Robert King, Greenberg Traurig, Atlanta (Courtesy photo) Bob King, Greenberg Traurig, Atlanta (Courtesy photo)

Greenberg Traurig has recruited patent partner Bob King from Hunton Andrews Kurth to build a patent transactional practice for its Atlanta office.

Now a shareholder at Greenberg, King advises clients on managing their patent portfolios and performs due diligence for transactions and licensing deals. “I look at the IP and make sure there are no potential validity or freedom-to-operate issues that could lead to potential infringement issues,” he said.

Patent prosecution makes up more than half his practice, King added, but it's strategic procurements, not a volume practice.

While Greenberg's roughly 100-lawyer Atlanta office has a significant intellectual property practice based around its marquee entertainment practice, it is more focused on brands and copyrights. “I'm the first patent person,” King said.

King spent almost 15 years on Hunton's large Atlanta IP team before moving to Greenberg, where he started on Monday. “I respect that office a lot, and I enjoyed my time there,” he said. “They are a great group of people.”

King, 50, said the entrepreneurial opportunity to start a local patent practice for Greenberg to support its corporate practice was exciting. “The firm has 180 patent professionals—attorneys and patent agents—so I have great resources at my disposal.”

Greenberg's Atlanta managing shareholder, Ted Blum, who also co-chairs the office's corporate practice, said in an announcement that King's “experience as a skilled patent attorney makes him an outstanding contribution to our clients in Atlanta and firmwide.”

“Ted and the firm are committed to grow this group with patent transactional and litigation capabilities,” King said.

King said he's done a lot of work with payment systems, including mobile authentication devices, for banks, financial institutions and other fintech companies. He declined to name clients, since he is still transitioning them, but he said his focus is on anything having to do with computer technology, whether hardware, software or storage devices.

King also has experience as a patent litigator, but he said patent strategy is more interesting to him. After graduating from West Point in 1991 and serving as an Army officer in Colorado Springs, he earned a law degree at night from Catholic University in Washington while working as a patent agent at Baker Botts.

Early on, he worked as a patent litigator at now-defunct Dewey Ballentine, but “my heart was in the patent transactional side,” he said.

He explained that, at Dewey, he worked on patent litigation for large clients, so it likely would never go to trial. Instead the lawyers were taking depositions and writing discovery letters. “That to me was not exciting,” he said.

When King joined Hunton in 2005, he focused on patent prosecution and strategy. “I just think I have the knack for it,” he said. “I can see a client's portfolio, understand where they are going and what the threats are for the space they want to be in.”

BRIEFLY

Meanwhile, Greenberg Traurig has lost P3 practitioner Ken Neighbors to McGuireWoods. Neighbors who has almost 20 years of experience on public-private partnerships, joined McGuireWoods' public finance practice as a partner.

Neighbors has worked on several notable public-private partnership deals in Atlanta. He was part of the team that represented the Georgia World Congress Center Authority in negotiating Mercedes-Benz Stadium's financing and construction. He helped structure the P3 deal to build the recently opened Northwest Corridor express lanes—nearly 30 miles of toll lanes on I-75 and I-575—as a special assistant attorney general for the Georgia Department of Transportation.

He's also advised various city of Atlanta agencies on acquiring and developing the Northeast Corridor section for the city's 22-mile BeltLine.

McGuireWoods, in turn, has lost health care partner Victor Moldovan to Holland & Knight. Moldovan, who's been in practice for more than 30 years, represents ambulatory surgery centers, clinics, hospitals, home health companies and other health care providers on compliance and regulatory issues, as well as in litigation and government relations matters.

Moldovan joined Holland & Knight as an equity partner, said its Atlanta managing partner, Allen Maines. “We're thrilled to add him to our national health care practice!!” Maines said via email.

Tax law practitioner Bill Joseph has joined Stites & Harbison as a partner from Schulten Ward & Turner. Stites' Atlanta executive member, Hal Gill, said in an email, “We're excited to add Bill's tax expertise to our business services practice group, and are looking to further expand this practice group and others in our Atlanta office.”

Business litigator Barry Goheen has left King & Spalding after 22 years to join virtual firm FisherBroyles, which bills itself as the “world's largest distributed law firm partnership.” Goheen has served as lead or co-counsel for more than 50 class actions. As a partner at FisherBroyles, he's focusing on disputes involving consumer class actions, credit-related financial products and data breach litigation.

Ramsey Knowles and Jon Gallant have started a business law firm, Knowles Gallant. Knowles, who handles real estate, business and securities litigation, was a partner at Taylor English Duma for 12 years. Gallant, who handles the full gamut of commercial real estate law, had his own shop, The Gallant Law Firm, which he launched in 2014 along with a real estate development company, D&G Development, after starting his legal career at Smith Gambrell & Russell.

The two are both 2005 graduates of Georgia State University College of Law, and Knowles is the president of the GSU Law Alumni Council.

Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry has promoted two Atlanta lawyers, Erica Opitz and Chris Steele, to shareholder, two of four promotions firmwide. Opitz has a corporate and securities practice, advising start-ups and larger companies, and often serves as outside general counsel for her clients. Steele has a trusts and estates practice.

DLA Piper has promoted Sam Snider to partner. Snider is a corporate lawyer who has closed more than 75 M&A capital transactions totaling over $12 billion in industries from tech to health care to large manufacturers.

Kabat, Chapman & Ozmer has promoted Celeste Creswell to partner. Creswell, who has a business litigation practice, joined the boutique, which handles business litigation and labor and employment law, in 2016 from Miller & Martin.

Roy Hadley of Adams and Reese has been appointed to the Atlanta Chief Information Officer Advisory Board. The CIO Advisory Board's purpose is to advise the city on tech innovations and implementation. Hadley advises companies and their boards on cyber security matters, tech and business process outsourcing and other tech issues.

The University of Georgia Law School won the top trophy at the Intrastate Moot Court Competition for the second year in a row. Georgia's five law schools each field two teams to compete in the annual courtroom contest. Second-years Kip O'Kelley, S. Frances Plunkett and Justin Van Orsdol won the title for UGA Law as well as Best Brief Award.