James Pooley and L. Scott Oliver bring two IP partners and four associates to Palo Alto office after practicing as an independent firm for past year; group brings successful trial record in complex patent technology and trade secret cases.
PALO ALTO, CA, May 3, 2007 – LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – Morrison & Foerster LLP announced that leading Silicon Valley intellectual property attorneys James Pooley and L. Scott Oliver have joined the firm.
Mr. Pooley and Mr. Oliver join Morrison & Foerster’s Palo Alto office as partners, bringing with them two partners and four associates from Pooley & Oliver LLP, where they worked following their departure from Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in January 2006.
“This is an A-list intellectual property practice, with outstanding trial experience that meshes very well with our IP platform,” said Keith Wetmore, Chair of Morrison & Foerster.
Harold McElhinny, co-chair of the firm’s intellectual property practice, added, “We’ve wanted to practice together for some time, and we could not be happier to have them on board. They are a team of outstanding lawyers who share our values and understand what it means to deliver world-class legal services.”
Mr. Pooley is widely regarded as one of the leading trial lawyers in the U.S., with successes in patent, trade secret, copyright, and technology-related disputes in state and federal courts and before the International Trade Commission. He is currently president of the Inventors Hall of Fame and later this fall begins a one-year term as president of the American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association, a membership group of 17,000 IP lawyers in private and corporate practice, as well as in government and academia.
Mr. Pooley has practiced in Silicon Valley since 1973, establishing a national reputation in high-profile cases involving intellectual property. His successful defense of Adobe Systems was chosen by the National Law Journal as the only IP case among its Top Defense Verdicts of 1997. A record settlement for ESS Technology in a software copyright case led to his being honored as a 2003 Lawyer of the Year by California Lawyer Magazine. Other clients he has represented in large-claim IP cases include AT&T Wireless Services, United Microelectronics Corp., Magma Design Automation and Hewlett-Packard Corp.
Mr. Pooley is also known for his work in trade secret matters. He authored a definitive 720-page treatise on the subject, Trade Secrets, published in 2001 by Law Journal Seminars Press, and has written extensively on trade theft issues for more than 25 years, including an earlier work entitled The Executive’s Guide to Protecting Propriety, Business Information and Trade Secrets (Probus Publishing, 1987).
“We are extremely pleased to be a part of one of the world’s elite, cross-discipline intellectual property practices,” said Jim Pooley. “We have the ability to access a full suite of top-notch IP and corporate legal services our clients demand.”
In addition to Mr. Pooley, joining Morrison & Foerster as partners are L. Scott Oliver, Kimberly Van Voorhis, and Marc Peters.
Mr. Oliver handles patent, copyright, and complex technology cases. He has practiced with Mr. Pooley for the last seven years. Mr. Oliver’s litigation work has spanned a wide range of technologies, including digital content distribution (he was involved in both the Napster and MP3.com cases), telecommunications switching, video-on-demand systems, host software processing modems, hard disc drive motor technology, video gaming software, optical networking, flash memory products, and software for rendering computer and printer typefaces. Mr. Oliver received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of San Diego, and his A.B., cum laude, from Harvard University.
Ms. Van Voorhis’ practice focuses primarily on the trial of patent, trademark, copyright, and complex technology-related cases in state and federal courts, as well as before the International Trade Commission and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Ms. Van Voorhis received her J.D. from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, and her B.S. from the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Peters concentrates his practice on litigation involving a wide variety of information technologies including optoelectronic transceivers, synchronization software, notebook computers, modems, and semiconductors. Dr. Peters holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and is the co-author of more than 100 papers in the area of particle physics. Dr. Peters received his J.D., with distinction, from Stanford University, and his A.B. in physics, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.
Mr. Pooley graduated from Columbia School of Law as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and received his B.A., with honors, from Lafayette College.
The associates joining Morrison & Foerster from Pooley & Oliver are David Alban, Diana Luo, Katherine Nolan-Stevaux, and Dara Tabesh.
