New York

Mishcon de Reya has closed its New York base, as King & Wood Mallesons hires the remaining lawyers from the U.K. firm's base in the city.

The team, specialising in intellectual property and commercial litigation, is led by partners Mark Raskin, Robert Whitman and Vincent Filardo and also includes six additional senior lawyers and one paralegal.

Raskin, an IP litigator, has been with Mishcon since 2014 and served as general counsel of New Jersey-based aerospace products manufacturer General Pneumatics Corp. before that.

Whitman is a trial lawyer who specialises in patent cases in federal courts and before the International Trade Commission. He joined Mishcon in 2013 from King & Spalding where he was a partner based in New York.

Filardo is a commercial litigator and joined Mishcon in 2010 from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton and practiced with White & Case earlier in his career.

The partners join with senior counsel Eric Berger, Michael DeVincenzo, Elizabeth Long, Andrea Pacelli, John Petrsoric, and Charles Wizenfeld.

Mishcon managing partner Kevin Gold said: "After much deliberation, we have agreed with the partners of Mishcon de Reya New York LLP to withdraw from that business. We thank them and the team for their hard work over the past decade and are very pleased that the team has successfully found a new home at King & Wood Mallesons.

"Over the last number of years, the New York office had focused its practice on contingency patent cases. This type of practice was no longer consistent with our business in London.

 He added the move will not affect "the many relationships" Mishcon has with other U.S. law firms.

Mishcon opened its only office outside of London in New York in 2010 with a group of former Sheppard Mullin lawyers. In 2016, it reviewed its New York practice and decided the office will primarily focus on "patent litigation, soft IP and international arbitration services."

KWM has made several international hires recently. In October, the firm recruited former Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman China head Thomas Shoesmith as a corporate partner in Silicon Valley. In 2018, the firm hired U.S. sanctions law specialist Aaron Wolfson in New York. It also recently relocated U.S. litigation partner Meg Utterback to New York.

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