Litigation attorneys Leora Ben-Ami, head of the Intellectual Property Group in the Americas for Clifford Chance LLP, Thomas F. Fleming and Patricia A. Carson have joined Kaye Scholer LLP as partners. They will join the firm’s highly-regarded Patent Litigation Group in early December, it was announced today.
Ben-Ami, best known for her representation of chemical giant DuPont and biotech company Genentech, Inc., Fleming, an experienced litigator who concentrates on patent litigation and Carson, a patent litigator who concentrates on biotechnology matters, will join our New York office. Kaye Scholer LLP has approximately 500 attorneys worldwide, with just over 350 in New York.
In announcing the new partners, Gerald Sobel, head of Kaye Scholer’s Patent Litigation Group, said:
“Kaye Scholer’s Patent Litigation Group has for years successfully represented major pharmaceutical and biotech companies in life sciences patent infringement litigation. We are aware that the pharmaceutical and biotech industries have been growing and, in the process, partnering to develop new products. We wanted to expand to meet the increasing demand for our services in life sciences patent litigation. We are fortunate to be adding such outstanding patent litigators with this capability. We know they will enhance our reputation and provide significant additional depth to our patent practice for many years to come.”
Barry Willner, managing partner of Kaye Scholer, added:
“We are thrilled to attract such high caliber patent litigators as Leora Ben-Ami, Tom Fleming and Pat Carson. It’s a tribute to our firm’s stature that they chose Kaye Scholer as the place to continue their careers.”
Ms. Ben-Ami, who earlier this year was featured in The American Lawyer in the publication’s “45 Under Forty-Five: The Rising Stars of the Private Bar” said she decided to move her practice to Kaye Scholer because of the firm’s stellar reputation for talented litigators and as one of the top patent litigation groups in the country.
“I chose Kaye Scholer LLP because I have long been aware of the firm’s success in representing pharmaceutical, chemical and biotech companies,” said Ben-Ami. “We have a mutual track record of high-level trial experience and success in cases where there is much at stake for our clients.”
In 2001, Ben-Ami, representing Genentech, achieved one of the most significant patent defense verdicts of that year. She effectively explained to the jury how Genentech, without infringing Glaxo’s patents, had used the technology to develop life-saving drugs for breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The Wilmington, DE jury invalidated Glaxo’s patents and found Genentech not liable for infringement. Glaxo had sought nearly $200 million in past royalties, plus future royalties.
It was one of many cases Ben-Ami handled for Genentech since the mid 1990s. She is also regular outside counsel to E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, and has made a name for herself in Boston’s biotech community, where ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. retained her after hearing about her earlier courtroom successes. She recently succeeded in upholding on appeal a summary judgment of non-infringement in favor of Transkaryotic.
Kaye Scholer’s Patent Litigation Group, with approximately 50 lawyers and Ph.D. scientists, handles complex and high-stakes patent infringement cases in the pharmaceutical, chemical and biotech industries, for clients like Pfizer, Aventis, and Chiron. Earlier this year Kaye Scholer won a dismissal on summary judgment of a multibillion dollar patent infringement lawsuit on behalf of Pfizer, regarding its Celebrex® and Bextra® drug products.
Ben-Ami received a B.S. in biochemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Mr. Fleming is a veteran trial attorney who has published widely on litigation matters. He is a graduate of New York University and has a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Ms. Carson has a broad range of experience in the patent law area although her primary concentration now is biotechnology patent litigation and biotechnology counseling matters. She holds a Ph.D. from Temple University School of Medicine, a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and a B.S. from Rutgers.
About Kaye Scholer’s Patent Litigation Group
Kaye Scholer was a pioneer among large general practice law firms when it began doing patent and intellectual property counseling and litigation in the mid-1970s with just a few litigators. Today, the Patent Litigation group has grown to approximately 50 lawyers and Ph.D. scientists. Most of the lawyers who comprise the Patent Litigation Group have degrees in the sciences, in areas such as chemistry, biology and molecular biology, as well as electrical and mechanical engineering and the computer sciences.
Kaye Scholer’s Patent Litigation Group has handled patent infringement cases involving a wide range of technologies and products, including blockbuster drugs such as Celebrex®, Bextra®, Viagra®, Zoloft®, Seldane®, Allegra® and Procardia XL®, as well as blockbuster diagnostics products, such as the hepatitis C virus assays. Kaye Scholer also has handled major patent matters in the medical device, electronic, aerospace, computer, semiconductor and fiber manufacturing industries. The group often has acted as primary counsel in worldwide patent litigation involving parallel cases for clients in many countries, as well as multi-district patent litigation in the United States. The firm also has extensive experience with major patent antitrust litigations.
