Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Scully Scott Murphy & Presser, PC

Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser Names New Counsel
Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser, a leading Intellectual Property Law firm has announced that Barry Krivisky has become Counsel to the firm for Trademarks. Prior to joining Scully Scott, Mr. Krivisky was Vice President, Associate General Counsel, at Altria Corporate Services. Prior to that, he was Assistant General Counsel at Altria and Trademark Counsel at Philip Morris and a partner with Ladas & Parry in New York.

""We're very pleased that Barry Krivisky has joined Scully Scott to expand its Trademark practice,"" said Paul Esatto, Senior Partner at Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser. ""We look forward to Barry teaming with our patent and trademark attorneys to provide a broader range of services to our clients. And, we expect that his many years of experience and broad network of contacts will attract new clients to the firm.""

Mr. Krivisky's practice will include worldwide trademark filing and prosecution, licensing and assignments, due diligence, and inter partes matters including nullity actions, oppositions, cancellation actions, infringements, and unfair competition; copyright; domain name disputes; ICANN UDRP proceedings; and litigation in the Federal and State Courts.

""In this day and age of the global marketplace, it is vitally important for companies to protect their trademark assets internationally -- as well as here in the United States,"" said Mr. Krivisky. ""As the head of the trademark department of Altria, I was responsible for protecting some of the world's most valuable brands such as Kraft, Marlboro, JELL-O and Post in nearly every country of the world. Joining Scully Scott enables me to provide that expertise and experience to the clients of the firm.""

Mr. Krivisky received his B.A. from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut; and his J.D. from New York Law School.

Mr. Krivisky is admitted to the Bar in New York, and he is admitted to the U.S. Distric t Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a member of the International Trademark Association, the American Bar Association, and the New York State Bar Association.

About Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser
Founded in 1973, Garden City-based Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser is one of Long Island's largest and most preeminent law firms exclusively dedicated to Intellectual Property. Comprised of highly skilled attorneys with highly technical backgrounds, SSMP confidently sits at the crossroads of cutting edge science, technology and law where it offers detailed, bankable opinions and secures, protects and enforces intellectual property for its clients. For more information, visit Web site http://www.ssmp.com.

07-26-2006

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Schwegman, Lundberg, Woessner & Kluth, P.A.

SLWK Opens Silicon Valley Office
In September 2004, SLWK opened a Silicon Valley office in San Jose, California, with patent attorneys Andre Marais and Garth Vivier, who come to SLWK from Blakely Sokoloff Taylor and Zafman LLP.

“Opening the Silicon Valley office was a natural progression for us,” said Steve Lundberg, SLWK’s managing shareholder. “We already have many clients based in Silicon Valley. Opening this office will make it easier for us to serve existing clients, and help us reach out to new ones.”

Andre Marais is a former partner at Blakely Sokoloff, and joins SLWK as a shareholder. His practice focuses on strategic IP counseling, US and foreign patent prosecution, patent infringement analysis and opinions, and IP due diligence work, particularly in the networking (including Internet), software, communications and electronics technologies.

Garth Vivier was a partner at Adams & Adams, then a partner at Blakely Sokoloff, and comes to SLWK as of counsel. Garth's practice focuses on US and foreign patent prosecution, patent portfolio development and management, validity and infringement analyses and opinions particularly in computer hardware and software, business method, mechanical device, Internet, telecommunication and digital audio technologies.

The Silicon Valley office will have its own on-site paralegal, but staff support and attorney collaboration from the Minneapolis office will be possible via the Internet, thanks to FoundationIP (FIP), a web-based patent law case management tool.

“It is exciting to be establishing this office,” said Marais, “with the full resources of SLWK’s more than sixty attorneys and sixty staff, and its cutting-edge case management and quality systems, backing us.

07-26-2006

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Goodwin Procter, LLP

Creditex and CreditTrade to Merge
Creditex and CreditTrade announced that they have agreed to merge, creating a global force in the credit derivatives market. The combined company will be known as Creditex Group Inc. and will have leading market positions in various sectors of the CDS market, including European and North American indices and structured products, with positions across all single-name sectors and emerging markets globally. The merger will position Creditex Group Inc. to take advantage of the credit derivatives market, which has expanded by 100% annually in recent years, topping $17 trillion in outstanding notional in 2006.

Goodwin Procter partners John LeClaire and Kathy Fields represented Creditex in this matter.

07-25-2006

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McKee Nelson LLP

Investigations Are Sifting Good, Bad and Only Ugly
Last week’s civil and criminal charges against former executives at Brocade, a maker of data storage networking products, were the first in a widening investigation into the manipulation of stock options. No one expects that they will be the last.

But given the number of companies now under scrutiny — more than 80 — and how varied were their practices in granting options, it is unclear where investigators will draw the line. Some practices may turn out to be perfectly legal, others simply overly aggressive or sloppy and still others may be found to have been fraudulent.

Government investigators seem to be focusing their efforts now on cases involving falsified documents and similar accusations. A result may be that the vast majority of the options-backdating cases will wind up being pursued and settled on a civil basis with the Securities and Exchange Commission, lawyers say.

“Only the top end of these cases, namely forgery and intentional deception, should have criminal interest for the Justice Department,’’ said Brian J. Lane, a former director of corporation finance with the commission who is now with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Washington. “The next tier will likely involve action by the S.E.C. only.” And while prosecutors in San Francisco, Manhattan and Brooklyn have opened 33 cases so far, it is likely only a handful of those will result in criminal charges, said lawyers involved in talks with investigators.

One aspect of the options-backdating investigation that strikes some lawyers as unusual is the high degree of cooperation and coordination that appears to be occurring among the S.E.C. and federal prosecutors in three districts.

Many were not surprised that the United States attorney in Northern California took the lead in filing the first case against the former Brocade executives. Many of the tech companies under investigation for their options-backdating practices are based in its backyard: Silicon Valley. Still, the lack of turf wars among regulators may simply show that there are probably enough cases to go around, some lawyers said.

The reason the government may pursue cases involving false documents or statements is that it is usually easier to show intent in those cases, lawyers said.

“If you have a situation where you have falsified documents, forged documents or even misleading backdated documents, which are false in different ways, those are the kind of things that prosecutors or enforcecourtesy ment lawyers are going to react to,” said Christopher Wray, the chairman of King & Spalding’s government investigations practice and a former head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “I believe that there are enough truly criminal cases to bring that they shouldn’t have to pursue gray-area ones.” Underscoring the import the government is placing on this investigation, the S.E.C. is devoting plenty of employees to witness interviews; requesting that crucial documents be turned over in a matter of days or a few weeks; and demanding that witnesses show up for interviews on extremely short notice, said lawyers representing clients under investigation.

“I think tactics and demands from investigators that were rare before Enron are much more common now. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen,” said Michael N. Levy, a former assistant United States attorney who is a white-collar criminal defense lawyer with McKee Nelson.

The issue of options backdating has only recently reached the public eye, but in some cases it has been closely scrutinized by regulators for several months. Many investigations have been opened after internal investigations by boards of various companies.

Yet, what makes so many of these cases complex and difficult to define in black-and-white legal terms is that the practice appears to have been widespread; it often received the blessing of auditors and law firms; and it mostly involves grants of options during the 1990’s and through 2002, when the Sarbanes-Oxley Act required more timely reporting of options grants.

Still, while the options may have been given years ago and may not have even enriched the participants, disclosure of the backdating activity is occurring when the public is becoming increasingly outraged over executive compensation. Already, many class-action lawsuits have been filed against companies that have disclosed inquiries into their options practices.

The fallout from internal and government investigations at several companies has already been swift and fierce. At several companies, the corporate suites, including the chief executives, chief accounting officers and even general counsels, have been emptied. And those who typically are more insulated from investigations, like directors, auditing firms and even law firms that counseled companies under investigation, are squirming under the microscope as well these days.

07-25-2006

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Fowler, White, Boggs & Banker, Attorneys At Law

Carolyn Coukos elected as new treasurer of the Florida Women Association for Women Lawyers
Caroyln C. Coukos, a shareholder with the law firm of Fowler White Boggs Banker, has been installed as the new treasurer of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. The Honorable Patricia Seitz, U.S. District Court for Florida, Southern Division, installed the new officers. Ms. Coukos previously held positions with the Association of treasurer-elect and public relations director.

Ms. Coukos practices in the firm’s Trusts and Estates Practice Group and concentrates her practice in the area of estate planning, charitable gift planning, life insurance planning, domicile planning, taxation, and trust and estate settlement.

Fowler White Boggs Banker is one of Florida’s oldest and largest law firms with more than 230 attorneys in ten offices throughout Florida in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Ft. Myers, Tallahassee, Orlando, Naples, West Palm Beach, Bonita Springs, Jacksonville and Boca Raton. For more information, visit www.fowlerwhite.com.

07-25-2006

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Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP

CRAVATH REPRESENTS BARRICK GOLD IN ITS OFFER TO ACQUIRE NOVAGOLD
Cravath is acting as U.S. counsel to Barrick Gold Corporation in its offer to acquire NovaGold Resources Inc. for approximately $1.29 billion. The lawyers involved in this matter are partners Richard Hall and Mark I. Greene, associates Christopher S. Harrison and Monica Fantino, and summer associate Benjamin P. Schaye. The offer was announced on July 24, 2006.

07-25-2006

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Brown & Brown

BROWN RUDNICK ATTORNEYS NAMED NEW YORK SUPER LAWYERS
Brown Rudnick, a premier international law firm, today announced that several of its New York-based partners were selected as 2006 Super Lawyers®. Edward S. Weisfelner, Ada Clapp and Anthony H. Handal were recognized by their peers in an independent survey conducted by the publishers of Law & Politics. Super Lawyers represents the top 5 percent of licensed attorneys in the state.

New York Super Lawyers is published annually in July in a special advertising supplement in The New York Times, which reaches 684,000 Manhattan readers. New York Super Lawyers — Manhattan Edition is delivered to more than 76,000 Manhattan lawyers, the lead corporate counsel of the Russell 3000 companies and the ABA-approved law school libraries.

Brown Rudnick’s CEO Joseph F. Ryan commented, “Congratulations to our New York attorneys. This group of dedicated and talented attorneys represents our commitment to client service and legal excellence across diverse areas of the law.

07-25-2006

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