Columbia, S.C. – Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP is pleased to announce that Lawrence Hershon was named to South Carolina Lawyers Weekly’s inaugural class of “Go To Lawyers.” The publication started the program to identify the top lawyers across the state for certain practice areas, and Hershon was honored for the category of business law.

Hershon and the other Go To Lawyers are “recognized by peers as being well-versed in the nuances of the case law, statutes and regulations clients will encounter,” can “think creatively and identify all options for a client,” and are the kinds of resources that other lawyers would call if they needed help in that area, according to S.C. Lawyers Weekly.

Hershon provides guidance to clients large and small across a full spectrum of business law issues, including business disputes, construction contracts and litigation, and commercial litigation. He also works with clients on business transactions, including business formation, commercial contract matters, and commercial leases and other real estate matters. In his general business and commercial litigation practice, Hershon works with manufacturers, banks, and others on disputes involving a range of subject matters. He works to resolve complicated business disputes for his clients, through negotiated resolutions when feasible, but also through trial and arbitration when necessary.

Hershon is also a leader at Parker Poe. He serves as the firm’s Columbia Office Development Partner.

Duane Morris LLP is pleased to announce that it has promoted to the firm partnership eight associates and special counsel in six of the firm’s offices.

These newly named partners are:

Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring Practice Group: Jarret P. Hitchings, Wilmington
Corporate Practice Group: Joseph J. Machi, San Diego

Employment, Labor, Benefits & Immigration Practice Group: Maxine D. Bayley, San Francisco; Meagan E. Garland, San Diego

Intellectual Property Practice Group: James A. Cooke III, Washington, D.C.

Trial Practice Group: Lynne E. Evans, Philadelphia; Elinor H. Murárová, Chicago; Owen Newman, Chicago

Maxine D. Bayley practices in the area of immigration law, representing clients in matters involving the employment of foreign nationals in a variety of industries, as well as individual matters including family-based permanent residence and naturalization. She has in-depth experience representing individual and corporate clients with regard to H, L, O, E-3 and TN nonimmigrant matters, as well as EB-1 immigrant visas. Bayley also represents clients in complex immigration cases, including immigrant and nonimmigrant waivers of inadmissibility, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) petitions, consular processing and immigration ramifications of criminal charges. She also has experience with asylum and federal court litigation pertaining to immigration matters. Bayley is a frequently featured speaker at national, state and local conferences.

Bayley is a graduate of the American University, Washington College of Law (J.D., 2004) and Gonzaga University (B.A., 2001). She serves as chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Northern California Chapter and is on AILA’s board of governors.

James A. (“Jamie”) Cooke III, Ph.D., focuses his practice on patent prosecution management, strategic client counseling, opinion preparation on issues relating to infringement and validity, and post-grant review proceedings, with an emphasis on software, business methods, graphical user interfaces and related technologies developed and implemented by the financial services industry. As a member of Duane Morris’ Fintech Industry Group, Cooke counsels financial institutions, technology companies and emerging startups on the development, implementation and protection of distributed-ledger and blockchain technologies, smart contracts, machine learning and artificial intelligence models, post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, payment systems and innovative cryptocurrency and token technologies. He has extensive experience counseling clients in patent, trademark and copyright matters related to software, mobile applications, electronic trading platforms, graphical user interfaces, content management and delivery systems, Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies and video compression and image processing technologies. Cooke also regularly counsels clients in the life-sciences industry on the patent eligibility of computer-implemented diagnostic tools and computer-implemented gene-editing tools before the U.S. and foreign patent offices.

Cooke is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (J.D., 2011), Yale University (Ph.D., mechanical engineering, 2006) and the University of Maryland (B.S., cum laude, 1999). He also served as a visiting researcher at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, concentrating on the development and implementation of solutions to complex fluid-dynamic and chemical-kinetic problems across massively parallel, distributed-memory computing systems.

Lynne E. Evans is a trial lawyer and counselor with significant experience representing financial institutions, corporate and government entities and individual clients in matters in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Her areas of practice include complex commercial litigation, matters involving breach of contract, negligence, fraud, RICO, breach of fiduciary duties, consumer class actions, and internal and government investigations. Evans also handles a wide variety of banking-related matters, including claims involving bank regulations, the Uniform Commercial Code, NACHA rules, numerous consumer protection status and bank secrecy laws. She represents clients at all phases of litigation, including pre-litigation counseling and investigation, motion practice, requests for injunctive relief, discovery, trial and appeal, and at mediation and arbitration. Evans also frequently advises clients in assessing business transactions and strategies designed to avoid litigation and manage risk.

Evans is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D., cum laude, 2012) and Duke University (A.B., magna cum laude, 2008), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She chairs the firm’s Philadelphia office Inclusion Committee and serves on the Philadelphia office Recruitment and Retention Committee.

Meagan E. Garland is a litigator and trusted advisor to employers of varying industries. Her clients are burgeoning start-ups, multijurisdictional and multinational employers. Garland’s particular industry focus is fashion and beauty, though she has a wealth of experience representing employers across dozens of industries, including hospitality, food services, energy and solar, janitorial services, construction, education, health and wellness, healthcare, financial services, real estate, emergency services, transportation, retail and technology. Garland represents employers in wage-and-hour, harassment, discrimination, and retaliation disputes before state and federal courts and administrative agencies. She provides day-to-day advice and counseling to employers on employee-related issues as they arise, including leave administration and disability accommodation, wage-and-hour compliance, classification determinations, discipline and termination procedures and employee disputes. Garland regularly conducts training for employers on sexual harassment prevention, ADA compliance, management best practices, sensitivity respect and professionalism, and customized trainings. Additionally, she is a business partner with her clients and regularly assists them in developing and executing strategic goals to improve their workplaces, as well as crafting policies and agreements to minimize risk. Often, Garland lends her employment-related knowledge to corporations engaged in complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions. She is also a diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) consultant. Garland develops customized programming to aid employers in setting and achieving proper DEIB objectives. She provides training to workforces, executives, and directors on implicit bias, pay equity, microaggression and related topics.

Garland is a graduate of Boston College Law School (J.D., 2006), where she was staff editor for the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review and top-ranking oralist in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, and Spelman College (B.A., summa cum laude, 2003), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She is a steering committee member of the Duane Morris Women’s Impact Network for Success (WINS), chair of the Duane Morris San Diego Diversity and Inclusion Committee, WINS programming chair for the San Diego office and co-chair of the Duane Morris Recruiting Committee in San Diego.

Jarret P. Hitchings practices in the area of commercial finance and corporate restructuring. He regularly represents business debtors, committees, lenders, trustees and creditors, particularly with respect to bankruptcy litigation. Hitchings also represents agents, lenders and borrowers in financial transactions, and lenders, servicers, corporations and management in connection with governance issues and commercial disputes.

Hitchings is a graduate of Villanova University School of Law (J.D., magna cum laude, 2010), where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, and the Pennsylvania State University (B.A., 2007).

Joseph Machi represents clients across the country in mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and other complex transactions and general corporate matters. He advises public and private companies, private equity funds and their portfolio companies, family business owners and founders in buy-side and sell-side transactions. Machi has substantial experience in mergers and acquisitions in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, technology, hospitality and leisure and, in particular, the education/education technology sector. In addition to mergers and acquisitions, he represents investors and venture capital firms in securities offerings and other sophisticated transactions. Machi also represents growth companies and established private companies in securities offerings and other intricate transactions and general corporate and regulatory issues in numerous industries, including education, cannabis, life sciences and technology. He advises directors, management and founders on exit strategies, corporate governance matters and day-to-day operational needs.

Machi is a graduate of the University of San Diego Law School (J.D., cum laude, Order of the Coif, 2011) and the University of Southern California (B.S., cum laude, 2006). Prior to entering the practice of law, he worked as an auditor for Ernst & Young LLP, where he obtained his CPA license (now inactive).

Elinor H. Murárová is an experienced business counselor, advocate and trial attorney who maintains a national practice representing clients in complex commercial disputes. Among other things, her work includes representing creditors, CMBS servicers and other CMBS industry participants defending against lender liability claims and pursuing commercial loan workouts and other loan enforcement activities. Murárová also represents clients across many highly regulated industries, including travel and healthcare, and in a wide variety of matters, including breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, business tort, class action, noncompete and claims for injunctive or other immediate relief. Her work in these and other areas encompasses all aspects of civil litigation from pre-litigation alternative resolutions through trial and appeal.

Murárová is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law (J.D., magna cum laude, 2011), where she served as executive editor, student articles, for the Loyola Law Journal. She is also a graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Business (M.B.A., 2011) and Northwestern University (B.A., 2007).

Owen Newman is a litigation attorney focusing on complex, multijurisdictional disputes and international arbitration. He advises clients in high-value disputes with particular focus on large-scale engineering and construction projects in the power generation and oil-and-gas sectors. Newman has represented clients in disputes around the world, including in Africa, Asia, North America and the Middle East, and has acted as counsel under the rules of the ICC, LCIA, SIAC, UNCITRAL, AAA, SCC as well as ad hoc arbitrations in India and Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining Duane Morris, he was a project manager and regional director for a global engineering and construction contractor.

Newman is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law (J.D., 2003) and Luther College (B.A., 1995).

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP has expanded its international corporate practice with the addition of Maythawee Sarathai as a partner in the firm’s Bangkok office. Sarathai brings more than two decades of experience advising clients on a range of mergers and acquisitions as well as corporate restructuring matters.

Sarathai has extensive experience in negotiating and documenting multinational cross-border investments for M&A transactions in Thailand, and has advised both local and international clients on distressed-asset sales and purchases.

He advises creditors, liquidators, planners, plan administrators, special managers and debtors on all aspects of corporate lending, restructuring and insolvency. His practice also includes advising clients on distressed debt situations including settlement, recovery and enforcement strategies, and business and asset reorganization.

Sarathai most recently was the partner in charge of Mayer Brown’s Bangkok office. He received both his undergraduate and law degrees from Chulalongkorn University.

Hunton Andrews Kurth’s corporate team advises virtually every form of corporate entity, from high-tech startups and mid-sized, privately held companies to publicly traded, multinational corporations, REITs, private equity entities of all sizes, and multinational, national and regional banks, credit unions and other financial institutions. The firm’s clients come from the myriad industries of today’s global economy, including financial services, energy, real estate, retail and consumer products, manufacturing and health care.

Blank Rome LLP is pleased to announce that Krystal Studavent Ramsey has joined the Firm as Director of Diversity and Inclusion, further supporting the Firm’s longstanding commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”). Ramsey brings 11 years of DEI experience in the legal industry and is based in Blank Rome’s Houston office.

In her role at Blank Rome, Ramsey will work closely with the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, affinity groups, Firm management, and others to create, lead, and implement the Firm’s strategic long-term and short-term DEI plans and to assess and refine plans as needed over time; to further foster an inclusive climate where everyone at Blank Rome experiences a sense of belonging and connectivity; to establish fair and equitable processes and policies that advance DEI; to coach on DEI; to serve as a DEI brand ambassador, internally and externally; to partner with and consult clients on DEI plans, initiatives, and programs; and to advocate for Blank Rome’s diverse population.

Throughout her career, Ramsey has notably focused on DEI talent development and management, business development, and advancement initiatives, in addition to cultivating strong project management, corporate legal practice, and management consulting experience. Most recently, Ramsey served as a senior legal consultant at Axiom—the world’s largest and leading contingent legal talent company with 2,000+ lawyers and 17 offices across three continents—where she advised general counsel across the country on workforce transformation and augmentation, talent management, diversity and inclusion, and cost containment. At Axiom, Ramsey co-founded and co-chaired Blaxiom, a group of Black Axiom employees, leading the charge in creating a charter and structuring the group to develop the first Black Employee Resource Group in Axiom’s history, working closely with the executive leadership team. She also served as director of strategy and operations for the Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program (“DAPP”), a national nonprofit committed to the development and placement of first-year, women of color law students. Prior to her roles at Axiom and DAPP, Ramsey served in senior-level DEI and business development roles for Norton Rose Fulbright, Bliss Lawyers, and Management Leadership for Tomorrow. She also served as general counsel and senior vice president of business affairs at Music World Entertainment.

Ramsey has been active in several professional organizations, including The Downtown Group, the Houston Association of Women Attorneys, the National Bar Association – Women Lawyers Section, and the State Bar of Texas African American Lawyers Section. She is also active in the community, working with organizations such as the American Heart Association and Habitat for Humanity. She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

Ramsey received a B.S. in Social Justice, with a minor in English, from Texas Southern University, and a J.D. from Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law, ranked as one of the most diverse law schools in the country. She also recently received a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University.

Michael Best is pleased to announce the addition of two Partners, Ed Roney and Joseph Dickinson, and one Senior Counsel, Holly Benton, to the Raleigh office. All three join from North Carolina-based law firm Smith Anderson. Roney will join the Intellectual Property Practice with Dickinson and Benton joining the Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice Group.

In addition to joining the firm, Roney will also serve as the Office Managing Partner in Raleigh. Roney’s practice spans across diverse technologies and industries including information technology, eCommerce, manufacturing, and medical devices, 4G/5G telecommunications, artificial intelligence and blockchain. Roney earned his B.S from Purdue University, his M.S. in electrical engineering from National Technological University, and his J.D. from DePaul University.

With more than 25 years of experience, Dickinson has advised technology companies as well as healthcare and government entities across a broad range of issues related to cybersecurity, data privacy, data breaches and investigations. In a recent, prior role, he served as chief privacy officer and chief information security officer for a large academic medical system and focused on creating and managing data privacy and security programs with real world applications. Dickinson earned his B.A. from Malone University, and his J.D., cum laude, from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

Benton’s practice focuses on commercial, technology, higher education, retail, residential management, healthcare, and startup companies, for whom she advised on privacy and data protection laws and information lifecycle management. Before practicing law, she served as the University Privacy Officer at Duke University, where she transformed their privacy program from an incident response team into a strategic group positioned to approach risk management broadly. Benton earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from Wellesley College, and her J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law.

The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) has announced that Thomas W. Murrey, Jr., lead counsel with the FedEx Corp. Legal Department/Litigation in Memphis, Tennessee, has accepted an invitation to join the IADC, the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests.

As FedEx lead counsel, Murrey focuses his work on commercial litigation with an emphasis on cargo litigation, including domestic and international shipments, and commercial fraud.

Murrey’s professional affiliations and memberships include the Federal Bar Association (Veterans Military Law Section CLE chairman); Federalist Society; Memphis Bar Association; Millsaps College Alumni Association Board of Directors (Career Networking Committee Chairman, 2006-2016); and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation West Tennessee Chapter Board of Directors, 2008-2013. Murrey served in the U.S. Air Force active duty from 1986 to 1999 and in the Air Force Reserves from 2000 to 2014 as a judge advocate, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

Murrey received his J.D. from the University of Memphis School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from Millsaps College.

Smith Currie, one of the nation’s most recognized construction and government contracts law firms, today announced the appointment of Eric L. Nelson to Managing Partner. The promotion, which became effective Jan. 1, 2021, will concentrate upon Nelson’s oversight of Smith Currie’s strategic operations for the firm’s eight offices located across the country. Nelson, who is based in the firm’s Atlanta office, will fill the role of former Managing Partner Robert C. Chambers who admirably held the position 2006-2020. Nelson is only the fifth managing partner since the law firm’s 1965 inception.

Nelson joined Smith Currie as an Associate in 1998, was promoted to Partner in two years, and has generated expansion and evolution for the firm during more than two decades. He practices in the areas of construction law and government contracts. His work focuses on project disputes related to federal government construction; healthcare, including hospitals and laboratories; and Engineering, Procurement and Construction project delivery, including energy and process facilities.

Nelson’s tenure has involved trying cases in federal and state courts throughout the country and before the various federal government boards of contract appeals. He has also arbitrated and mediated claims both nationally and internationally.

The ongoing pursuit of research, academia and professional experience has allowed Nelson accomplishments such as being named in the Chambers USA-America’s Leading Lawyers for Business Guide, for construction law, Georgia (2007-2020) and nationwide Band 1 inclusion (2020); Best Lawyers in America, for construction litigation (2010-2020); Expert Guide to World’s Leading Lawyers, for construction law (2013-2020); Who’s Who Legal Construction (2015-2020); Georgia Super Lawyers, for construction law (2014-2020); among others. He is also a Fellow in the American College of Construction Lawyers.

Nelson attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1989. He earned his Juris Doctorate degree at Washington and Lee University School of Law, J.D., in 1992.

Chambers remains a Partner and will continue as a leading attorney in the practice of construction and government contracts law with the firm.

ContractPodAi®, the award-winning provider of AI-powered contract lifecycle management (CLM) solutions, today announced the appointment of Jerry Levine as Chief Evangelist and General Counsel (Americas). As former global General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Amelia (IPsoft), Levine effectively implemented ContractPodAi to help his legal team increase efficiency, improve compliance, and achieve greater visibility across the function. In this new role, he will use his highly relevant experience to help guide global client success both as an advisor to customers and as an internal client voice, helping shape product vision.

Levine has been a ContractPodAi client for over two years, leading its implementation at IPsoft in partnership with the ContractPodAi team. He replaced his previous CLM solution with ContractPodAi, choosing ContractPodAi both for its strength as a contract management system and its comprehensive customer support model that ensured implementation success. Leveraging his experience as General Counsel and a client, Levine’s role as Chief Evangelist will include amplifying legal technology best practices, directly problem solving with clients on their own digital transformation journeys, and supporting ContractPodAi’s continued product innovation as a leading technology provider for in-house legal teams.

Prior to joining ContractPodAi, Levine held leadership and consulting positions at both public and privately held companies, including Axiom and LexisNexis. He also founded a start-up-focused law firm.

A large majority of U.S. businesses (68%) report that technology is a core part of their growth strategy, yet most companies are not adequately prepared for the risk of lawsuits and reputational damage arising from technology-related issues such as tech bias, technology failure, and cyberattacks and data leaks, according to a report released today by global law firm Hogan Lovells.

The report, “Litigation Landscape: How to prevail when technology fails,” is based on a survey of 550 business leaders.*

Tech bias was one area of particular concern, according to the report, which found that 45% of businesses globally do not check their technology – such as wearables, “smart” home products, voice or facial recognition – for racial and gender bias.

Most improvements in AI systems are made because of advances in machine learning. However, algorithms often adopt unwanted biases found within the data on which they are trained, which can lead to failures by facial recognition sensors to accurately identify people with dark skin; the application of AI that results in women receiving lower credit card limits than men; and medical devices that give higher priority to white patients for the treatment of complex medical conditions.

The report also found that:

• Only 35% of U.S. businesses are confident that their senior executives understand the risks associate with technology.
• Just 6% of U.S. businesses’ boards deem technology risk to be as important as financial risk and other traditional risks.
• 56% of U.S. business leaders are not actively considering how to prevent and mitigate technology failure, including failures that would render critical systems or products unusable or unprotected.
• Half of businesses do not have an up-to-date response plan in case of a cyberattack, despite hacking concerns over areas such as cloud technology, autonomous vehicles or wearables.
• Most companies don’t involve their legal teams in cyber response planning.
• 70% of U.S. businesses do not involve privacy specialists in product development.

The report also noted that major businesses may not be prepared for the legal risks associated with technology partnerships:

• 58% of U.S. businesses plan to outsource a key business function to a technology company.
• Yet 74% of U.S. businesses do not check if all their suppliers have the adequate cybersecurity credentials.
• U.S. businesses are particularly eager to engage technology businesses: 57% of U.S. companies plan to enter into a joint venture in the next two years; a significant increase from the 34% who did so in the last two years.
• More than half of businesses find it difficult to assess the legal risks associated with M&A and JVs with technology companies.

In addition, the report found that while 52% of businesses plan to accelerate their hiring of tech experts over the next two years, many are not aware of the risks.

Given the breadth of technology-related litigation risks, businesses should engage in contingency planning based on four key principles, according to Hogan Lovells:

1. Boards and the C-Suite should be involved in identifying risks.
2. Collaboration with legal teams and privacy specialists is key.
3. Risks should be monitored through the entire tech lifecycle.
4. Businesses are only as strong as their weakest third party.

METHODOLOGY
*The companies surveyed have a turnover of between US$200m – over US$1bn. They operated in seven sectors: technology & telecoms (82), financial services and insurance (82), life sciences (82), automotive (83), consumer (83), diversified industrials (83), energy and natural resources (55).

The survey is based on 550 interviews with GCs, data privacy officers or equivalent at 550 companies, among them some of the largest multinational companies, in late 2020. The respondents were based in the U.S. (100), UK (100), Germany (100), France (100), China (45), Japan (45), Hong Kong (20), Singapore (20), Italy (10) and Spain (10).

Contract Logix, a leading provider of data-driven contract management software, recently announced that international aid organization, Food for the Hungry, is using its platform to efficiently and effectively digitize and automate contract lifecycle management (CLM) related to fundraising efforts. Digitizing contracts has helped Food for the Hungry maximize its fundraising activities by mitigating risks, identifying new opportunities, and optimizing processes, allowing the organization to focus on its core mission of ending all forms of human poverty.

Key Facts:

Since 1971, Food for the Hungry has been going into the world’s hardest places with an exit strategy: to respond to human suffering and graduate communities of extreme poverty into self-sustainability, all within a decade. By creating context-specific solutions in education, agriculture, health, livelihood, clean water, and disaster risk reduction, the nonprofit focuses on transformational development, investing in children as the key to lift entire communities out of poverty. It currently serves more than 5.3 million people in over 20 countries worldwide.

Food for the Hungry partners with a number of artists and influencers around the country to share information and fundraise for the organization’s mission. The organization leverages the Contract Logix platform to get a holistic, data-driven, and accurate view of all the contracts and supporting documents related to festivals, events, tours, sponsors, vendors, artists and consultants that are paramount to its fundraising efforts.

Food for the Hungry needed a solution that would allow them to easily and accurately create and track contract line items to keep track of financial expectations and actuals associated with fundraising events. With Contract Logix, the organization is able to capture and monitor key financial information in its contracts including expected and actual fundraising goals from events, and uses this data to report on, evaluate and optimize its fundraising contracts and performance.

Food for the Hungry also required the ability to have automated alerts to keep track of contract renewals, expirations, as well as alerts on contract line items such as payment schedules to help the organization minimize financial risk. Contract Logix’s “no-code” configurability was a key factor in its decision because it makes creating and automating alerts on contract datapoints such as line items simple and fast.

By using Contract Logix to manage, track and optimize the contracts associated with its critically important fundraising goals and objectives, Food for the Hungry is able to maximize the reach of its resources to those who need them around the globe. The data-driven visibility and automation provided by the Contract Logix platform give Food for the Hungry the insights they need to sponsor more children and support more projects.

Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery LLP will present a free webinar, “Means Plus Function Claim Construction in Patent Prosecution and Litigation,” featuring Fitch Even partner Jon A. Birmingham.

The webinar will take place on Wednesday, January 27, 2021, at 9:00 am PST / 10:00 am MST / 11:00 am CST / 12 noon EST.

Means plus function claim construction is being applied by courts and the USPTO when the term “means” is not explicitly used. When does this happen, and what is the impact? Understanding the law of means plus function claim construction, as well as its application in litigation and patent prosecution, can provide answers.

During this webinar, we will discuss these topics and more:
• How to identify means plus function claim terms
• How to construe means plus function claim terms
• How to avoid a means plus function claim construction in patent prosecution
• How to use means plus function claim terms in patent prosecution
• Indefiniteness and means plus function claim terms
• Differences between the Doctrine of Equivalents and means plus function equivalents

CLE credit has been approved for California, Illinois, and is pending for Nebraska. Other states may also award CLE credit upon attendee request.

Following the live event, a recording of the webinar will be available to view for one year at www.fitcheven.com.

Register for the webinar.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Robert E. Leonard has joined the firm’s Nashville office as an associate in the Real Estate Practice Group.

Leonard is a business and commercial real estate attorney who focuses his practice primarily in the areas of commercial real estate transactions, commercial leasing, land development, commercial lending and general corporate work. He assists in the drafting, editing and negotiation of lease agreements, purchase and sale agreements, financing documents and ancillary closing documents; manages and runs closings; conducts due diligence for a variety of real estate transactions; and reviews, analyzes and summarizes zoning for clients.

Leonard received his J.D. from the University of Tennessee College of Law and his B.A. (magna cum laude) in Political Science from the University of Tennessee.

Bradley’s real estate attorneys serve every sector of the market, including acquisitions, financing, lending, leasing, construction, regulatory, tax, and other matters. Their work involves complex, multimillion-dollar projects for large institutions that take years to see through to completion, as well as ongoing transactions for clients whose primary businesses are in real estate investment or development.

About Bradley
Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm’s nearly 550 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that eight partners in the firm’s Charlotte office have been named 2021 North Carolina Super Lawyers or Rising Stars, including C. Bailey King, Jr. and Robert R. Marcus who were both named to the Top 25: Charlotte and Top 100: North Carolina Super Lawyers lists.

Following are the seven partners and their primary recognized practice areas who have been named North Carolina Super Lawyers for 2021:

• Corby Cochran Anderson, partner (Intellectual Property Litigation)
• Ryan L. Beaver, partner (Construction Litigation)
• Douglas Grimes, partner (Intellectual Property Litigation)
• Mark J. Horoschak, partner (Antitrust Litigation)
• Bailey King Jr., partner (Business Litigation)
• Christopher C. Lam, partner (Business Litigation)
• Robert R. Marcus, partner (Business Litigation)

In addition, the following partner and his practice area was named a North Carolina Rising Star for 2021:

• Matthew K. Lilly, partner (Construction Litigation)

Only the top 5% of lawyers in North Carolina are named Super Lawyers. No more than 2.5% of lawyers in the state are selected as Rising Stars, who must be 40 years old or younger or have been in practice for 10 or fewer years. Published by Thomson Reuters, Super Lawyers determines its rankings through independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations. The North Carolina Super Lawyers and Rising Stars lists are published in North Carolina Super Lawyers Magazine and in Charlotte magazine and are distributed to attorneys and ABA-accredited law school libraries.

About Bradley
Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm’s nearly 550 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

Sidley is pleased to announce that Deborah Martin Owens, former New York City Bar Association Executive Director for its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, has joined Sidley as its East Coast Diversity Director. Martin Owens is based in the firm’s New York office and responsible for the further development and implementation of programs, policies, and initiatives that support Sidley’s strategic diversity and inclusion goals for our Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. offices.

Martin Owens led the New York City Bar Association’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion since 2018. During her tenure, she worked very closely with corporations, law firms, managing partners, and practice group leaders, and law schools, students, and others to advance diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. She also advised leaders, including board of directors and governance committees on best practices for pipeline initiatives, diverse membership engagement, policies, and procedures. Martin Owens was responsible for increasing involvement in the City Bar’s Leadership Institute program for mid-level to senior associates by 50%. Under Martin Owens’s leadership, the City Bar’s Diversity and Inclusion office revitalized the Thurgood Marshall Summer internship program, helping place 27 students in paid summer internships with law firms. Most recently, Martin Owens developed and implemented a support group for junior partners to help them learn how to effectively develop and maintain relationships during COVID. She is chair of Women of Creating Change, a nonprofit organization that works to increase civic engagement among women.

Mike Mullen recently joined the Houston office of the national law firm, Chamberlain Hrdlicka, as an associate in the Intellectual Property practice, where he will focus on chemical patent prosecution.

Mullen brings both legal and technical experience to the firm, including his chemical engineering background. Mullen had a summer externship at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Denver, as well as a summer internship and full-time associate position with Nielsen IP Law LLC in Houston.

Mullen graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering. He participated in the Chemical Engineering Honor Society and the Golden Buffalo Marching Band.

Mullen obtained his law degree at the University of Houston Law Center, where he was heavily involved in intellectual property and other extracurricular activities, such as leadership roles within the Intellectual Property Student Organization and Houston Journal of International Law and participation in the Giles S. Rich Moot Court Competition and the Tom Newhouse Mediation Competition. He is currently an active member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that the firm was ranked nationally as a Tier 1 firm for Product Liability and Recall in the 2021 edition of Benchmark Litigation. In addition, Bradley partners Leigh Anne Hodge, Lela Hollabaugh, Kimberly Martin, Craig Mayfield and Tripp Haston were recognized as National Practice Area Stars for Product Liability.

A leading guide to litigation firms and attorneys in the United States and Canada, Benchmark Litigation determines rankings through peer reviews and case examinations. Benchmark Litigation is the only publication that focuses exclusively on U.S. litigation.

Bradley’s Litigation Practice Group is the firm’s largest practice and includes almost half of the firm’s nearly 550 attorneys who represent clients in litigation and arbitration in every U.S. state and federal district court across the country, as well as internationally. Attorneys handle matters in nearly every substantive area of business law and in a wide range of industries, including high-stakes and complex cases.

About Bradley
Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm’s nearly 550 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that Andrew J. Kline has joined the firm in Denver as a senior counsel in the firm’s Commercial Litigation Practice and Cannabis Law Industry Group.

Kline brings a rare combination of public policy, cannabis law, coalition building and prosecutorial expertise to the firm, following decades of service in the highest levels of government and in the private and non-profit sectors. Drawing on his fourteen years of experience as a federal prosecutor, and public service working as policy advisor to then-Vice President Biden and counsel to then-Senator Biden, Kline will represent clients in some of most sensitive areas of law and policy.

Most recently, Kline had been leading public policy for the cannabis industry at the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), the industry’s preeminent trade organization for the state-legal cannabis industry, and was previously president of the National Association of Cannabis Business. Prior to joining the cannabis industry, Kline held a variety of high-profile positions in government and the private sector. Kline’s experience as a federal prosecutor includes six years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia. He also served as a federal prosecutor for six years in the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section, with the DOJ’s Criminal Division, and in the Enforcement Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. Kline has first-chaired over forty criminal jury trials, twelve bench trials, and argued numerous criminal appeals.

At NCIA, Kline led public policy development and created and led its Policy Council – the “think tank” for the cannabis industry. Under Kline’s leadership, the Council developed public policies to promote, grow, and protect state-legal cannabis businesses. The Council’s work served to inform and influence members of Congress, Executive Branch officials, state legislators and regulators, the media, and industry stakeholders on matters critical to the future of the burgeoning industry.

Kline earned his J.D. from the Pepperdine University School of Law and his B.S. from Emerson College. He also has an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Kline is admitted to the Bar in Colorado, California, and Washington, DC.

The Virginia law firm Gentry Locke is pleased to announce the promotion of Scott A. Stephenson to the partnership, effective January 1, 2021.

Stephenson is a member of the firm’s Business Litigation team. His experience includes complex business litigation, property disputes, mineral rights cases, municipal government litigation, and appellate matters. He thrives on the challenges presented by complicated cases and nuanced legal issues. Stephenson earned his B.A. degree from Roanoke College and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Washington, D.C. – January 12, 2021 – Dykema, a leading national law firm, today announced the addition of Mark Mansour to its Regulated Industries Department, Food & Beverage Industry Group, and Health Care Practice Group as a Member in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. Mansour, who joins Dykema after practicing at Locke Lord LLP’s Washington, D.C., office, previously served as in-house counsel for two major multinational food companies.

For more than two decades, Mansour has practiced food and drug law. He has extensive experience handling a variety of matters for drugs and devices, including securing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals, reviewing advertising materials, responding to safety issues, and managing recalls. Mansour has counseled U.S. and multinational clients on market access, food and nutrition policy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, dietary supplement regulation, agribusiness, and the regulation of cannabis products at the state and federal levels.

Additionally, Mansour has experience working with clients to resolve advertising matters involving the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He advises clients on social media regulation and has revised numerous corporate websites to ensure compliance with FTC requirements.

Mansour earned both a B.A. in International Politics and a J.D. from Georgetown University, as well as an M.A. in International Politics from Harvard University.

GQ|Littler, a leading specialist employment law firm and the UK arm of Littler, the world’s largest employment and labour law practice representing management, has opened an office in Dublin. The Ireland office will be led by partner Niall Pelly, an experienced attorney who joins from a leading Irish law firm.

The move extends the reach of Littler’s robust global footprint and follows expansions in 2020 into Spain, Poland and Austria, as well as Brazil through a correspondent counsel relationship.

Pelly advises companies on all aspects of employment law and workplace issues, with a particular emphasis on complex, high-value litigation such as whistleblowing claims and High Court employment injunctions. He works with a variety of large national and multinational clients across various sectors including technology, pharmaceuticals and financial services.

Pelly is qualified to practice in Ireland, England & Wales and New York, and worked for several years with leading international law firms in London. He is active in the Employment Lawyers Association, the International Bar Association, and the European Employment Lawyers Association.

Pelly earned a Bachelor in Laws degree from Trinity College Dublin and a diploma in employment law from University College Dublin. He frequently speaks, publishes and conducts trainings on employment-related topics. Pelly has been recognised as a leading labour and employment lawyer by such organisations as Chambers Europe (which noted Pelly as being “held in high regard by the market, with several sources noting his experience gained working in London”) and European Legal 500 (in which he was noted as “an absolute standout adviser”).