Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP has hired the former chief patent counsel for Microsoft as managing partner of a soon-to-be opened office.
Bart Eppenauer will head up the firm's Seattle office, which is due to open at the start of December.
Eppenauer led Redmond-based Microsoft's patent team for 10-years and helped develop a portfolio of more than 35,000 patents worldwide.
Eppenauer previously spent three years as an associate at Shook Hardy & Bacon’s IP practice, before joining Microsoft’s legal team in 1997.
“I have worked closely with Shook Hardy & Bacon’s IP group for more than a decade in my role at Microsoft and I am very pleased to be re-joining them,” said Eppenauer.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to open and lead a Seattle office and contribute to expanding the firm’s IP capabilities.”
John Murphy, chair of the firm, praised Eppenauer’s “unparalleled” business and legal experience.
“We are extremely excited to be opening a Seattle office and to have Eppenauer re-joining the firm,” Murphy said.
“This was a truly unique opportunity for us to open an office in a region in which we already have a substantial footprint from a practice standpoint.”
The Seattle office will be the firm’s ninth in the US and 11th worldwide.
(Source: WIPR)
