SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sidley Austin LLP announced today that Vernon M. Winters will join its San Francisco office as a partner in the intellectual property litigation practice, effective January 1, 2012. Mr. Winters focuses his practice on complex patent and patent license litigation for life sciences companies and technology companies. He has litigated cases in jurisdictions nationwide and has worked with a number of the country’s leading technology companies.
Patty Thayer, a partner in Sidley’s Northern California IP practice, commented, “We are thrilled to have Vern join our IP litigation practice. I have had the privilege of working with Vern over the years, and I know first-hand that he is a top notch litigator.”
“I am very excited to be joining Sidley Austin,” said Mr. Winters. “I was drawn to Sidley because of its outstanding IP litigation practice, its deep experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and its reputation for winning commercially significant disputes for innovation-based companies. I look forward to working with Sidley colleagues, both new and old, and further building Sidley’s IP litigation platform.”
“It is a great privilege to welcome Vern to Sidley,” said Anne E. Rea, the member of Sidley’s Management Committee responsible for its West Coast offices. “Vern is a highly respected first chair patent trial lawyer who will enhance our strong IP litigation team and further position us to serve biotech and medical device clients, as well as information technology clients.”
Mr. Winters has spoken and published widely on patent litigation issues, and is co-author of the treatise Modern Patent Litigation. From 2002-2010, he taught and co-taught Patent Litigation at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He currently serves on the Board of Editors of the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, the Advisory Board of the Center for the Advanced Study and Research on Intellectual Property at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, Washington and the National Editorial Board of The Federal Lawyer in Washington, D.C. Mr. Winters has also been consistently recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
As of January 1, 2012, Mr. Winters can be reached at vwinters@sidley.com, (415) 772-1200.
In 2011, Sidley’s Intellectual Property practice was named the IP Team of the Year at the Chambers USA Awards for Excellence. Sidley’s IP litigation lawyers in San Francisco collaborate closely with the IP litigators in the firm’s Palo Alto office to focus on the technological and scientific discoveries that drive the global economy.
Sidley’s San Francisco office, with more than 50 lawyers, serves national and international clients, as well as emerging and established technology companies. Key practice areas include IP litigation, corporate, securities and capital markets, health care regulation and securities and commercial litigation. Sidley’s Palo Alto office consists of approximately 25 lawyers and serves information technology, life sciences and alternative energy clients in areas critical to emerging and established technology companies, including corporate, technology transactions and IP litigation.
Sidley Austin LLP is one of the world’s premier full-service law firms, with approximately 1700 lawyers practicing in 17 U.S. and international cities, including Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. Repeating its performance in the inaugural 2010 survey, Sidley received the most first-tier national rankings of any U.S. law firm in the 2011/12 U.S.News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” survey. Sidley was also named the U.S.News – Best Lawyers “Law Firm of the Year” in both Corporate Law and Securities Regulation in the 2011/12 survey (the first year of such designations). BTI, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, has named Sidley as one of only three firms to have been in the top ten of the BTI Client Service rankings every year since the inception of those rankings in 2001, and as number one in three of those years.
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