Prominent ITC Lawyer Paul Brinkman to Join Kirkland in Washington, D.C.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP is pleased to announce that Paul Brinkman will rejoin the Firm’s Washington, D.C., office as a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice Group. Mr. Brinkman focuses on Section 337 litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).
“Paul has a strong reputation as one of the top practitioners before the ITC, an increasingly important venue for our IP clients,” said Jeffrey C. Hammes, Chairman of Kirkland’s Global Management Executive Committee. “His extensive experience and knowledge will be a great asset to our team.”
Mr. Brinkman has represented companies in patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation and false advertising cases involving a variety of technologies, including smartphones and semiconductors, and other industries ranging from steel to textiles. He has won 17 of 19 trials at the ITC and won or favorably settled a number of other cases in advance of trial. Several of these trials have involved customs disputes, and Mr. Brinkman has maintained a close relationship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He joins Kirkland from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, where he led the ITC Section 337 practice and was one of the founding partners of the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
“Kirkland is one of the few law firms with the capability to try labor-intensive ‘bet the company’ ITC matters, and we have had tremendous success doing so both as stand-alone cases and as part of an overall worldwide litigation strategy,” said Greg Arovas, a partner in Kirkland’s Intellectual Property Practice Group and member of the Global Management Executive Committee. “We are committed to the continued growth of our ITC practice, and are excited about the additional value Paul will provide to our clients.”
Mr. Brinkman, 51, holds a law degree from the University of Virginia, a master’s degree in philosophy from Cambridge University and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University. He was an associate at Kirkland from 1994 to 1999 and a partner from 1999 to 2002. Law360 recognized him as an “International Trade MVP” in 2016 and 2013, and the Chambers guides have ranked him as a leading Section 337 practitioner since 2008. Since 2009, Mr. Brinkman has been listed in Who's Who Legal for Patents and Trade & Customs and ranked in The Best Lawyers in America. Since 2012, he has been recognized as a Washington, D.C., “Super Lawyer,” and has been listed in the International “Who’s Who of Patent Lawyers” and in IAM Patent 1000’s “The World's Leading Patent Practitioners.”
Kirkland’s Intellectual Property Practice Group is one of the oldest such practices in a full-service firm in the country, having been an integral part of Kirkland since 1925. Located in the Firm’s Washington, D.C., Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto and San Francisco offices, Kirkland has approximately 230 intellectual property lawyers who are experienced in a variety of technical disciplines and registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. More than 70 percent of the lawyers are engineers and scientists trained with degrees and professional backgrounds in technical areas.
About Kirkland & Ellis
Kirkland & Ellis is a law firm with more than 2,000 attorneys representing global clients in intellectual property, litigation and dispute resolution/arbitration, private equity, M&A and other complex corporate transactions, and restructuring matters. The Firm has 13 offices around the world: Washington, D.C., Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco and Shanghai.
