Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton
Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia, United States
No. of offices 17
No. of attorneys 620+
Major practice areas General practice
Date founded 1860 (San Francisco, California)
Company type Limited liability partnership
Website
www.kilpatricktownsend.com

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton is an international law firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The firm has seventeen offices, including U.S. offices in Georgia, California, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Washington State, and the District of Columbia, and international offices in Japan, Shanghai, and Sweden. The firm is particularly well known for its intellectual property practice, and has represented major clients in cutting-edge IP cases. For example, the firm has represented Google in litigation related to its Google Print product,[1] and represented Sony in its suit against 21-year-old hacker George Hotz for jailbreaking the PS3.[2]

The firm was recognized by American Lawyer magazine as one of the country's best law firms to work for. It has won numerous awards for its role in community service, and it credits fifty hours of charity work per year toward its attorneys' billable hour requirements.

History

Kilpatrick Stockton was formed by the 1997 merger of two firms, Kilpatrick & Cody of Atlanta, Georgia, and Petree Stockton of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The firm that would become Kilpatrick & Cody was founded in 1874 by Milton W. Candler and William S. Thomson. The firm became in-house counsel for the Coca-Cola company, and as early as 1893 secured federal registration of the Coca-Cola trademark.

In 1978, the firm counseled The Northwestern Bank in a merger with First Union National Bank. The transaction was a harbinger of the mass bank consolidation that would take place in the next three decades. The next year, the firm took on representation of the town of Triana, Alabama, whose water had been polluted by the pesticide DDT. The firm eventually secured a recovery of $26 million, plus all annual health care costs for the injured townspeople.

In 2000, Kilpatrick Stockton successfully represented Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family in a lawsuit over the CBS network's unauthorized use of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. In 2001, the firm took on the defense of the Houghton Mifflin Company's parody The Wind Done Gone. In a precedent-setting case, the firm defeated a pre-publication restraining order from Margaret Mitchell's estate.

Also in 2001, the firm participated in a groundbreaking win in the case of Cobell v. Kempthorne.[3] Elouise Cobell brought a class-action suit on behalf of hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs alleging that the United States mismanaged funds held by it in trust for Native Americans. The plaintiffs prevailed in the first stage of the case, proving that the government mismanaged trust funds. The accounting portion of the case has not been resolved (as of July 2006).

On January 1, 2011, Kilpatrick Stockton and Townsend and Townsend and Crew merged to form Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.[4]

In 2011, the firm assisted Sony in its lawsuit against George Hotz and some people associated with the group fail0verflow, for "jailbreaking" the PlayStation 3. This included the attempted subpoena of Hotz's webhost to gather information about visitors to the site, as well as attempted subpoenas of YouTube, Twitter, Blogger and Paypal.[5][6]

Key people

Partners

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton has over 270 partners.[7] The firm's most notable partners include the following:

High-profile clients

Practice areas

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton is a "full-service" law firm,[14] which means that its attorneys work in essentially all areas of law. Its main practice areas are:

  • Construction & Public Contracts
  • Corporate & Business
    • Complex Commercial Transactions
    • Corporate Finance & Securities
    • Corporate Governance & Special Counsel
    • Customs & International Trade
    • Franchising
    • International Business
    • Investment Management
    • Licensing, Commercial Contracts
    • Mergers, Acquisitions, & Joint Ventures
    • Privacy
    • Restrictive Covenants
    • Securities Compliance
    • Special Committee Representation
    • Telecommunications
    • Transactional Tax Planning & Controversy
  • Employee Benefits
    • Equity Compensation
    • ERISA Litigation
    • Executive Compensation
    • Fiduciary Issues
    • Health & Welfare Plans
    • Privacy
    • Retirement Income Plans
    • RIFs & Severance Programs
    • Tax, Trusts & Estates
  • Environment, Energy & Land Use
  • Finance
    • Capital Markets
    • Corporate Lending
    • Financial Restructuring
    • Public Finance
    • Real Estate
    • Tax, Trusts & Estates

  • Government Relations
  • Intellectual Property
    • Copyright
    • Franchising
    • International Intellectual Property
    • Patent Litigation
    • Patents
    • Patents - Biotechnology & Chemical
    • Patents - Mechanical
    • Patents - Software & Electrical Engineering Systems
    • Piracy
    • Trade Secrets
    • Trademarks
  • Labor & Employment
    • Employment Litigation & Class Actions
    • International Employment Law
    • Labor Management Relations & Union Avoidance
    • Occupational Safety & Health Act
    • Wage & Hour Issues
  • Litigation
    • Antitrust & Trade Regulation
    • Appellate
    • Class Action Litigation
    • Complex Commercial Litigation
    • Consumer Product Safety
    • Employment Litigation & Class Actions
    • Insurance Coverage
    • International Dispute Resolution
    • Litigation & Dispute Resolution (UK)
    • Patent Litigation
    • Products Liability
    • Supreme Court
    • Toxic Torts
    • White Collar Crime

References

  1. "Google Searches for D.C. Presence | National Law Journal". Law.com. 2006-02-03. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
  2. "Media Report January 21 - February 3, 2011". Kilpatricktownsend.com. Retrieved 2015-03-01.
  3. "DOJ: Cobell v. Salazar, et al. Case No. 1:96CV01285 (D.D.C.)". Usdoj.gov. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
  4. "Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP - History". Kilpatrickstockton.info. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
  5. Judge Lets Sony Unmask Visitors to PS3-Jailbreaking Site - Threat Level - Wired.com, David Kravets, March 4, 2011, wired.com, retr 2011 03 06
  6. Judge Illston Alters Some of Her Order; Issues Referred to Magistrate - Updated 2Xs, Pamela Jones, Groklaw, February 10, 2011, retrieved from www.groklaw.net on 2011 03 06
  7. "Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP - Professionals". Kilpatricktownsend.com. 2010-06-14. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Archived May 13, 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "The Law News Network". LawFuel. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
  10. 1 2 3
  11. Archived October 28, 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  12. "Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Atlanta, Georgia Office Profile ?". Martindale.com. Retrieved 2011-02-28.

External links

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