August 20, 2001
THE CALIFORNIA LAW BUSINESS JOURNAL
By Toni Vranjes
PALO ALTO – McDermott Will: SILICON VALLEY OUTPOST LANDS WILSON LITIGATOR
After spending a decade with Palo Alto’s Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Vera Elson has bid the firm adieu.
Elson is the sixth partner to join the Menlo Park office of McDermott Will & Emery since the beginning of the year.
She came to the Chicago-based firm earlier this month, bringing along expertise in intellectual property and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Elson has represented defendants in patent-infringement and trade-secret litigation against Intel Corp. She also was a digital circuit designer for Hughes Aircraft’s Advanced Circuit Technology Laboratory.
“The quality of cases at Wilson Sonsini was fabulous,” Elson says. “But I was interested more in the business side, in opening a law office and developing a culture.”
Donna Petkanics, the managing director of operations at Wilson Sonsini, describes Elson as a talented intellectual-property litigator whom the firm is sorry to see go.
Lawrence Watanabe, a recruiter for the Los Angeles legal search firm Watanabe Nason & Seltzer, placed Elson with McDermott Will.