Allen & Overy (A&O) has taken its third and fourth IP partner from Simmons & Simmons this year, as it strengthens its City IP practice.
IP partner Mark Heaney (pictured left) and David Stone are to join the Magic Circle firm. Heaney, who specialises in contentious matters across a broad range of IP, joined Simmons only last year from Baker Botts.
Stone has been a partner at Simmons & Simmons for eight years and specialises in trademarks and registered/unregistered designs.
Heaney and Stone join Simmons’ former IP head Marc Döring, with A&O announcing he would join the firm last month, and former Simmons partner Marjan Noor who moved to the firm in June.
London’s head of IP Nicola Dagg said: ‘We are excited to have Mark and David join our team, this is step-change for us. Now is a time of increasing recognition of the ever-growing value and role that IP has to play in the economies our clients operate in.’
‘Whether it comes down to patents and planning for pan-European patent litigation; TMT and clients who are facing an unprecedented period of change brought about by digital transformation; or the continued threat of counterfeiting and piracy taking on a new dimension in the digital age. A full-service, top-ranked IP practice will help us overcome these challenges for clients.’
A&O has taken on high-profile four partners this month, with Heaney and Stone joining Hong Kong capital markets partners Lina Lee and Jonathan Hsui joining from Ashurst as new recruits at the Magic Circle firm.
The hires follow the Magic Circle firm breaking lockstep in August when it took on a finance team in Manhattan, led by finance partner Scott Zemser, who joined with Alan Rockwell and Judah Frogel from White & Case. At the same time Proskauer Rose partner Rajani Gupta also moved to A&O with Todd Koretzky, an associate from Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy who was made up to partner by the firm.
madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk
