On Tuesday, Venable announced the addition of three IP attorneys in its San Francisco and Los Angeles offices including partner Susan Hollander, counsel Jocelyn Belloni, and associate Sharoni Finkelstein. Hollander and her team have significant experience in trademark, copyright, unfair competition, trade dress, and false advertising cases. The group represents high-profile and leading brand-name clients in the technology, Internet, retail, consumer products, entertainment, finance, and healthcare industries and focuses on the prevention of genericism and dilution of brands. They have been responsible for several precedent-setting trademark decisions and jury verdicts.
"The advertising and privacy practices here at Venable are really first-rate and so well known, it's a really great opportunity for synthesis with my practice," Hollander told Law360 in a March 1, 2016 interview. "Food and beverage, consumer financial services, entertainment — those are my prime industries and they are very much major industries of the firm and I hope to get more involved in those industries at Venable." Speaking with the Daily Journal, she said that privacy is "such a hotbed right now, especially for my clients in the financial services area."
"Knowing her and her practice made it easy to say you should join us," Jim Nelson, partner in charge of the San Francisco office, told Law360. "We work fully across the firm with an effort to grow in San Francisco in our existing strong practices, and IP in particular has been a strong area." Discussing Hollander's move with the Daily Journal, Nelson said "Hollander's viewpoint matches the firm's pitch in California, that it will leverage its East Coast regulatory chops and offer West Coast companies access to Washington, D.C." He added, "Venable's capacity in the regulated industries make us notable and attractive…I can't help but think our growth is an endorsement of that strategy."
The Recorder, American Lawyer, Bloomberg BNA, and World IP Review also featured news of Hollander's move to Venable.