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Dewey Ballantine Adds Three Partners and New Co-Chair to IP Litigation Practice
Friday, June 22, 2007
Washington, DC -- Dewey Ballantine LLP, a leading international law firm, announced today that Dirk D. Thomas, Robert A. Auchter and Kenneth A. Freeling will join the firm's Washington, D.C. office on June 25, 2007 as partners in the Intellectual Property Litigation Group. The firm also announced that Mr. Thomas will serve as co-chair of the firm-wide IP Litigation Group alongside Aldo A. Badini. Messrs. Thomas, Auchter and Freeling all join Dewey Ballantine from the Washington, D.C. office of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP.
"I am pleased to welcome Dirk, Bob, Ken and their entire team to the Washington, D.C. office," said Alan Wm. Wolff, a member of Dewey Ballantine's Management Committee and managing partner of the firm's Washington, D.C. office. "They are IP lawyers of the highest quality and their arrival will have an immediate positive impact on the firm and its clients. Their arrivals come at a time when many of our clients are increasingly looking for ways to protect, preserve and promote their intellectual property assets in a complex and competitive marketplace."
Mr. Thomas has more than 20 years of experience focusing on intellectual property litigation. He has represented clients in a range of technology industries, including telephone systems, medical devices, computer hardware and software, power generation, and refining equipment/systems. He has first- chaired patent infringement jury trials and arbitration hearings related to patent license disputes, and has served as lead trial counsel on many patent infringement litigations, coordinating simultaneous patent infringement litigations in the U.S. and Europe. Clients Mr. Thomas has represented include Medtronic, Tulip Computers, Nikon, Taro Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Foster Wheeler, Unisys, Prism Technologies, Rexnord, Dr. Gary Michelson, American Catherization Systems, Cordis and Regeneration Technologies, Inc. He has argued numerous appeals before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that have resulted in precedential opinions from that appeals court. Mr. Thomas is a registered patent attorney and has experience in all ex parte and inter partes matters before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the European Patent Office. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1982 where he received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and went on to George Washington University National Law Center where he received his J.D.
Mr. Freeling has more than 20 years of experience litigating and trying antitrust and patent cases with a particular concentration in the pharmaceutical, biological, and medical device industries, representing clients including Pfizer, CIBA Vision, Bayer, NYU and MIT. Most recently Mr. Freeling first-chaired two significant antitrust/patent jury trials back-to- back for major insurers. He also has broad trial experience with complex commercial cases involving financial institutions and other major industries for clients such as AIG, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Citibank before federal and state courts as well as arbitration panels. Mr. Freeling graduated from Georgetown University, A.B., magna cum laude in 1979. He received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1982.
Mr. Auchter has more than 10 years of intellectual property litigation experience representing clients in District and Appellate Courts, the Court of Federal Claims and the International Trade Commission in patent litigation relating to electronic, biomedical and consumer products and processes. He represented ExxonMobil Chemical Company on patents involving unique polymers and assisted the company in reaching resolution with a licensee, as well as internet-based clients, such as the largest provider of computer technology test preparation materials, with copyright litigation. He has also represented clients in commercial litigation involving significant commercial real estate dispositions. Mr. Auchter graduated cum laude from George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, B.S.E.E., and was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu engineering honor societies. He received his J.D. with high honors from the George Washington University Law School in 1993.
Remarking on their arrivals, Jeffrey L. Kessler, co-chair of the firm's Litigation Department and a member of its Executive and Management Committees said, "Dirk, Bob and Ken join the firm at a time of explosive growth. They complement perfectly, and will be tremendous assets to, our already strong IP and antitrust litigation capabilities in New York, Austin, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Under Dirk and Aldo's leadership, I look forward to even greater growth of the IP litigation practice going forward."
About Dewey Ballantine
Dewey Ballantine LLP, an international law firm with 550 lawyers located in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, East Palo Alto, Austin, Charlotte, London, Warsaw, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome and Beijing, was founded in 1909. Through its network of offices, the firm handles some of the largest, most complex corporate transactions, litigation and tax matters in areas such as M&A, private equity, project finance, corporate finance, corporate reorganization and bankruptcy, antitrust, intellectual property, sports law, structured finance and international trade. Industry specializations include energy and utilities, health care, insurance, financial services, media, consumer and industrial goods, consumer electronics, technology, telecommunications and transportation.
Website: http://www.deweyballantine.com/
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