Building on the momentum created by several recent lateral hires, Cooley LLP announced today that leading Intellectual Property lawyers Walter Hanchuk and John Kheit have joined the firm as partners in its New York office. Walter and John were partners at Chadbourne & Parke LLP in New York, where Hanchuk was chair of Chadbourne’s IP practice and Kheit led the firm’s Mobile Technology practice. Hanchuk joins Cooley’s national IP group as chair of the firm’s New York IP practice and will be driving the strategic growth of the firm’s IP practice in New York.
“Walter and John have developed one of the premier IP transactional, litigation, and patent asset creation practices in New York,” said Joe Conroy, Cooley’s New York-based CEO. “Their extensive experience in all phases of IP, including a particular expertise in financial services and software technologies, extends the reach of Cooley’s IP practice in New York and creates powerful synergies across our core IP and business technology practices across the firm.”
“Cooley’s strengths in IP and technology are well known to us and our clients,” Hanchuk said. “The firm is simply a natural fit. More importantly, Cooley’s commitment to growing its IP practice in New York, and the recognition that this growth is core to the firm’s continued strategic growth, is compelling. We are looking forward to contributing substantially to the execution of this strategy.”
The arrival of Hanchuk and Kheit closely follows that of Scott Balber and his team, who joined on October 8. Balber was previously the co-chair of Chadbourne & Parke’s Litigation practice. Scott now serves as chair of Cooley’s Financial Services Litigation practice. In his first week at Cooley, Scott and his team delivered a $10.1 million patent infringement verdict for Rockwell Automation at a jury trial in the Western District of Wisconsin.
“The addition of Walter and John underscores the firm’s commitment to building a high-end, multi-disciplinary IP practice in New York that will complement our national strengths,” said Jim Brogan, chair of Cooley’s IP practice. “Their arrival builds on this momentum and is a great step forward for the New York office and for our firm.”
