November 2, 2011
THE RECORDER
By Petra Pasternak
SAN FRANCISCO – Morgan Lewis has poached prominent commercial litigator Patrick Ryan from Winston & Strawn.
Ryan joined the San Francisco office of Morgan Lewis as partner Tuesday.
He had been at Winston & Strawn since early 2008 after leaving now-defunct Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner along with Los Angeles IP partners David Aronoff and Gayle Jenkins.
At Winston, Ryan led the Cisco litigation team with Chicago Winston & Strawn partner Dan Webb. Winston has provided business and risk mitigation advice to Cisco, and its litigation team has handled complex litigation matters, including antitrust, securities, intellectual property and patent litigation.
Ryan said his two biggest clients, Cisco and semiconductor equipment maker ASML, would be coming with him to Morgan Lewis. The firm had made him a great offer, he said about deciding to move after nearly four years. “Morgan has made a commitment to help me expand my practice in a number of areas that I’m really excited about, including antitrust, securities, IP and brand protection,” Ryan said. “They said they’d bring in the resources I need, and there’s already a lot of talent here.”
San Francisco partner Molly Lane, who took over as office managing partner from Franklin Brockway “Brock” Gowdy in October, said Morgan Lewis is not ruling out hiring more attorneys. The group has notched two substantial wins this year. In May, Morgan Lewis scored a $577 million verdict from a San Mateo Superior Court jury on behalf of Asahi Kasei Pharma. That was followed by a $115 million judgment in August for ActiveVideo Networks in a patent infringement case against Verizon. In October, ActiveVideo was awarded extra damages, bringing the total award to $140 million, according to the firm.
“They’re two of the more substantial jury verdicts in the country that we were involved with and we’re very much looking at capitalizing on that,” Lane said. “Patrick fits in very nicely. He has a long history of getting great results in trial across the country. We see him as a natural fit.”
Ryan has served on the board of governors for The Lawyers’ Club of San Francisco from 2000 to 2007 and as the club’s president in 2006.
Charles Birenbaum, Winston’s S.F. office managing partner, said in an email that he’s known Ryan since their days at Thelen, and wished him the best
Legal recruiters Larry Watanabe and Lisa Munoz from Watanabe & Nason brokered the deal.
Asked whether more Winston attorneys will be joining Ryan, Lane said: “Not as of today.”