King & Spalding has recruited veteran patent litigator William F. Abrams to add first-chair intellectual property litigation experience and boost expansion efforts in its Silicon Valley office, the firm announced today.

Abrams joins King & Spalding from Bingham McCutchen, where he was a partner and former co-chair of the intellectual property practice group. Abrams has 30 years’ experience as an IP lawyer. He focuses on patent litigation and trade secrets disputes. He was named to the San Francisco Daily Journal’s 2011 list of top intellectual property lawyers, and Chambers USA 2012 called him “a seasoned trial lawyer and star of the patent Bar.”

“This is a great opportunity for me to help build King & Spalding’s intellectual property practice in the Silicon Valley,” said Abrams. “The firm’s collegial atmosphere made this a natural choice for me, and I look forward to working with the talented IP litigators throughout the firm.”

King & Spalding opened its Silicon Valley office in 2008. Abrams’ hire brings to 17 the number of lawyers, including seven partners, and patent agents there.

“Bill is an outstanding litigator with great trial skills,” said Timothy T. Scott, managing partner of King & Spalding’s Silicon Valley office. “I am pleased that he has joined our team and know he will contribute greatly to our efforts both to expand our IP litigation work and field additional top talent for our office.”

King & Spalding’s patent litigators have actively been engaged in patent infringement litigation and trials for more than 25 years, including substantial experience litigating and trying ANDA cases under the Hatch-Waxman Act and cases before the International Trade Commission. The firm was ranked in the national and regional patent contentious categories of Managing Intellectual Property magazine’s 2011 World IP Survey.

“Bill provides additional depth and breadth to our IP practice and we welcome him to the firm,” said Holmes J. Hawkins, III, head of King & Spalding’s intellectual property practice group. “Silicon Valley is the epicenter of intellectual property work in the United States, and we look forward to Bill’s anchoring and increasing our patent litigation practice on the West Coast.”

Abrams’ arrival in Silicon Valley follows that of patent litigators Tony V. Pezzano and Michael P. Dougherty this past April in King & Spalding’s New York office.

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