Kilpatrick Stockton Earns Record-Breaking Recognition in Annual Best Lawyers in America 2010

/ Press Releases / / By

Firm Ranked Number One in the Nation for Intellectual Property

ATLANTA (August 6) – A record-breaking ninety-three Kilpatrick Stockton attorneys have recently been honored by their peers in The Best Lawyers in America® 2010. The firm was ranked number one in the nation in Intellectual Property with more ranked attorneys than any other firm in the U.S. Nearly 20% of the firm’s attorneys earned recognition in this prestigious publication.

Kilpatrick Stockton has a total of 16 areas of practice ranked in the top 10 nationally for the number of attorneys named, including, in the top 5: (#1) Intellectual Property; (#3) Advertising Law; (#4) Native American Law; (#5) Biotechnology and Structured Finance Law.

Others in the top 10 include: Alternative Dispute Resolution; Antitrust; Appellate; Construction; Employee Benefits; Entertainment; Franchise; Government Relations; Information Technology; Insurance Law; and Personal Injury Litigation.
Additionally, in Georgia, the firm garnered #1 rankings for the total number of attorneys listed in Advertising Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Information Technology; Intellectual Property; Public Finance; and Structured Finance Law. In North Carolina, the firm achieved a #1 ranking in Environmental Law.

Attorneys were selected for inclusion in this new edition of Best Lawyers based on an exhaustive and rigorous peer-review survey that has been developed and refined for nearly 25 years.

Kilpatrick Stockton attorneys honored include:

Atlanta

Miles J. Alexander (25)
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Antitrust Law
Corporate Law
Intellectual Property Law

W. Benjamin Barkley
Corporate Law
Mergers & Acquisitions Law
Securities Law

Rupert M. Barkoff (10)
Franchise Law

Joseph M. Beck (10)
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Entertainment Law
Intellectual Property Law

Thomas J. Biafore
Real Estate Law
Structured Finance Law

W. Stanley Blackburn
Corporate Law
Mergers & Acquisitions Law

James F. Bogan III
Commercial Litigation

William H. Boice
Commercial Litigation
Intellectual Property Law
Labor and Employment Law

Richard R. Boisseau (10)
Labor and Employment Law

William H. Brewster (10)
Advertising Law
Intellectual Property Law

Christopher P. Bussert
Franchise Law
Intellectual Property Law

Susan A. Cahoon (10)
Bet-the-Company Litigation Commercial Litigation
Intellectual Property Law

Richard R. Cheatham (10)
Banking Law
Corporate Law

Thomas H. Christopher (*)
Labor and Employment Law

Richard Cicchillo, Jr.
Corporate Law
Mergers & Acquisitions Law

Gregory K. Cinnamon
Corporate Law

A. Stephens Clay IV (10)
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Bet-the-Company Litigation
Commercial Litigation

James H. Coil III
Labor and Employment Law

Brian G. Corgan
Construction Law

Theodore H. Davis, Jr.
Intellectual Property Law

Scott M. Dayan
Tax Law

William E. Dorris
Construction Law

Stephen A. Edwards (*)
Public Finance Law

James L. Ewing IV (10)
Intellectual Property Law

Candace L. Fowler
Real Estate Law

Jamie L. Greene (10)
Biotechnology Law
Intellectual Property Law

Randall F. Hafer
Construction Law

Justin B. Heineman (*)
Corporate Law

R. Charles Henn, Jr. (*)
Intellectual Property Law

Richard A. Horder
Environmental Law

Hilary P. Jordan
Banking Law
Corporate Law
Structured Finance Law

Wab P. Kadaba (*)
Intellectual Property Law

M. Andrew Kauss
Real Estate Law

Laurel J. Lucey (*)
Intellectual Property Law

Alfred S. Lurey (25)
Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

John K. McDonald
Intellectual Property Law

Dennis S. Meir (10)
Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

Matthew H. Patton
Commercial Litigation

William R. Poplin, Jr.
Construction Law

Judith A. Powell
Intellectual Property Law

John S. Pratt (10)
Intellectual Property Law
Diane L. Prucino
Labor and Employment Law

Susan H. Richardson
Environmental Law

Dean W. Russell (10)
Intellectual Property Law

Jennifer Stobie Schumacher
Employee Benefits Law

Caroline W. Spangenberg
Insurance Law

James D. Steinberg
Corporate Law
Information Technology Law

David A. Stockton (10)
Corporate Governance and Compliance Law
Corporate Law
Mergers & Acquisitions Law
Securities Law

Mitchell G. Stockwell
Intellectual Property Law

Phillip H. Street
Health Care Law

Jerre B. Swann (10)
Advertising Law
Intellectual Property Law

Neal J. Sweeney
Construction Law

G. Kimbrough Taylor, Jr. (10)
Corporate Law

Virginia S. Taylor (10)
Intellectual Property Law

James A. Trigg (*)
Intellectual Property Law

Rex R. Veal
Banking Law
Structured Finance Law

William J. Vesely, Jr.
Employee Benefits Law

Kathryn Wade (*)
Biotechnology Law

David M. Zacks (10)
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Health Care Law
Personal Injury Litigation

Augusta

Raymond G. Chadwick, Jr.
Bet-the-Company Litigation
Commercial Litigation
Personal Injury Litigation
Product Liability Litigation

Perry R. Sentell III (*)
Personal Injury Litigation

W. Craig Smith (*)
Health Care Law

Charlotte

Robert T. Duffy
Tax Law

Raleigh

Randall D. Avram
Labor and Employment Law

Jeffrey A. Benson
Real Estate Law

Carl W. Hibbert (10)
Trusts and Estates

Gary K. Joyner
Real Estate Law

William F. Lane
Environmental Law

Steven J. Levitas
Environmental Law

W. Christopher Matton (*)
Corporate Law

Alan H. McConnell
Environmental Law

Gregg E. McDougal
Commercial Litigation

Hayden J. Silver III
Commercial Litigation

Craig B. Wheaton (10)
Employee Benefits Law

Washington

Keith M. Harper
Native American Law

Elliott H. Levitas
Government Relations Law

Constance K. Robinson (*)
Antitrust Law

Mark L. Stember (*)
Employee Benefits Law

Mark D. Taylor
Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights Law

Mark D. Wincek
Employee Benefits Law

Winston-Salem

Stephen R. Berlin
Environmental Law

Susan H. Boyles
Commercial Litigation
Insurance Law
Personal Injury Litigation

Charles W. Calkins
Intellectual Property Law

Adam H. Charnes
Appellate Law
Commercial Litigation

Louis W. Doherty
Labor and Employment Law

W. Randy Eaddy (10)
Corporate Governance and Compliance Law
Corporate Law
Securities Law

Steven Gardner
Intellectual Property Law

Dudley Humphrey
Construction Law
Corporate Law

James H. Kelly, Jr. (10)
Commercial Litigation
Insurance Law
Personal Injury Litigation

Richard J. Keshian
Commercial Litigation
Product Liability Litigation

George L. Little, Jr. (10)
Antitrust Law
Commercial Litigation
Intellectual Property Law

David C. Smith
Commercial Litigation

Daniel R. Taylor, Jr.
Commercial Litigation

(*) Lawyers who are listed for the first time in Best Lawyers.
(10) Lawyers who have been listed in Best Lawyers for at least 10 years.
(20) Lawyers who have been listed in Best Lawyers for at least 20 years.
(25) Lawyers who have been listed in Best Lawyers for at least 25 years.

About The Best Lawyers in America® 2010
The 2010 edition of Best Lawyers in America is based on more than 24,126 leading attorneys, who cast more than 2.8 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in the same and related specialties. Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence in the United States. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey by the country’s leading attorneys and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”

For more information about Kilpatrick Stockton, please visit:
Kilpatrick Stockton LLP.

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The Senate votes 68 to 31 to confirm Sotomayor, who will be the first Latino and third woman ever on the nation’s highest court. Nine Republicans cross party line to support her confirmation.

/ Law Firms / August 6, 2009 / By
Sotomayor supreme court

Reporting from Washington — Sonia Sotomayor completed an unlikely and historic journey today, one that began with her birth in a Bronx, New York, housing project 55 years ago and culminated in her confirmation as the Supreme Court’s 111th justice.

When she is sworn into office, Sotomayor will take her place as the high court’s first Latino and just its third woman. She was approved by a 68-31 Senate vote after three days of debate. Nine Republicans crossed party lines to support her.

Sotomayor was nominated in May by President Obama to replace retiring Justice David H. Souter. A judge on the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals for the last 11 years, Sotomayor worked her way through two Ivy League schools and was a Manhattan prosecutor and corporate lawyer before joining the federal bench.

But the pride felt by Latino groups over her historic nomination quickly gave way to a firestorm, as critics seized upon a speech Sotomayor gave to a group of students in 2001. Sotomayor suggested that her life experience as a Latina shaped her judging, and her remarks became known, almost notoriously, as the “wise Latina” speech.

Sotomayor’s opponents charged that the speech and some of her decisions on the bench showed an inclination to use the law to favor disadvantaged minority groups. And they pointed to one case in particular — in which Sotomayor’s appellate court panel threw out a discrimination suit brought by white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. — as evidence of their claim.

But the controversy never appeared to seriously threaten her nomination.

With Democrats in control of the Senate, there was little possibility of a Republican-led filibuster. And Sotomayor’s supporters pointed to thousands of opinions in her long judicial career, few if any of which showed the sort of liberal leaning that her detractors alleged existed.

Over three long days of confirmation hearings, Sotomayor pledged “fidelity to the law” and rejected the “empathy standard” that Obama invoked when the Supreme Court vacancy arose. The president had said that justices need to sometimes utilize empathy to understand the effect the court’s decisions have on the lives of ordinary Americans. But Sotomayor broke with Obama over that notion, a moment her conservative critics said was particularly significant.

Still, most Republicans weren’t mollified — and during this week’s debate, they said they doubted Sotomayor’s ability to remain impartial on the bench.

“This is a question of the true role of the judge. It is a question of whether a judge follows the law as it is written or how they wish it should be,” Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said shortly before today’s vote.

But Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the committee, which oversaw Sotomayor’s nomination, said on the Senate floor that the judge had answered her critics and proved her suitability for the court. He called on Republicans to support the nominee to honor “our national promise.”

“Judge Sotomayor’s career and judicial record demonstrates that she has always followed the rule of law,” Leahy said. “Attempts at distorting that record by suggesting that her ethnicity or heritage will be the driving force in her decisions as a justice of the Supreme Court are demeaning to women and all communities of color.”

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