Goodwin Procter Adds to Intellectual Property Practice with Two Attorneys from Heller Ehrman

11.04.08

BOSTON, Nov. 4, 2008 — Goodwin Procter LLP today announced that two attorneys from Heller Ehrman have joined the firm in New York, continuing the expansion of the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice.

Kevin J. Culligan and John P. Hanish, both former members of Heller Ehrman’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group, join the firm as partners in Goodwin Procter’s New York office.

Culligan and Hanish handle a variety of high-profile patent litigation matters, with an emphasis on the medical device, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and banking sectors.

“Kevin and John are fine lawyers, well-known for their deep expertise,” said Regina M. Pisa, chairman and managing partner of Goodwin Procter. “Their addition in New York represents a significant step in our plans for strategic, broad-based growth in this market.”

Culligan’s practice focuses on the litigation, trial and appeal of intellectual property matters, primarily patent, trade secret and unfair competition cases. He has served as lead and supporting counsel in dozens of matters and in many trials in federal and state courts across the country. He has represented numerous international companies in his areas of focus and many of those representations involved diverse technologies. He is an experienced litigator, has worked on numerous appeals and has argued a case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hanish’s practice focuses on patent litigation in the U.S. federal courts and the U.S. International Trade Commission, patent licensing and pre-litigation strategies related to patents and trade secrets. He has substantial trial and appellate experience in patent, trade secret and licensing disputes related to pharmaceutical compounds, biotechnology, medical devices, electronics and consumer products.

Goodwin Procter has grown its patent and intellectual property litigation expertise tremendously over the last several years, launching its IP practice in California in 2007. The firm’s 123 litigators, transaction lawyers, patent attorneys and scientists – with over 50 advanced degrees, including 20 PhDs – help clients with protecting and defending intellectual property rights, technology procurement, marketing initiatives and strategic deal structuring.

Goodwin Procter’s trial lawyers have handled a large number of patent cases including dozens of matters under the Hatch Waxman Act. The firm’s IP clients represent a broad cross-section of industries, including generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, medical devices, footwear, hardware and software, telecommunications, food technology, medical therapeutics, laser technology, among others.

About Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter is one of the nation’s leading law firms with more than 900 attorneys in offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C. The firm’s core areas of practice are corporate, litigation and real estate, with specialized areas of focus that include financial services, private equity, technology, REITs and real estate capital markets, intellectual property, tax and products liability. Information may be found at www.goodwinprocter.com.

Attorney Biographies
Kevin J. Culligan is a former member of Heller Ehrman’s Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group. He has focused his practice for more than 25 years on the litigation, trial and appeal of intellectual property matters, primarily patent, trade secret and unfair competition cases.

Culligan has served as lead and supporting counsel in dozens of matters and in many trials in federal and state courts across the country. He has represented numerous international companies in patent infringement, trade secret and unfair competition cases involving diverse technologies. They include chemical disinfecting solutions and pharmaceutical compositions for Alcon Laboratories; medical devices for Arrow International; computer software and online banking and financial services for Bank of America; medical devices, monoclonal antibodies and immunoassay products for Becton, Dickinson & Company; two-photon laser scanning microscopy for the Cornell Research Foundation and Bio-Rad Laboratories; and satellite stabilization systems and apparatus for MBB and Deutsche Aerospace.

He also has assisted clients in cases involving instant photographic chemistries and products for Polaroid Corporation; consumer products and pharmaceutical compounds for Procter & Gamble; automatic packaging machines for Schmucker, combinatorial chemistry for Symyx Technologies; and x-ray and NMR imaging equipment for Varian.

He has represented a number of companies in connection with the enforcement of patents directed to financial instruments, financial services, insurance products and various kinds of business methods. Culligan has extensive licensing experience that includes the development and execution of licensing and enforcement programs involving patent portfolios with hundreds of patents.

Culligan served as lead trial counsel for College Savings Bank in a high profile patent infringement case in which he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court after prevailing in the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He was a member of the Polaroid trial team that recovered almost $1 billion from Kodak, one of the highest amounts ever awarded for patent infringement.

He earned his J.D. from Cornell Law School and his A.B. from Colgate University. He is admitted in the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Federal Circuits; and the U.S. Supreme Court.

John P. Hanish is a former member of Heller Ehrman’s Intellectual Property Litigation Practice Group. His practice emphasizes patent litigation in the federal courts and the U.S. International Trade Commission, patent licensing and pre-litigation strategies related to patents and trade secrets.

Hanish has substantial trial and appellate experience in patent, trade secret and licensing disputes related to pharmaceutical compounds, biotechnology, medical devices, electronics and consumer products. He was counsel for several bar code and machine vision manufacturers in a patent infringement trial in which all 14 of the Lemelson Partnership’s patents-in-suit were held invalid, unenforceable and not infringed.

He was appellate counsel for a research hospital and won a reversal of a summary judgment in which the hospital’s unjust enrichment, trade secret misappropriation, and unfair trade practice claims had been dismissed. The hospital subsequently won a substantial award at trial for its contributions to the development of the most successful treatment to date for age-related macular degeneration in the eye.

He earned his J.D. from New York University School of Law, a B.S. from North Dakota State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology). Before law school, Hanish was a postdoctoral fellow and scientist at Rockefeller University and the Sloan-Kettering Institute, where he investigated the maintenance of chromosomes and the effect of chromosome structure on gene expression. He is admitted in the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Ninth and Federal Circuits; and the U.S. Supreme Court.