PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce 15 attorneys have been elected to join the firm's partnership, effective January 1, 2014.
“We are extremely proud to welcome this group of very talented attorneys into our partnership,” said Chairman John Bouma. “Their exceptional legal skills, leadership, achievements and commitment to client service set them apart.”
Snell & Wilmer’s new partners are:
David G. Barker (Phoenix) - Barker is an intellectual property litigator with experience in patent infringement, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair competition, false advertising, trade secret, and trademark opposition and cancellation cases. He has trial experience in federal and state court. Barker also is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and has prosecuted patent, trademark and copyright applications. He has experience counseling clients regarding intellectual property portfolio development and strategy, and in licensing, business transactions, due diligence, and clearance, infringement and patentability searches. Barker’s technical and case experience includes computer, Internet, mechanical, electrical, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, communications, financial and power systems, as well as software, firearms, food processing devices and medical devices. Barker earned his J.D. from Duke University School of Law and both his B.S. and M.S. from Brigham Young University.
Marek P. Bute (Las Vegas) - Bute’s practice is concentrated in business and commercial litigation, with an emphasis on contract disputes and claims relating to construction, lien law, arts and entertainment, and hospitality. His experience also extends to disputes involving copyright infringement, creditors’ rights, insurance coverage and defense, bad faith claims, commercial lease disputes, receiverships, deficiencies, and other actions seeking damages, extraordinary relief, injunctive relief, declaratory relief and other remedies in state and federal litigation, arbitration, mediation and other forms of alternate dispute resolution. He has represented a range of clients that includes recording artists, performance rights organizations, hotels, casinos, commercial and residential owners, developers, construction managers, general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, financial institutions and insurance companies in multimillion dollar commercial litigation. Bute earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Roger Williams University School of Law and his B.A., magna cum laude, from Pepperdine University.
Manuel H. Cairo (Phoenix) - Cairo's practice is concentrated on labor and employment, and immigration law matters. He represents employers in single and multi-plaintiff disputes in federal and state courts regarding discrimination, harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, wage and hour, trade secret, wrongful termination, business torts, and other types of employment matters. He has experience representing employers regarding occupational safety and health, and workers' compensation matters before the Industrial Commission of Arizona. His practice also focuses on counseling employers on worksite enforcement and corporate compliance strategies. Cairo regularly advises employers in developing comprehensive best practices designed to avoid employer liability under both federal and state immigration laws. Cairo earned his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law and his B.A. from the University of California Los Angeles.
Justin L. Carley (Las Vegas) - Carley's practice is concentrated in commercial litigation with an emphasis on contract disputes that are typically related to real property, entity control, business conflicts and a variety of other topics. He is experienced in federal and state litigation, AAA and other private arbitration, and a variety of forms of mediation and alternative dispute resolution. This experience includes prosecuting and defending actions seeking monetary damages, injunctive relief, declaratory relief, appointment of receivers, deficiency judgments and other remedies, both before and after judgment, and including appeal. Carley’s recent case load deals primarily with the high-rise condominium and condominium/hotel markets in Las Vegas, Nevada, but also includes a substantial amount of other real property litigation. He earned his J.D. from the University of Nevada - Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Rhode Island College.
Timothy J. Dance (Salt Lake City) - Dance is a member of the firm's Bankruptcy Practice Group. His practice is concentrated primarily in bankruptcy, reorganization, creditor's rights, foreclosure, receivership, and workout law; and federal and state court commercial and business litigation. He has extensive experience in the foreclosure of real and personal property and regularly represents creditors in enforcing, collecting and restructuring financial transactions. Dance earned his J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law and his B.A. in Political Science, with a minor in Business Management, from Brigham Young University.
Brian P. Gaffney (Denver) - Gaffney is a Business and Finance attorney who helps clients make and enforce their business deals. His practice is concentrated in business, finance, commercial and agri-finance, agriculture law, agriculture transactions, receivership, lender liability defense, creditors’ rights, banking and bankruptcy. Gaffney graduated with honors from Stanford University with his undergraduate degree in political science while earning four letters playing football for the Stanford Cardinal. He also obtained his master’s degree from Stanford University in political sociology, before earning his J.D. with honors from The University of Texas School of Law.
Robert F. Kethcart (Phoenix) - Kethcart is a business attorney and litigator whose practice focuses on insurance coverage, real estate litigation, and medical and dental liability defense. In the insurance arena, he advises carriers and policyholders with a wide range of issues, including policy development, policy interpretation and coverage analyses, and compliance, and he litigates coverage disputes and bad faith claims. He represents businesses and individuals in complex business litigation involving real estate title and lending disputes, contract-based claims, and business torts such as fraud, misrepresentation, and intentional interference with contract. In his healthcare practice, Kethcart represents healthcare providers in litigation and before state licensing boards. He also advises dentists in connection with the sale and purchase of dental practices, and he provides ongoing legal counsel to dental practices regarding various issues that arise in the day-to-day operation of their businesses. Kethcart earned his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law and his B.S. from the University of Colorado.
Eric L. Kintner (Denver) - Kintner concentrates his practice in representing various health care organizations. His experience includes executing and managing complex health care transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, co-management arrangements and physician buy-sell transactions, for both nonprofit and for-profit health care organizations, as well as advising clients on issues involving hospital-physician alignment, reimbursement in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, HIPAA and HITECH compliance, fraud and abuse compliance (including Stark and Anti-Kickback), health care IT and electronic health record contracts, provider and facility licensure, best practices in corporate governance and the impact of health care reform on hospitals and physicians, among others. Kintner is also experienced in advising clients in various business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity, securities law and broker-dealer regulations, entity and fund formation, and general corporate governance issues. His practice also includes representation of clients in various aspects of gaming law, including sweepstakes, contests, charitable raffles, tribal gaming, internet gaming and social media promotions. Kinter received his J.D. with distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law and his B.A. with distinction and honors from the University of Iowa.
Kelly A. Kszywienski (Phoenix) - Kszywienski assists clients in resolving complex commercial disputes, disputes involving governmental entities and appeals. In her commercial practice, she has represented individuals, financial institutions, and business entities in disputes involving commercial contracts, business torts, and various state and federal statutory schemes. Her governmental practice has included disputes regarding the validity and construction of state and federal statutes and claims arising under the Arizona and U.S. Constitutions. In her appellate practice, she has been involved in numerous appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, state courts of appeal and state supreme courts. She has also represented the interests of amici curiae and participated in a merits case before the United States Supreme Court. Kszywienski earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Toledo College of Law where she was valedictorian, and her B.A. from the University of Connecticut.
Michael T. Liburdi (Phoenix) - Liburdi focuses his practice on healthcare litigation, commercial litigation, government relations and election law. He has extensive experience in complex commercial litigation disputes that includes antitrust, securities, breach of contract and professional negligence actions. His election law practice includes advising candidates and initiative committees on matters ranging from constitutional law, campaign finance law compliance, election law complaints and initiative drafting. Liburdi received both his J.D. and B.S. from Arizona State University and clerked for the Hon. Ruth V. McGregor on the Supreme Court of Arizona.
Amelie Bredas Messingham (Tucson) - Messingham’s practice is concentrated in commercial finance and real estate. She regularly represents financial institutions on a wide range of matters, including real estate secured lending transactions, construction loans, hotel loans, loan sales, and loan restructures and workouts. She also has significant experience providing legal services with respect to commercial real estate acquisition matters. Messingham earned her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Georgia and her B.A. in Economics and History, minor in Math, summa cum laude, with honors, from the University of Arizona.
William F. Mulholland, II (Phoenix) - Mulholland’s practice is concentrated in intellectual property law, including patent, copyright, and trademark licensing, litigation and procurement. His past experience includes serving as in-house counsel for pharmaceutical and agribusiness-based industries. A substantial portion of Mulholland’s practice involves strategic counseling for these industries, including all IP-related aspects of discovery, development and commercialization activities. He has extensive transactional experience and has successfully negotiated a wide range of licenses and other agreements in support of various industry and university alliances. His patent procurement practice includes comprehensive life-cycle management planning, from emerging technologies to post-patent expiry of commercial products. His practice also includes U.S. interferences and European oppositions as well as matters before the USPTO Board of Appeals and the Federal Courts. Mulholland earned his J.D. from the University of Southern California Law School and his master's degree in Molecular Biology from Brown University. He received his B.S., cum laude, from the University of Arizona.
Eric M. Nielsen (Salt Lake City) - Nielsen’s practice is centered on intellectual property counseling—in particular, the design and implementation of business driven strategies to identify, protect, defend, enforce and otherwise build value around IP assets, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. He has experience in many facets of IP law including patent and trademark prosecution (U.S. and foreign), proceedings before the Patent and Trademark Trial and Appeal Boards, freedom to operate diligence, invalidity and non-infringement opinion work, patentability diligence, trademark screening, IP dispute resolution and litigation (state and federal), and diverse agreements and business transactions having IP components. Nielsen earned his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law and his B.S. from the University of Utah in Biomedical Engineering.
Joshua Schneiderman (Los Angeles) - Schneiderman is a member of the firm’s Business & Finance group. He advises clients on a wide range of transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and public and private offerings of debt and equity securities. In addition, Schneiderman advises clients on matters related to franchising, including the establishment of new franchise systems and the expansion of existing franchise systems nationally and internationally. He also advises public and private companies on corporate governance matters, and serves as outside general counsel to many of his clients. Schneiderman earned his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and his B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Business and Corporations Law Section.
Jessica E. Yates (Denver) - Yates' practice is concentrated in business litigation and appeals in both federal and state courts, and includes dispute resolution with special districts, state and local governments, and federal agencies. She has experience in infrastructure issues, public-private partnerships, environmental law, real estate and construction litigation, agribusiness law, criminal appeals, securities law, and insurance coverage disputes. Yates earned her J.D. from Virginia School of Law, her M.A. in Administration and Public Policy from the University of York, England and her B.A., with distinction, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
About Snell & Wilmer L.L.P.
Founded in 1938, Snell & Wilmer is a full-service business law firm with more than 400 attorneys practicing in nine locations throughout the western United States and in Mexico, including Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Los Angeles and Orange County, California; Denver, Colorado; Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Los Cabos, Mexico. The firm represents clients ranging from large, publicly traded corporations to small businesses, individuals and entrepreneurs. For more information, visit www.swlaw.com.