By Casey Sullivan
Nov 5 (Reuters) - Chadbourne & Parke has lost two of its
intellectual property practice leaders to the New York office of
the Cooley law firm.
Walter Hanchuk, the former chair of Chadbourne's
intellectual property department, and John Kheit, the former
head of Chadbourne's mobile technology practice, are partners at
Cooley effective today.
Hanchuk, 45, becomes the head of Cooley's New York IP
practice. He specializes in building patent portfolios and
handling IP litigation for a variety of technology startups,
internet and computer companies and financial services
institutions.
In the past, Hanchuk has worked with such clients as
Monster.com, Priceline.com, Visa and Rockwell Automation,
according to court documents and United States Patent and
Trademark Office records.
Cooley is a Palo Alto-based law firm with more than 650
lawyers in 11 offices worldwide. It is mostly known for its work
in technology, life sciences, venture capital and clean energy
industries, but has been seeking to build out its New York IP
practice for about six years, according to firm CEO Joe Conroy.
Two notable IP hires recently made by the firm are Matthew
Langer, who joined Cooley in August 2011 from Wilson, Sonsini,
Goodrich & Rosati, and Joseph Drayton, who joined from Kaye
Scholer in June. Langer and Drayton did not immediately return a
request for comment.
Chadbourne, a New York law firm which staffs roughly 400
lawyers in 12 offices worldwide, specializes in a range of
practices, including project finance, insurance and products
liability issues.
Over the last several years, the firm has lost a number of
important IP partners. In September, John Squires, who had
co-chaired Chadbourne's IP department with Hanchuk and who is
the former chief patent counsel of Goldman Sachs and Honeywell,
left for Perkins Coie. Squires declined to comment.
Other Chadbourne IP departures, which span the last several
years, include Joseph Calvaruso, who joined Orrick Herrington &
Sutcliffe in 2008 and John Hintz, who joined the New York office
of Texas law firm Haynes and Boone in February. Neither returned
a request for comment.
"We will continue to build out our IP practice, responding
to our clients' needs and keeping pace with the fast-moving
global intellectual property market," said a Chadbourne
spokesman in a statement.
Hanchuk and Kheit are accompanied by roughly 15 associates
and support staff from Chadbourne, according to a Cooley
spokeswoman.
The two partners and their teams were recruited over a
nine-month period and partially were convinced to make the jump
by their former Chadbourne colleague, Scott Balber, who joined
Cooley in October, according to Hanchuk. Balber, previously the
co-chair of Chadbourne's litigation practice, did not
immediately return a request for comment.
The hires mark Cooley's "most significant recruiting coup"
in New York since the it acquired the 110-lawyer New York law
firm Kronish Lieb in 2006, said Cooley CEO Joe Conroy.
Cooley ranked #57 out of the largest grossing law firms in
the United States in 2012 with an annual revenue of $564 million
according the to the American Lawyer. Chadbourne ranked #96 in
that list, with an annual revenue of $305 million.
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