. 1:21-cv-00696)). The agency is only processing 300 pages records per month, which means it will take until the end of November for the records to be fully reviewed and released under FOIA.”

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“Exelon Corp. is positioned to receive as much as $1 billion over a five-year period for two of its nuclear power locations as part of ongoing talks to complete major energy legislation in Illinois, according to four sources familiar with the negotiations,” writes Stephen Joyce in Bloomberg Law.

“Subsidies for a two-unit, 2,347-megawatt station near Byron, Ill. and a two-unit, 1,845-megawatt Dresden generating station in Morris, Ill. are one component of larger, complex negotiations among environmental groups, state lawmakers, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), and several utilities to revise the state’s energy policies. Support for the facilities could be determined by the use of “carbon mitigation credits,” according to a report published Friday by ClearView Energy Partners LLC research analyst Timothy Fox and others. The credit value would be reactor-specific and based on nonpublic financial information, the report said.”

Read the article.

“Activision Blizzard Inc. disclosed in a securities filing Thursday its hire of Boeing Co. general counsel Grant Dixton as its next chief legal officer Dixton, who also served as Boeing’s corporate secretary, was promoted by the aviation giant to its general counsel role last year. At Activision he will succeed longtime legal chief Christopher Walther, who the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company said has chosen to retire as of June 14<,” Report Brian Baxter in Bloomberg Law.

“Walther didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about his pending retirement, which comes after Activision hired a new chief financial officer in March. Boeing media representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about who is in line to succeed Dixton as the company’s general counsel.”

Read the article.

“Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak lost his lawsuit against YouTube over videos that used his image to promote a bogus bitcoin giveaway. YouTube and its parent, Google LLC, are protected by the federal law that shields internet platforms from responsibility for content posted by users, a California state judge said in a tentative ruling Wednesday,” reports Robert Burnson in Bloomberg.

“According to a Contingent Value Rights (CVR) agreement tied to BMS’s $74 billion purchase of Celgene in November 2019, the New York pharmaceutical giant would have owed former Celgene shareholders $6.4 billion if it had won FDA approval for three new drugs at the center of that deal, each with a particular deadline.”

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“It wasn’t so much a question of whether Bristol Myers Squibb would be taken to court by former Celgene shareholders. It was more a question of when. The answer came Thursday in U.S. District Court-Southern New York with the filing of Case 1:21-cv-04897. In it, Bristol is of “blatant misconduct”—allegedly delaying development of a cancer drug to avoid making a $6.4 billion milestone payment tied to its approval,” Report Kevin Dunleavy in Fierce Pharma.

“According to a Contingent Value Rights (CVR) agreement tied to BMS’s $74 billion purchase of Celgene in November 2019, the New York pharmaceutical giant would have owed former Celgene shareholders $6.4 billion if it had won FDA approval for three new drugs at the center of that deal, each with a particular deadline.”

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“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) brought an action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against five alleged promoters of a digital asset called BitConnect, claiming they promoted the sale of unregistered securities that raised over $2 billion from retail investors last Friday,” Report Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in JD SUPRA.

“According to the SEC’s complaint, between January 2017 and January 2018, four of the defendants promoted BitConnect by advertising its “lending program” to retail investors, while receiving a percentage of the funds they obtained, without being registered as broker-dealers with the SEC.  Specifically, the SEC alleged these four defendants promoted and touted BitConnect’s “lending program” to prospective investors, including by posting testimonial-style videos to YouTube with a referral link to the “lending program.”

Read the article.