Attorneys from business, government, intellectual property, and litigation practices advance
Washington, DC – February 8, 2016 – Venable LLP is pleased to announce that 17 senior associates have been elevated to counsel. The new counsel, from Venable's Washington, DC, Baltimore, Los Angeles, New York, and Tysons Corner offices, represent a broad cross section of the firm's practice groups, including Corporate, Commercial Litigation, Environmental, Intellectual Property Litigation, Patent Prosecution, Real Estate, Regulatory, Tax and Wealth Planning, and Trademark.
"These senior associates have done consistently outstanding legal work, have received superior evaluations and have demonstrated the required productivity, character and commitment to the Firm and their clients to warrant this elevation in status. We will continue to expect great success from each," Venable Co-Managing Partner Robert L. Waldman said in a firmwide email.
Below is background on Venable's new counsel.
Eric J. Bakewell, in the firm's Los Angeles office, is an experienced litigator who has successfully represented companies and individuals in a variety of high-stakes commercial litigation. His practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, entertainment disputes, intellectual property issues, antitrust matters, and class action defense. Mr. Bakewell also has extensive experience counseling individual and corporate clients on issues relating to partnership disputes, trade secret misappropriation, professional malpractice claims, and bankruptcy filings.
Michael A. Bloom is a member of Venable's Tax and Wealth Planning Group in New York. He counsels public and private companies on various corporate transactions, including mergers & acquisitions, financing transactions, licensing matters, and joint ventures. Mr. Bloom works closely with the firm's Los Angeles office to provide U.S. federal, state, and local tax planning services to many prominent entertainers and professional athletes. He has experience in domestic and international tax planning for such clients, including advising on both "inbound" planning and "outbound" transactions and activities around the world.
Jonathan L. Falkler focuses his practice on patent litigation and is a member of Venable's Washington, DC-based Intellectual Property group. A registered patent attorney, he has a computer science background and significant litigation experience in cases involving telecommunications systems, encryption protocols, complex data storage devices, automotive systems, and wireless communication standards.
Allison D. Foley is a member of Venable's Environmental Group in Washington, DC. Her practice focuses on a range of regulatory and transactional environmental issues critical to the utility industry, with a focus on chemical management, site remediation, and solid and hazardous waste management and disposal. This work includes regulatory advocacy as well as compliance counseling under the nation's environmental and chemical statutes. Ms. Foley also counsels developers, lenders, and sellers on environmental liability management and remediation strategies associated with the transfer and redevelopment of contaminated properties, including brownfields.
Micol Sordina Green, of the Los Angeles office, is an experienced litigator who has successfully represented clients in a broad range of high-stakes litigation matters and business disputes. She has significant experience representing companies in complex commercial and class action litigation, including matters that involve claims of fraud, misrepresentation, false advertising, and unfair business practices. Ms. Green has also represented a number of companies and/or their officers/directors in securities fraud cases, shareholder derivative actions, SEC enforcement actions, and regulatory investigations.
Bety Javidzad, of the Los Angeles office, is an experienced litigator who has successfully represented individual and corporate clients in a broad range of high-stakes commercial, business, and entertainment litigation matters. She has significant experience representing companies in complex commercial and class action litigation, including matters that involve claims of fraud, misrepresentation, false advertising, and unfair business practices, as well as contract disputes and privacy and intellectual property violations. Javidzad has also represented a number of companies and/or their officers/directors in securities fraud cases and shareholder derivative actions, and has successfully resolved a number of product liability suits. Javidzad is a member of the Institute for Corporate Counsel's advisory board, a founding member of the California State Bar's newly formed Food Law Committee, and Venable's sole representative on the UCLA Law Firm Challenge.
Fabian M. Koenigbauer, in the firm's Washington, DC office, practices all aspects of patent law, domestically and internationally. He helps clients protect, patent, and commercialize inventions, predominantly in the life sciences. He also helps clients assert their intellectual property rights and defend against infringement allegations. Mr. Koenigbauer advises clients ranging from small companies to Fortune 500 companies, universities, and start-ups in a variety of technologies.
Carrie A. Kroll is a member of the International Trade and Customs group in Washington, DC. Her practice focuses on a wide range of international trade issues, including advising companies on compliance with import and export control laws and regulations before numerous regulatory authorities. Ms. Kroll has advised multinational companies on export controls and Customs and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance and defended clients facing government investigations in the transportation and logistics sectors and the avionic, high-technology, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food, and retail industries. She also works on international transactional matters and with nonprofits conducting business activities overseas.
Rebecca Liebowitz, in Washington, DC, focuses her practice on domestic and international trademark prosecution, including searching, registering, and enforcing trademarks. She works with both traditional trademarks (including trademarks, service marks, logos, and slogans) and nontraditional trademarks (including trade dress and sound marks) for clients in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications providers, banking and financial services, restaurants, nonprofit organizations, green technology, cosmetics, and educational services.
Daniel C. Lorenzen, in Los Angeles, counsels clients on all aspects of their estate planning, including the preparation of trusts and wills, tax planning, business succession planning, and family wealth transfers. Many of his clients have owned businesses in the agricultural, oil and gas, biotech, entertainment, and fashion industries. Mr. Lorenzen has advised on the implementation of strategies, including irrevocable life insurance trusts, generation-skipping trusts, and sales to defective grantor trusts.
Shane P. Nix, in Los Angeles, counsels companies and individuals on various business transactions, with an emphasis on transactional tax matters relating to the acquisition, disposition, and restructuring of businesses, corporations, and partnerships. He advises clients in many different industries, including technology, real estate, hospitality, media, and entertainment, and has significant experience advising actors, actresses, musicians, producers, directors, and financers on a wide range of individual, corporate, and partnership tax issues specific to the entertainment industry.
Tara Sugiyama Potashnik is Chief Counsel in the eCommerce, Privacy, and Data Security Practice in Washington, DC, where she focuses on privacy and data security, and consumer credit and financial services. Ms. Potashnik represents clients in the advertising, automotive, banking and consumer finance, communications, information services, Internet, marketing, media, and retail industries. Ms. Potashnik counsels clients on legislation and rulemaking proceedings and has also been involved in crisis management matters and the development of self-regulatory programs.
Erin E. Segreti is a transactional business attorney with a practice focusing on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and related transactions involving corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies. Ms. Segreti counsels for-profit and not-for-profit clients in a wide range of industries on their day-to-day and long-term business issues and transactions, including entity formation decisions, governance issues, and key employee incentive compensation arrangements. She also advises and assists clients with the drafting and negotiation of business and commercial contracts, including purchase agreements, joint venture agreements, operating agreements, stockholder agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and management agreements.
Margaret Lynch Selwood is a member of the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group in Tysons Corner. Her practice includes providing strategic advice to clients regarding commercial real estate acquisitions, dispositions, joint venture financing, REO disposition and loss mitigation, special asset management programs, development, and commercial leasing (including retail, office, and telecommunications leasing). Ms. Selwood assists clients by resolving title, survey, and other legal issues that arise in commercial real estate transactions, providing guidance regarding Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 filings, and drafting and negotiating leasing documents, joint venture agreements, and conveyance and loan documents for a variety of transactions.
Nicholas P. Villani, of the firm's Washington, DC-based Real Estate Group, focuses his practice on multifamily real estate financing, including loan origination, secondary market transactions, and other secured transactions. He assists clients with structuring loans, drafting and negotiating loan documents, and all other aspects of real estate transactions. Mr. Villani also has experience representing clients in financing senior housing and affordable housing loan transactions, as well as restructuring multifamily loans.
Thomas J. Welling, Jr. is a member of the firm's Litigation Group in New York. He advises clients in a broad range of commercial litigation matters, including securities litigation, real estate, insurance coverage, property damage, bankruptcy, and other business disputes. Mr. Welling's current representations include a major financial institution against a shareholder lawsuit arising from the collapse of a commercial real estate lending practice; a group of Chinese corporations against fraud and RICO claims arising out of rare earth contracts; and a major government contracting company against fraud and breach of contract claims arising from the sale of its subsidiary.
Kedrick Whitmore is a member of Venable's Real Estate Practice Group in Washington, DC. He has experience assisting clients with legislative, administrative, and regulatory issues during all phases of the real estate development process, including land planning, zoning, subdivision, permitting, and associated administrative appeals. Mr. Whitmore has obtained land use and zoning approvals for some of the largest and most successful real estate developers in the DC metropolitan area, including a 699-unit residential building anchored by an upscale grocer. Additionally, Mr. Whitmore assists clients in the financing, acquisition, management, leasing, and disposition of commercial real property.
###
Venable LLP is an American Lawyer Global 100 law firm headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in California, Delaware, Maryland, New York, and Virginia. Our lawyers and legislative advisors serve the needs of domestic and international clients in all areas of corporate and business law, complex litigation, intellectual property, regulatory, and government affairs.