IP litigator Michael F. Heafey has joined King & Spalding’s Silicon Valley office as a partner in the firm’s intellectual property practice. A patent lawyer with almost 25 years of patent and trade secret experience, Heafey comes to the firm from Orrick’s Menlo Park office.
“Given his depth of experience and the growing intellectual property law needs of our clients, the opportunity to bring on a lawyer of Mike’s caliber presented an easy decision,” noted Silicon Valley office managing partner Timothy T. Scott. “Mike is a talented and experienced IP litigator whose arrival represents another step in the evolution of the firm’s California offering and we’re grateful to have him on board.”
Heafey focuses on all aspects of patent licensing and litigation, as well as trade secret litigation, and has tried cases in state and federal courts and before the International Trade Commission. He has particular expertise in matters regarding integrated circuit packaging, fiber optics, DRAMs, packet switch networks, and light emitting diodes. Heafey also has extensive experience representing Pacific Rim corporations in IP matters. Notably, he represented Taiwanese DRAM companies in their successful defense of a high-profile ITC investigation brought by Tessera, Inc.
Heafey earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.S., in Electrical Engineering, from the University of California, Berkeley.
“We are very pleased to welcome Mike to the firm,” said intellectual property practice leader Holmes Hawkins. “Our technology clients — especially those operating in the computer science and biotechnology/ pharmaceutical spaces — are confronted with more patent, copyright and trade secret issues than ever before. As a result, we’re seeing a proportionate increase in demand for capable intellectual property counsel. Mike meets that need and then some.”
Heafey is the fifth senior IP lawyer recruited to the firm’s California offices since last summer, following the additions of Kenneth L. Steinthal and Joseph R. Wetzel in San Francisco and William F. Abrams and Emma Maconick in Silicon Valley. In total, the firm has now recruited or promoted 10 intellectual property lawyers to its partnerships since January 2012.
“King & Spalding’s vision for expanding its intellectual property practice, and the significant role the firm’s California offices will play in that expansion, present a very exciting opportunity,” noted Heafey. “I look forward to making a contribution to those efforts and to further building my own practice.”
