Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, today announced that Irah H. Donner has joined the firm’s New York office as a partner in the Intellectual Property practice group. He comes from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, LLP, where he was a partner.
Concentrating on software, wireless, digital and other technology patents and prosecution, technology audits, and intellectual property transactional due diligence, Donner focuses his practice on the counseling, acquisition and enforcement of intellectual property rights. His practice has a particular emphasis in the patenting and protection of computer software and hardware, including Internet- and financial-related systems.
“Irah’s impressive background in computing hardware and software technologies and his substantial patent law experience will complement a number of our practices, including our emerging and leading fintech and healthcare technology practices,” said Yasser El-Gamal, co-chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property practice. “He will be an immediate asset to those clients and others with intellectual property concerns in the computing industry, providing superior patent advice, prosecution and transactional work. We’re pleased to welcome Irah to the firm.”
Donner comes to Manatt with significant software engineering experience, having earlier in his career designed software applications for large-scale computer systems in the facility analysis and control field while a member of Bell Communications Research’s technical team. He has also designed software-implemented controllers for functional electrical stimulation of paralyzed muscle at the Cleveland Veterans Administration Hospital.
“I was very impressed by Manatt’s multifaceted structure and innovative approach to client service, offering both legal counseling and business consulting,” said Donner. “The entrepreneurial spirit and creative energy of the firm excites me to continue growing my IP practice on such a modern platform. I look forward to working with this talented group.”
Donner is the latest in a series of new partners joining Manatt across the country this year, including consumer financial services lawyer Richard E. Gottlieb in Los Angeles; former director of the Florida Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division Richard P. Lawson in New York; tax attorney Robert Duran and former Southern California Edison Co. managing attorney Beth Fox in Los Angeles; employment and labor litigator Adrianne E. Marshack in Costa Mesa, Calif.; and former Obama administration health policy official Chiquita Brooks-LaSure in Washington, D.C.
Manatt’s Intellectual Property lawyers work with a broad range of IP-intensive industries, creating and refining strategies for protecting and monetizing some of the most significant and valuable product innovations, brands and content in the marketplace. They provide top-notch transactional and litigation services, including procurement, counseling, registration, brand protection, mediation, arbitration, trial and appeal. The firm is nationally ranked for excellence in IP litigation and copyright law on the U.S. News & World Report list of “Best Law Firms.”
Donner earned a B.S., with high honors, an M.S., and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University. He is author of the books “Patent Prosecution: Law, Practice and Procedure Before the U.S. Patent Office” (9th Edition 2015) and “Constructing and Deconstructing Patents” (2nd Edition 2015) by Bloomberg BNA.
Source: www.manatt.com