WASHINGTON D.C., April 23 – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network — Covington & Burling announced today that George Pappas, and Jeffrey Elikan have joined the firm as partners, and Kevin Collins has joined as of counsel. All three will be
resident in the Washington, D.C., office. Messrs. Pappas, Elikan, and
Collins, previously at Venable LLP, will join Covington’s national patent and
intellectual property litigation group and bring substantial trial experience
to the highly specialized area of patent litigation.
With these additions, Covington will have assembled one of the most
experienced IP litigation teams in the country. The team, which includes Paul
Berman, Kurt Calia, Tony Herman, Roderick McKelvie, Chris Sipes and Sonya
Winner, has tried over 120 patent cases, many to verdict. With team members
in San Francisco as well as Washington, D.C., Covington & Burling is well
situated to handle the most pressing and complex patent litigation matters
throughout the country.
Messrs. Pappas, Elikan, and Collins are accomplished trial lawyers who
specialize in patent litigation. Mr. Pappas has served as lead litigation
counsel in more than 200 cases and over the past 15 years has been lead trial
counsel in more than 80 patent cases for U.S. and foreign companies. He is
one of an elite group of patent trial lawyers with a national reputation.
Mr. Elikan is a highly experienced intellectual property litigator whose
practice has covered a wide range of industries and technologies. He has
focused on patent trial, appellate and other intellectual property work and
recently has concentrated on highly complex pharmaceutical patent matters.
Mr. Collins, an intellectual property litigator, represents clients in
patent and trademark disputes in various federal trial and appellate courts.
His clients span a number of industries including medical devices,
pharmaceutical compositions, bar code technology, and consumer leisure and
personal care products.
Covington’s intellectual property litigation team includes another recent
arrival, Roderick R. McKelvie, a former federal district court judge who
built a leading reputation as a patent jurist during his decade on the
federal bench, and whose litigation practice focuses on patent trials and
appellate matters.
“Intellectual Property disputes can be life and death matters for the
technology, pharmaceutical, medical device companies who are among our
largest clients and who have long used us for regulatory, corporate, and
general litigation matters,” said Stuart Stock, Chair of Covington’s
Management Committee. “With our recent additions of Judge McKelvie and now
George Pappas, Jeff Elikan, and Kevin Collins to our existing team of patent
litigators, we have taken major steps to position ourselves as a leader in
this critical field,” added Mr. Stock.
“Jeff, Kevin, and I are pleased to be joining Covington’s patent
litigation practice and look forward to working with the many talented
litigators in the group,” added Mr. Pappas. “We have joined Covington to take
advantage of the firm’s strong ties to pharmaceutical, medical device, and
technology clients.”
Mr. Pappas is a graduate of the University of Maryland (B.A., summa cum
laude, 1972, J.D. 1975), and has practiced patent litigation for 15 years. He
founded Venable’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group and served for 8
years as its Partner-in-Charge. He is a Fellow of the American College of
Trial Lawyers, and was appointed by Justice Rehnquist to serve as a member of
the District Judge Education Advisory Committee for the Federal Judicial
Center. He has also served as the Chairman of Governor Ehrlich’s Commission
of the Development of Advanced Technology Business.
Mr. Elikan is a graduate of Columbia University (B.A. 1987, M.A., 1988,
J.D., 1991); following law school, he and served as a law clerk to the
Honorable I. Leo Glasser of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District
of New York and later served as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of
Justice, Civil Division, where he focused on appellate litigation.
Mr. Collins is a graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law
(J.D., summa cum laude, 1992) and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute
(B.S.M.E., 1987). Following law school, Mr. Collins served as a law clerk for
a judge on the Court of Appeals of Maryland.
Covington & Burling, an international law firm, provides corporate,
litigation, and regulatory expertise to help clients achieve their goals.
Founded in 1919, the firm has more than 500 lawyers and offices in
Washington, New York, San Francisco, London, and Brussels.
