Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Gibbons P.C.

Group of Reed Smith Intellectual Property Attorneys Joins Gibbons' Philadelphia Office
Gibbons P.C. announced today the arrival of 5 attorneys from Reed Smith’s Intellectual Property (“IP”) Group, marking yet another chapter in the growth of Gibbons’ nationally recognized IP practice and the firm’s continued focus on providing a full compliment of legal services to the life science, telecommunications, and other technology-based industries. The group of attorneys, led by well known IP practitioner Lou Heidelberger, brings the total number of attorneys in Gibbons’ IP practice to 45, the Philadelphia office to 40, and the overall firm count close to 220.

Lou Heidelberger and Thomas McWilliams will join Gibbons as Directors, with Heidelberger also acting as the Co-Administrative Director of the Gibbons Philadelphia Office and serving on the firm’s Executive Committee. Justin C. Allen, Todd A. Norton, and Edward F. Behm, Jr. will join Gibbons as Associates.

"Lou Heidelberger and his team have outstanding reputations and an extensive practice that fit squarely within our strategy. We are delighted that they have decided to join us,” stated Patrick Dunican, Managing Director of Gibbons.

"Representing Fortune 500 clients for their ‘middle market’ legal matters and ‘middle market’ clients for all of their legal needs is a model that has served us and our clients very well, regionally and nationwide,” says David De Lorenzi, Chairman of Gibbons’ IP Department. “With Lou and his team’s exceptional talent and experience, together with their complimentary client base and industry focused approach to practicing law, we are confident that our practices and clients will each reap the benefits of this extraordinary partnership."

"Having been at Reed Smith since 1988, I will miss my many colleagues and friends,” said Lou Heidelberger. “To move our practice to the next level, however, our team concluded that the dynamic platform offered by the Gibbons IP practice and its highly regarded firm will be the better fit for our needs, and the needs of our clients.”

Louis M. Heidelberger focuses his practice on serving national and international companies in the fields of telecommunications; media, advertising and marketing; nanotechnology; bio-informatics; medical, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals; information systems and e-commerce; chemicals; advanced materials; pulp, paper and printing; power generation; waste water systems; luxury goods; food and diet; environmental; and textile, fashion and cosmetics. Mr. Heidelberger is involved in commercialization issues including venture/financings, joint venture/strategic alliances, technology transfer, licensing, and related transactional and counseling matters, including various aspects of corporate restructuring and formation of on-shore and off-shore holding/licensing companies. He is recognized by and included in The Best Lawyers in America and Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.

Thomas J. McWilliams concentrates his practice on intellectual property issues, including the preparation and prosecution of domestic and foreign patents, trademarks, and copyrights, the litigation of patent, trademark, trade dress, trade secret, copyright, domain name and contractual matters, and the counseling of clients in intellectual property opinion and transactional matters. Mr. McWilliams also provides counseling to international clients on United States and international patent practice, and has participated as an in-house U.S. patent practitioner, and as a presenter on U.S. patent practice, during a work-stay program in Japan. He has a substantial background in complex circuits, semiconductor and integrated circuit fabrication, electromagnetic sciences, telecommunications, display technologies, and computer software and business methods, as well as in the mechanical and industrial arts.

Justin C. Allen, whose practice includes the preparation and prosecution of patents, trademark and copyrights, the litigation of intellectual property matters, including the preparation of opinions regarding patent validity and infringement, as well as other related intellectual property matters in both the United States and abroad. Mr. Allen’s experience includes serving as a senior research associate in the E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company’s Agricultural Crops Genetics Group, where his work included determination of gene expression profiles of numerous crop plants put under various environmental and pathogenic stresses, and the development of several vectors for the creation of transgenic plant lines.

Todd A. Norton focuses his practice in the areas of patent preparation and prosecution, trademark prosecution, and copyrights, preparation of patent validity and infringement opinions, intellectual property litigation, and other related intellectual property matters in the United States and abroad. Mr. Norton has also been involved in evaluating and enforcing patent, trademark and trade secret rights and has been involved with technologies in fields including optics, nano-optics and other nano-technologies, electronics, analog and digital communication’s, business methods, mechanical devices and other related technologies.

Edward F. Behm, Jr. concentrates his practice on intellectual property issues, including the preparation and prosecution of domestic and foreign patents, trademarks, and copyrights; the litigation of patent, trademark, trade dress, trade secret, copyright, domain name and contractual matters; and the counseling of clients in intellectual property opinion and transactional matters. Mr. Behm also provides counseling to international clients on United States and international patent practice, and has participated as in-house counsel at a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical client.

04-12-2007

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Fowler, White, Boggs & Banker, Attorneys At Law

Liberty Mutual Counsel Joins Fowler White Boggs Banker
Fowler White Boggs Banker is pleased to announce that Cindy Shatkin Avidan, senior attorney with Liberty Mutual, has joined the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office as a shareholder in the general trial practice. Ms. Avidan will continue practicing in the area of insurance defense, as well as in the areas of automobile/trucking negligence, premise liability, products liability, construction litigation, pharmaceutical negligence; commercial litigation and other complex legal matters.

According to Fowler White litigation department chairman, Jeff Winkler, “Ms. Avidan is a highly respected senior trial attorney who brings to our Fort Lauderdale office a sophisticated defense practice in complex litigation. We are fortunate that she has chosen to join our firm after a distinguished career with Liberty Mutual Insurance.”

Cindy Shatkin Avidan graduated from the University of Florida College of Law where she also earned her Bachelor of Arts in English. She is a member of the Florida Bar and the Broward County Bar Association and has been licensed to practice in Florida since 1985. She is also a member of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

04-12-2007

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Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Drinker Biddle Partner Shepherds Groundbreaking North Dakota Corporate Law
Following a months-long effort, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP partner William H. Clark, Jr. and his client, the North Dakota Corporate Governance Council, have succeeded in obtaining the passage of legislation that provides a new model of corporate governance at the state level. The legislation, known as “Chapter 10-35,” was signed today by Governor John Hoeven of North Dakota. It is the country’s first “shareholder friendly” state corporation law, and provides an alternative to the wide-ranging changes being proposed at the federal level which will impact all publicly traded corporations. Clark, who focuses his practice on corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions, is based in Drinker Biddle’s Philadelphia office.

“North Dakota has taken the lead in providing a new model of corporate governance in the United States,” said Drinker Biddle’s Clark. “The Governor, legislature and business community of North Dakota recognized the changing business landscape and the important role that responsible institutional shareholders are playing in businesses across industries. Being a North Dakota corporation will immediately brand a company as having state-of-the-art corporate governance and being committed to the interests of its owners.”

The new law is optional and will be available for companies incorporating in North Dakota after July 1, 2007, that elect to include a provision in their articles of incorporation.

Clark is co-chair of the firm’s Corporate Governance practice group. In 1990, he was appointed by the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the Corporation Bureau Advisory Committee, and was elected its first chairman. For a number of years, he has served as the draftsman for the Title 15 Task Force of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and in that capacity was the author of the 1988 Pennsylvania Business Corporation Law and the Pennsylvania Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act. He has been a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Corporate Laws Committee, which drafts the Model Business Corporation Act, and he is the Reporter for the project preparing a revision of the Model Nonprofit Corporation Act. He was the Reporter for the Model Entity Transactions Act and the Model Registered Agents Act prepared by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL), and he is the ABA Chair of the current joint project between the ABA and NCCUSL to prepare the Omnibus Business Organizations Code.

www.drinkerbiddle.com

With an active corporate practice, clients rely on Clark for his guidance on corporate governance and control issues, contested transactions, the establishment of closely-held businesses, and venture capital investments, and mergers and acquisitions.

Provisions of the new law include:

• Majority voting in election of directors. In an uncontested election of directors, shareholders have the right to vote “yes” or “no” on each candidate, and only those candidates receiving a majority of “yes” votes are elected.

• Separation of roles of Chair and CEO. The board of directors must have a chair who is not an executive officer of the corporation

• Advisory shareholder votes on compensation reports. The compensation committee of the board of directors must report to the shareholders at each annual meeting of shareholders and the shareholders have an advisory vote on whether they accept the report of the committee.

• Proxy access. The corporation must include in its proxy statement nominees proposed by 5% shareholders who have held their shares for at least two years.

• Reimbursement for successful proxy contests. The corporation must reimburse shareholders who conduct a proxy contest to the extent the shareholders are successful. Thus, if a shareholder conducts a proxy contest to place three directors on a corporation’s board and two of the candidates are elected, the shareholder will be entitled to reimbursement of two-thirds of the cost of the proxy contest.

The new law can be found as Chapter 10-35 of the North Dakota Century Code, and has two basic parts. Sections 10-35-01 through 10-35-27 establish the new system of corporate governance for publicly traded corporations, that incorporate in North Dakota and elect to be subject the Chapter 10-35. Sections 10-35-28 through 10-35-33 impose a franchise fee on the corporations subject to Chapter 10-35, similar to the Delaware franchise tax, but at 50 percent of the rate imposed by Delaware. The text of the law is available online at http://www.legis.nd.gove/assembly/60-2007/bill-index/bil340.html.

Clark currently serves on the Board of the North Dakota Corporate Governance Council, www.ndcgc.org. Other members of the Board include Bill Sorensen, former mayor of Bismarck, ND and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Extend America, a cellular phone company serving the Midwest; and Steve Herman, CEO of AAction Moving, which has offices throughout the Midwest, and treasurer of Unigroup, Inc., the parent company of United Van Lines

04-12-2007

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Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP

CRAVATH REPRESENTS NOVARTIS IN THE SALE OF ITS GERBER BUSINESS
Cravath represented Novartis AG in the sale of its Gerber business to Nestlé S.A. for $5.5 billion. The lawyers involved in this matter are partners Mark I. Greene and Philip A. Gelston and associates Robert A. W. Pleasant and Raffi Melkonian on corporate matters; partner Katherine B. Forrest on antitrust matters; partner Michael L. Schler and associate J. Leonard Teti on tax matters; and partner Eric W. Hilfers and associates Rolf Zaiss and Lori Diamond Goodman on executive compensation and benefits matters. The deal was announced on

04-12-2007

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Bryan Cave LLP

Bryan Cave Partner to Speak at International STEP Symposium
Bryan Cave LLP Partner Larry Heller will speak at The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners’ (STEP) Fifth Symposium, held at The Landmark Hotel in London on April 18. As chair and founder of STEP’s Los Angeles branch, Heller will provide “the view from the USA,” including discussion of the Uniform Trust Code and the Levin Report.

This year’s symposium will examine the challenges that trust practitioners and service providers face, including analysis of regulation, compliance, tax policy and the demands of settlors and beneficiaries.

Heller has more than 35 years of experience counseling individuals and members of their families on matters related to domestic and international estate and income tax planning. Many of his clients are high net worth individuals. Heller writes and lectures extensively on subjects related to domestic and international wealth transfer techniques. He testified before the House Ways and Means Committee Subcommittee on Oversight in 1995 on proposed legislation to tax U.S. citizens who renounce their citizenship and long-term resident aliens who relinquish their U.S. resident status.

STEP is a professional body providing members with a local, national and international learning business network through education, training, representation and events. STEP has more than 12,000 members worldwide, providing coverage of over 60 jurisdictions. Click here for more information.

04-12-2007

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Baker Botts LLP

Investigate Marking Statute Before Licensing, Ragusa, Withstandley Advise in Patent Strategy & Management Article
In an article in the April 2007 issue of Patent Strategy & Management titled "The Patent Marking Statute: Investigate Before You License," Firm lawyers Paul Ragusa and Peter Withstandley offer patent owners suggestions of what they need to do to avoid "the potentially harsh forfeiture of significant damages."

Ragusa and Withstandley explain that it is the patent owner's duty to investigate any licensees.

"Compliance with the marking statute extends to all licensees making the offering for sale, or selling patented articles," Ragusa and Withstandley state. "Further, the patentee bears the burden of proving its licensees' compliance with the marking statute by a preponderance of the evidence. Therefore, a patent owner must take steps to ensure that its licensees are complying with the marking statute."

However, they state in the article, "courts have recognized that patent owners are not in the same position as their licensees concerning licensee business activities and often can not know everything a licensee did or did not do with respect to patent marking. Thus, when the failure to mark is caused by a licensee, courts may consider 'whether the patentee made reasonable efforts to ensure compliance with the marking requirements.'"

04-12-2007

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Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, L.L.P.

Local Environmental Attorney Joseph Manko To Be Honored By the Democratic Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth
Joseph M. Manko, a founding partner of Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, LLP, will be honored for his 27 years of service as Commissioner to Lower Merion Township by the Democratic Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth on Sunday, May 6 at the committee’s Annual Spring Dinner and Silent Auction. The event will be held at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia, beginning at 5 p.m.

Manko is Lower Merion Township’s longest running elected official. He was first elected to the board in November 1979 and was sworn in January 7, 1980. He won his seventh four-year term as commissioner in 2003. During his tenure as commissioner, Manko served as president in 1993 and 2004 and vice president in 1992 and 2005 to the present. While in office, Manko led the Board on many forward-looking projects and is credited with having helped establish the City Avenue Special Services District.

Reflecting on his years of service, Manko said, “Along with Senator Connie Williams, Jeff Saltz, Nora Winkelman and many others – too many to name – I had the pleasure of helping bring the Democratic party of Lower Merion and Narberth from the edge of anonymity to today’s majority. Toward that end, I am thrilled to be honored by the committee.”

In addition to being a founding partner of Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, LLP, an environmental and land use law firm based in Bala Cynwyd, Manko has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 1991. He has served as a lecturer-in-law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and at Vermont Law School.

He is a Trustee and former President of Beth David Reform Congregation in Gladwyne, the former Chairman of the Board of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and is a Director of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and the Lower Merion Conservancy. Manko also served as a Commissioner on Governor Ridge's 21st Century Environmental Commission. He currently serves as Governor Rendell's designee to chair the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PennVest) Board of Directors.

Manko graduated magna cum laude from Yale University in 1961 and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1964. He and his wife, Lynn, are the parents of three grown children and grandparents of five grandchildren.

The Democratic Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth’s Annual Spring Dinner and Silent Auction will be held on Sunday, May 6 at the Bala Golf Club, 2200 Belmont Avenue, Philadelphia. The cocktail hour begins at 5 p.m., with dinner and program following at 6 p.m.

04-12-2007

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