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Best Lawyers Names Six MoFo Attorneys “Lawyers of the Year”

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Morrison & Foerster was well-represented in the 2022 edition of Best Lawyers in America, with 122 lawyers receiving 180

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Morrison & Foerster was well-represented in the 2022 edition of Best Lawyers in America, with 122 lawyers receiving 180 individual rankings across practices and offices in the United States. Among the firm’s ranked lawyers, six were named Lawyers of the Year, including:<ul><li>Arturo J. González, Bet-the-Company Litigation</li><li>Darryl P. Rains, Litigation, Securities</li><li>Jay de Groot, Securities/Capital Markets Law</li><li>Kenneth E. Kohler, Biotechnology and Life Sciences Practice</li><li>Steve Rowles, Corporate Governance Law</li><li>William I. Schwartz, Information Technology Law</li></ul>Additionally, 44 of the noted lawyers were designated in the “Ones to Watch” category and four MoFo attorneys were recognized by Best Lawyers for the first time, including:<ul><li>Camila A. Tapernoux, Intellectual Property Law</li><li>Raff Ferraioli, Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law</li><li>Richard S.J. Hung, Litigation, Intellectual Property</li><li>Seth T. Lucia, Energy Law</li></ul>Established in 1983, Best Lawyers is one of the oldest and most widely respected peer‑review publications in the legal profession. Lawyers are selected based on receiving the highest overall peer feedback. Only one lawyer for each specialty and location is designated as a “Lawyer of the Year.”View the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bestlawyers.com/united-states">complete list of this year’s rankings</a>.

Best Lawyers Names Six MoFo Attorneys “Lawyers of the Year”

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<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe title="Meet Arturo González Commercial Litigator" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/jIM9npubu4I?rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="1" title="iframe"></iframe></div>Arturo is one of the nation’s top trial lawyers. One federal judge said his “trial advocacy skills were superior,” while a federal magistrate described his trial skills as “phenomenal.” He is sought after by America’s largest companies, in part because of his ability to communicate with increasingly diverse juries. Arturo has had great success representing both plaintiffs and defendants. He may be the only lawyer in the country to obtain defense victories for clients in multiple billion dollar matters and also four jury verdicts in excess of $10 million, including verdicts of $39.3 and $13.8 million in trade secrets cases. Arturo is a Fellow with the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and an associate with the American Board of Trial Advocates.He has served as MoFo’s lead trial counsel in a number of significant matters, including:<ul><li>Waymo v. Uber: Won a favorable settlement after four days of jury trial. Defeated motion for preliminary injunction that sought to bar Uber’s autonomous vehicle program.</li><li>Phoenix Technologies Ltd. v. VMWare, Inc.: Won a defense verdict in copyrights case seeking over $100 million and future royalties.</li><li>Phaedrus v. Kaiser Permanente: Won a defense verdict for Kaiser in a $125 million trade secrets misappropriation and breach of contract case.</li><li>Hansen Medical v. Luna Innovations Inc.: Won a $36.3 million verdict in a trial involving medical robotics. Jury found that defendant willfully misappropriated trade secrets and breached two contracts.</li></ul>Arturo has obtained a number of record jury verdicts, including $12.5 million for the unlawful shooting of a farmworker, $1.45 million for unlawful strip searches, and $63 million in a wrongful death suit.Arturo has earned a wealth of recognition from his peers. In 2021, Arturo joined the California Lawyers Association’s Trial Attorney Hall of Fame, an award bestowed upon attorneys who have excelled as trial lawyers and whose careers exemplify the highest values and professional attainment. He was also honored in 2019, by the American Bar Association for his dedication to providing free legal services to the poor. He was named to Legal 500’s Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame in 2017, has nine consecutive selections to the Daily Journal’s Top 100 Lawyers in California, is recommended by Chambers USA as a top commercial litigator, and has been selected annually since 2010, as one of the country’s top 30 trial lawyers by Legal 500, United States. In 2009, The National Law Journal recognized him as one of the top 10 trial lawyers in the country in their “Winning” Special Report. Earlier in his career, he was selected by National Law Journal as one of the nation’s top 40 lawyers under the age of 40 and one of the “50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America.”Arturo served as the 2010 President of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

Arturo J. González

Partner

Kenneth E. Kohler is senior of counsel in Morrison Foerster’s Los Angeles office and a member of the firm’s Capital Markets practice. His practice involves a broad range of corporate and capital markets work, including public offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities, mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies, and disclosure and reporting matters under the federal securities laws. Kenneth also has extensive experience representing banks, REITs, mortgage bankers, and others in corporate finance, structured finance, and securitization transactions.Kenneth is an active member of the Sections of Business Law and International Law of the American Bar Association and is also a contributor to Covered Bonds Handbook, published by Practising Law Institute.  Kenneth received his B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1977 and his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1980. He is admitted to practice in California.Kenneth is listed in Best Lawyers in America (2012-2023), and recommended as a leading lawyer by Legal 500 in 2019.<hr class="divider"><h4>Representative Matters</h4><h5>Corporate Securities</h5><ul><li>Represented Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. in numerous public and private offerings of common stock, preferred stock, senior notes and convertible notes resulting in proceeds totaling well over $25 billion.</li></ul><h5>Structured Finance and Derivatives</h5><ul><li>Represented the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBC) in structuring and documenting a new residential mortgage conduit program in which the FHLBC acquires “jumbo” mortgage loans from FHLBC member community lending institutions and re-sells them to Redwood Trust, Inc., a California-based mortgage REIT, which is expected to package the loans into private-label mortgage-backed securities issued into the U.S., U.K. and European capital markets.</li><li>Represented LendingClub Corporation in inaugural securitization transaction, and in several follow-securitizations, involving the issuance of rated notes backed by consumer loans originated through an online platform. </li><li>Advised a number of foreign banks on their investments in U.S.-based collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) with respect to Volcker Rule compliance and general business terms.</li><li>Advised Zions Bancorporation in the structuring and public offering in an internet auction of employee stock option appreciation rights securities, or ESOARS, an innovative derivative security designed to assist public companies in measuring stock option expense.</li><li>Represented a major federal savings bank in structuring innovative on-balance sheet securitizations of over $1 billion of home equity lines of credit and an on-balance sheet $4 billion asset-backed commercial paper conduit.</li></ul><h5>M+A and Restructuring</h5><ul><li>Represented Banc of California, N.A. in sale of its mortgage banking division and a portfolio of mortgage servicing rights to a leading non-bank mortgage banking company. </li><li>Represented Residential Capital LLC and its affiliates (ResCap) in the sale out of bankruptcy of substantially all of its mortgage servicing rights and operations in one of the largest and most complex negotiated mortgage servicing sales in U.S. history. ResCap was one of the largest U.S. mortgage servicers at the time of its chapter 11 filing, with assets and liabilities each in excess of $15 billion.</li><li>Advised Aames Financial Corporation, initially an NYSE-listed mortgage banking company with substantial private equity ownership, in a reorganization and conversion to a new publicly-held NYSE-listed REIT known as Aames Investment Corporation. The transaction included a merger, the buyout of the private equity interests, an initial public offering of the new REIT's common stock, and a concurrent private placement of common stock to the underwriters. The transaction was valued at approximately $500 million.</li></ul>

Kenneth E. Kohler

Senior Of Counsel

Steve Rowles is Chair of the firm’s San Diego Corporate Group. He has practiced in San Diego for over 25 years and has a wealth of experience as corporate counsel to public and private companies, and the venture capital and private equity funds that invest in those companies.He counsels companies at all stages in their life cycles. He distinguishes himself by achieving successful outcomes for clients utilizing best in class negotiating skills and creative and strategic thinking. He has been instrumental in starting, building and exiting numerous emerging growth companies in a broad range of industries including biotech, medical devices, digital health, diagnostics, healthcare services, clean technology and renewable energy, cybersecurity, fintech, agtech, software, 5G, semiconductors, telecommunications, e-commerce, new media and social networking.Steve has served as lead counsel on myriad mergers and acquisitions and securities transactions, including public offerings aggregating in excess of $2 billion in proceeds and over 100 acquisition transactions.Steve serves as general counsel and handles ’34 Act compliance, public securities offerings, and corporate governance counseling for a substantial number of public companies.Steve is adept at handling venture capital financings for both companies and investors. His expertise in partnership and limited liability company matters has given him substantial experience in fund formation, joint ventures, and other strategic partnering transactions.Steve was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Northwestern University and was elected to the Order of the Coif at Boalt Hall School of Law.Steve is active on behalf of Children’s Hospital and serves on the Board of Directors for both EvoNexus San Diego and the Jacobs Cushman San Diego Food Bank. Steve is an avid golfer, a voracious reader, and a family man.<h4>Representative Transactions</h4><h5>M&A</h5><ul><li>Represented ACEA Biosciences, Inc. in its $250 million acquisition by Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A)</li><li>Represented Acon Laboratories in its two complex cross-border acquisitions by Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. totaling $375 million</li><li>Represented Adicet Bio, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel off-the-shelf universal immune cell therapies, in its announced merger with a wholly-owned subsidiary of resTORbio (NASDAQ: TORC) to create a combined publicly-traded biotechnology company</li><li>Represented Alaska Energy & Resources Company in its $170 million acquisition by Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA)</li><li>Represented Astute Medical, a medical diagnostic company focused on high-risk medical conditions and diseases, in its $90 million sale to bioMérieux (EPA: BIM)</li><li>Represented Biotix, a private equity-backed developer and manufacturer of laboratory consumables and liquid handling solutions, in its sale to Mettler-Toledo (NYSE: MTD) for an undisclosed sum</li><li>Represented Biotix in its cross-border sale of PML Microbiologics to bioMérieux (EPA: BIM) for $30,000,000</li><li>Represented Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE) in its sale of BAF Technologies, Inc. to Westport Innovations Inc. for $30 million</li><li>Represented Clean-Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE), a leading provider of natural gas fuel for transportation in North America, in the $155 million sale of its renewable gas business to BP p.l.c, a British multinational oil and gas company.</li><li>Represented Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE), this provider of natural gas as an alternative fuel for vehicle fleets, in its sale for up to $180 million of components of its renewable natural gas business to BP (NYSE: BP</li><li>Represented Cogent, Inc. (NASDAQ: COGT) in its $943 million acquisition by 3M Company</li><li>Represented Compex Legal Services, Inc., one of the largest litigation and discovery support services firms in the nation, in its sale to Windjammer Capital, LP for cash and an earnout totaling approximately $230 million</li><li>Represented Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) in its acquisition of Precision Planting and certain South American operations for $190,000,000 from Monsanto (NYSE: MON and a contemporaneous multi-year precision ag collaboration with Monsanto and the Climate Corporation as well as in related divestiture transactions</li><li>Represented Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) in its acquisition of T-Systems for an undisclosed sum</li><li>Represented Live Nation, Inc. in its $354 million acquisition of the House of Blues</li><li>Represented MedfusionRx and certain affiliated entities in their sale to SXC Health Solutions for $100,000,000 plus undisclosed earnout payments</li><li>Represented Mentor Corporation in its $1.12 billion merger with Johnson & Johnson</li><li>Represented MTY Food Group Inc. in its successful tender offer for the shares of Papa Murphy’s Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) in a transaction valued at $190 million</li><li>Represented Paladin Technologies Inc. in its merger with TekWorks Inc.</li><li>Advised Scoperta, an innovative solution provider in advanced materials development, in its acquisition by Oerlikon Group, one of the world's leading high-tech industrial groups.</li></ul><h5>Venture Capital</h5><ul><li>Represented ACEA Biosciences Inc., a developer of cell analysis instrumentation technologies, in a $30 million Series E Preferred Stock financing</li><li>Represented ACEA Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company developing small molecule candidates for lung cancer and other indications, in its $20 million convertible note financing</li><li>Represented Adicet Bio in its $51,000,000 Series A Preferred Stock financing with OrbiMed, Novartis, and Pontifax and its $80,000,000 Series B Preferred Stock financing with Regeneron, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, KB Investment, Samsung Venture Investment, and prior investors</li><li>Represented Astute Medical, a medical diagnostic company focused on high-risk medical conditions and diseases in over $200 million of equity and debt financings</li><li>Represented Biotix in a restructuring of its $80,000,000 Series A Preferred Stock financing and its $6,000,000 Series B Preferred Stock financing with Ferrer Freeman and Grotech Ventures</li><li>Represented Cellics Therapeutics, Inc., developer of nanosponges with nanoparticle cores coated with red or white blood cell membranes which can be used to absorb a wide range of toxins, in preferred stock financings exceeding $30 million</li><li>Represented Cello Therapeutics, Inc., which uses nanosponge technology as a delivery mechanism for cancer therapeutics, in its $4.2 million Series A-2 financing, bringing its total Series A funds raised to $8 million</li><li>Represented ColorTokens, Inc., a leading cybersecurity company, in its $30 million convertible note financing and preferred stock financings exceeding $100 million</li><li>Represented Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) in over $100 million in investments in NG Advantage LLC</li><li>Represented Curology, Inc., a leading telemedicine provider of dermatology services and prescriptions, in over $60 million of preferred stock financings</li><li>Represented Curology, Inc. in its $30 million Series D preferred stock financing led by Institutional Venture Partners and Anthos Partners. We also represented Curology in a concurrent $11o million private tender offer in which IVP, Anthos, ACME Ventures and TriplePoint Capital purchased shares of common and preferred stock from existing shareholders</li><li>Represented Enterprise Partners in a $7,000,000 Series A-1 Preferred Stock financing by Enviance</li><li>Represented Eolas Therapeutics Inc., a start-up life sciences company in connection with a milestone based licensing transaction with AstraZeneca Inc. with upfront and contingent proceeds potentially in excess of $140 million</li><li>Represented Coupang LLC, a leading e-commerce company in Korea, in three preferred unit financings aggregating $500 million</li><li>Represented Geneos Therapeutics, Inc., a leader in the field of personalized cancer immunotherapy, in $22 million preferred stock financings</li><li>Represented Greenoaks Capital Partners, this entity and its affiliates as investors in over $100 million in equity financings, debt financings, and secondary transactions, including Coupang and several other prominent e-commerce companies</li><li>Represented Ignyta in its $500,000 Series A Preferred Stock financing and its $5,500,000 Series B Preferred Stock financing with City Hill Ventures</li><li>Represented Inertia Systems, Inc., a fast-growing provider of construction management, SAAS software solutions, in its $3.5 million convertible note financing led by Signia Ventures, as well as a $2.5 million extension of such note financing, for an aggregate of approximately $6 million in proceeds</li><li>Represented Netly, LLC, developer of last mile fiber optic networks, in its debt and equity financing led by Ubiquity Partners LLC, with an initial closing of $40 million with an aggregate maximum raise of $250 million</li><li>Represented Obsidian Sensors, Inc., a thermal imaging and sensor company, in its $25 million Series A financings</li><li>Represented The Pill Club Holdings, Inc., a digital health provider of birth control pills, in over $60 million of preferred stock financings</li><li>Represented Rakuten Medical, this biotechnology company developing a new class of precision targeted oncologic drugs, in over $470 million of equity financings</li><li>Represented VoloAgri Group, an agriculture technology company known for seed genetics, in over $150 million of preferred stock financings</li><li>Represented Xilio Therapeutics, Inc., an immunology company, it is $30 million Series A financing</li><li>Represented a lead investor in a $50 million Series D financing in Retrotope, Inc., a developer of a medical platform to treat degenerative diseases</li></ul><h5>Capital Markets</h5><ul><li>Represented Banc of America Securities, Lehman, Thomas Weisel Partners, and William Blair as underwriters in a $82,000,000 initial public offering by Nuvasive</li><li>Represented Cardium Therapeutics in its $20,000,000 PIPE financing and $10,000,000 credit facility</li><li>Represented Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE) in its $110 million at-the-market offering</li><li>Represented Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE) in a 144A offering of Convertible Senior Notes in the aggregate principal amount of $250 million</li><li>Represented Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE) in debt financing transactions with proceeds in excess of $500 million</li><li>Represented Digirad in its $66,000,000 initial public offering with Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, Banc of America Securities, and William Blair as underwriters</li><li>Represented Fulgent Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLGT) in its $43.5 million initial public offering</li><li>Represented Harrow Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: HROW) in its $14 million initial underwritten public offering</li><li>Represented Ignyta in its going-public transaction through a reverse merger with a public company and its contemporaneous $47,000,000 PIPE financing with Landenburg Thalman as placement agent and its subsequent $7,000,000 PIPE financing with National Securities Corporation as placement agent</li><li>Represented Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in a $30 million registered direct offering</li><li>Represented OncoSec Medical Incorporated (NASDAQ: ONCS) in a registered direct offerings aggregating in excess $80 million</li><li>Represented RxElite in its $30,000,000 PIPE financing</li><li>Represented Santarus in its $62,000,000 initial public offering with Cowen, UBS, Thomas Weisel Partners, and RBC Capital Markets as underwriters</li></ul>

Steve Rowles

Mr. Schwartz concentrates his practice on the representation of companies in business transactions and counseling involving intellectual property and technology, including licensing, development agreements, distribution and commercialization activities, joint ventures, outsourcing, and other services arrangements. He was the founding co-head of Morrison & Foerster’s Intellectual Property Group and has served as the firm’s managing partner.Mr. Schwartz is particularly active on transactional and counseling matters relating to computers (including hardware and both open source and proprietary software), communications equipment (including smartphones and other wireless communications devices, internet television, satellites, and other communications infrastructure), semiconductors and other electronic devices, electronic commerce, and other advanced information technology. He has represented clients such as Accenture, Altera, Autodesk, Mozilla, Netflix, Palo Alto Networks, Panasonic, Red Hat, Softbank, Sprint Nextel, Visa, Whirlpool, VMware, and Yahoo, among others.Mr. Schwartz is a frequent presenter on information technology and intellectual property issues. For example, he has lectured in the MBA program at Oxford University, and was a visiting fellow of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. He also served as an adjunct instructor at Stanford Law School and lectured at the University of California (Boalt Hall) School of Law, University of Southern California Computer Law Institute, Licensing Executives Society, and American Intellectual Property Law Association.Mr. Schwartz received his B.A. degree, with high honors, from Amherst College in 1976. He studied Japanese language and history from 1976 to 1977 at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, and then worked in Tokyo and Hong Kong as a reporter and editor for the Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal from 1977 to 1980. He received his J.D. degree, with honors, in 1983 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of The University of Chicago Law Review. Following law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge John D. Butzner, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He joined Morrison & Foerster in 1984 and became a partner of the firm in 1990.Representative Matters<div id="scoped-content"><ul><li>Autodesk in the technology and intellectual property aspects of various transactions.</li><li>Dexcom, a San Diego-based medical device manufacturer that markets a continuous glucose monitoring device for use by people with diabetes, in a patent licensing agreement with Abbott.</li><li>SoftBank on intellectual property aspects of its $1 billion investment in OneWeb for low Earth orbit satellites to provide global broadband access.</li><li>Palo Alto Networks in its patent cross-license with Juniper Networks relating to (among other things) network security technology. </li><li>Panasonic in its disputes and settlements with Qualcomm regarding patents relating to mobile communications equipment. </li><li>Qwest in a variety of intellectual property and information technology matters, including the intellectual property and technology aspects of Qwest’s sale of its Dex directory publishing business in a $7.05 billion leveraged buyout, Qwest’s agreements with IBM and Hewlett-Packard for the establishment and outsourcing of Internet services facilities, and Qwest’s strategic relationship with BellSouth. </li><li>Red Hat in its agreement with Microsoft for offering Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing infrastructure.</li><li>Sprint Nextel in its agreements with Qualcomm and other companies in connection with the development, licensing and deployment of technology for the next generation of Sprint Nextel’s wireless telecommunications services. </li><li>SUSE (formerly Novell) in the formation of Open Invention Network, a company formed by SUSE, IBM, Philips, Red Hat, Sony, NEC and Google to promote the Linux operating system by using an innovative model for patents and in SUSE’s dispute with The SCO Group concerning Unix-related copyrights. </li><li>Visa in its agreement with a major investment bank to establish a customized payments platform to provide differentiated experiences for merchants and cardholders.</li><li>VMware and its AirWatch subsidiary in a patent license agreement with Good Technology relating to mobile device management (MDM). </li><li>Yahoo and SoftBank, the largest shareholders of Alibaba Group (the leading PRC-based online and mobile commerce company), in the intellectual property aspects of the carve-out and restructuring of Alipay and Alibaba’s other financial services businesses.</li></ul></div>

William Schwartz

Camila Tapernoux is a partner in the Litigation Department of Morrison Foerster’s San Francisco office. Her practice focuses on complex litigation with an emphasis on class action and commercial litigation.Camila has extensive experience representing technology firms, consumer products companies, and healthcare providers in class action cases and complex commercial disputes, including unfair competition, false advertising, privacy, and product liability matters. She has also represented clients in numerous intellectual property matters, including patent, copyright, and trade secret litigation. She has experience in all stages of the litigation process, including pleadings, motion practice, electronic discovery, preliminary injunctions, depositions, summary judgment motions, oral argument, and trial.Camila received her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where she was an editor for the Science and Technology Law Review and served on the board of the Society for Law, Science, and Technology. She received her B.A. from Stanford University in human biology with a concentration in science and technology policy.

Camila Tapernoux

Raff Ferraioli is a partner in the Business Restructuring + Insolvency Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster.Raff has worked on a broad range of restructuring matters across various industries. He has experience representing official committees of unsecured creditors, as well as ad hoc groups, creditors, debtors, and other parties-in-interest in all aspects of complex corporate restructuring strategies and bankruptcy cases. Raff has represented the official committee of unsecured creditors in numerous chapter 11 cases, including Thrasio Holdings, PeerStreet, Wesco Aircraft Holdings (Incora), Clovis Oncology, the NORDAM Group, Windstream Holdings, and Valaris Plc.Raff earned his J.D. at St. John’s University School of Law, where he was an Articles and Notes editor for the American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review and the managing director of the Moot Court Honor Society. After law school, Raff received his LL.M. in Bankruptcy from St. John’s University School of Law, earning the highest cumulative grade point average in the program.Prior to joining Morrison Foerster, Raff served as a law clerk to the Honorable Mary Kay Vyskocil in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Raff Ferraioli

Rich is a nationally recognized intellectual property litigation attorney, with nearly 30 years of experience helping clients protect, enforce, and defend their most valuable IP assets in high-stakes disputes. He has served as global co-chair of the firm’s Litigation Department and spent a decade leading the firm’s Intellectual Property Group, advising clients at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and complex litigation. Rich co-chairs the Semiconductors Industry Group.A registered patent lawyer, former Federal Circuit clerk, electrical engineer, and seasoned trial lawyer, Rich brings a rare combination of technical training and litigation experience to every matter. He represents clients across the full spectrum of intellectual property law, including patent, copyrights, trademark, and trade secret litigation and has handled over 150 IP matters over the course of his career. Rich has tried over a dozen cases to verdict or final award and regularly represents clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts, before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and in arbitration proceedings.Rich’s practice spans a wide range of advanced technologies, including software, cryptography, semiconductors, consumer electronics, and medical devices. In addition to litigation, he frequently advises clients on strategic offensive and defensive patent licensing and acquisition issues.Rich earned dual bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and economics from Stanford University and received his law degree from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar, a recipient of the Carroll G. Harper Prize, and a moot court editor. During law school, he clerked for the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, then of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. After graduating, Rich clerked for the Honorable Paul R. Michel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.He maintains an active pro bono practice and is deeply engaged in public service. Since 2014, Rich has served as a Neutral Commissioner on the San Francisco Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board. He also served two terms as president of the Asian Law Alliance and continues to serve on its board of directors. The organization provides pro bono legal assistance to the Asian and Pacific Islander community in Silicon Valley. Rich is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.Earlier in his career, Rich tried multiple criminal cases—all to favorable verdicts—while serving with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.Outside of his legal practice, Rich is an avid endurance athlete and has completed five Ironman triathlons. His training reflects the same discipline, preparation, and resilience that characterize his approach to complex litigation.<h4>Representative Matters</h4><ul><li>Smartphone Litigation. Member of team that successfully tried a high-profile smartphone case, leading to a jury verdict of over $1 billion.</li><li>Whirlpool Corp. v. TST Water LLC (Eastern District of Texas). Led Whirlpool team that obtained $7.6 million jury verdict and willfulness finding against TST Water in a patent case involving refrigerator water filters.</li><li>Good Technology Corp. v. AirWatch, LLC (Northern District of California). Defended AirWatch against assertions of four patents by a competitor. The case settled after expert discovery.</li><li>Data Speed Technology LLC v. VMware, Inc. (District of Delaware). After every other defendant settled or was dismissed, convinced plaintiff to walk away and dismiss case against client VMware with prejudice.</li><li>Unified Messaging Solutions v. VMware, Inc. (Northern District of Illinois). Represented VMware in a patent infringement suit brought by a non-practicing entity alleging infringement by VMware’s Zimbra webmail product.</li><li>Augme Technologies LLC v. Yahoo!, Inc. (Northern District of California). Represented Yahoo! in a patent infringement suit involving Internet display advertising and media playback. Won summary judgment of non-infringement on Augme’s two asserted patents, and Augme stipulated to infringement of one of Yahoo!’s patents. The case was affirmed on appeal.</li><li>Discovery Communications, Inc. v. Amazon.com, Inc. (District of Delaware). Represented Discovery Communications in a patent infringement suit against Amazon.com alleging infringement by Amazon’s Kindle of Discovery’s patents for e-book reader technology. The case settled after a favorable claim construction ruling.</li><li>Medtronic Spine LLC v. Cozmed, LLC (Northern District of California). Obtained consent judgments of patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation against infringers in a matter involving balloon kyphoplasty.</li><li>Waugh v. Doyle, et al. (Northern District of California). Represented plaintiff in civil rights lawsuit. Court entered substantial monetary judgment in plaintiff’s favor prior to trial.</li></ul>