On the IP litigation front we have Rafi Allos in London; Jill Ge in Shanghai and James Gagen in Washington D.C. and for IP transactions, Saranpaal Calais in Sydney and Catherine di Lorenzo in Luxembourg.
Rafi specialises in contentious life sciences patents work, Jill focuses on contentious patent, trade secret and trademark matters for technology and life sciences clients and James specialises in tech IP matters. On the IP transaction side, Saranpaal advises on the tech and data aspects of fintech, ecommerce, payments, insurtech and digital assets and Catherine, specialises in data protection, technology and transactional IP.
Global head of IP, David Stone said: “These newly promoted partners are all exceptional IP specialists, who bring a wealth of expertise in IP litigation and transactions key areas and jurisdictions needed for our client base. Building on from our recent IP partner hires in Boston, New York, Silicon Valley and Washington D.C, we are better placed than ever to
support our clients on their most complex cross-border IP disputes.
Rafi Allos –
Rafi is in the IP Litigation practice in London. Rafi specialises in contentious life sciences patents work and advising clients on regulatory issues in the life sciences sector. Rafi’s patent litigation experience includes both representing clients in U.K. proceedings and assisting clients with multi-jurisdictional proceedings and preparation for potential litigation. In addition, Rafi has a particular interest in the impact of life sciences regulatory issues on patent litigation.
Rafi has spoken on life sciences regulatory matters at the Pharmaceutical Law Academy in Cambridge from 2014 to 2017. He has been recognised since 2017 as a “rising star” in the Patents section of Managing Intellectual Property’s IP Stars and as a Next Generation Lawyer/Rising Star in Legal 500 (both in Life Sciences and Healthcare and in Patents). Rafi was also awarded a European Rising Star Award in the Life Sciences and UK categories in the Euromoney LMG Europe Rising Star Awards 2019.
Jill Ge –
Jill covers the full spectrum of IP litigation and transactions relating to China. Jill has extensive experience in contentious patent, trade secret and trade mark matters involving multinationals and in resolving cross-border disputes.
Drawing on her litigation experience, Jill also routinely advises on IP and data heavy transactions and counsels technology and life sciences clients in relation to their development of IP strategies, as well as IP related regulatory and competition law issues. Jill writes extensively on IP developments in China and regularly speaks at international IP conferences. Jill has a technical background in physics and materials engineering. She studied law and was trained in the U.S. and China (non-practicing).
James (Jay) Gagen –
Jay is an experienced litigator whose practice focuses on intellectual property, international trade, and competition matters in federal tribunals around the country.
Jay is known for his expertise in Section 337 matters at the International Trade Commission, where he has successfully prevailed in numerous investigations on behalf of Complainants and Respondents. Global technology companies look to Jay to handle complex litigation matters in federal courts, and Jay’s recent experience has included defense of a Japanese company in several securities-related matters, defense of an importer in a trade-related False Claims Act matter, and defense of a leading U.S. technology company in a series of patent infringement cases at the International Trade Commission and in federal courts.
Catherine di Lorenzo –
Catherine is the head of the IP, data and tech practice in Luxembourg. She specialises in the fields of data protection, cybersecurity, IT contracts and negotiations, e-commerce, advertising, media and telecommunications, intellectual property and regulatory issues (notably regarding digitalisation projects, including IT outsourcing in the financial, funds and insurance sectors). Catherine has a particular interest in the life sciences sector and regularly assists clients on regulatory, contractual, IP and data protection related questions in these sectors. She also advises on Luxembourg contractual law and other general civil law related matters.
Catherine regularly assists multinational companies from various sectors with respect to their data protection compliance (including cookie consent aspects, filing of data breach notifications, handling of data subject access requests, drafting and negotiation of processing agreements, etc.), regarding investigations from data protection authorities and on specific projects involving personal data (e.g. use of geo-location or biometric data, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, machine-learning and Binding Corporate Rules). Catherine also regularly advises clients (in close cooperation with the Litigation team) on investigations from Luxembourg authorities or data requests under mutual cooperation procedures.
Catherine also assists several clients with respect to their digitalisation projects and IT contracts (including all intellectual property related aspects thereof, for instance in case of joint software development projects) and IT outsourcing projects, including filings with the financial sector supervisory authority, drafting and negotiation of outsourcing contracts and investigations.
She also advises clients on questions relating to trademarks, copyright and trade secrets and on the drafting of agreements with third parties (e.g. license agreements, coexistence agreements, etc.).
Catherine is a member of APDL (the Luxembourg association for data protection), FedISA (the Luxembourg chapter of an international electronic archiving community) and ITechLaw. She is also a member of Cloud Community Europe-Luxembourg and is a member of the Data Protection Forum, the ICT Forum, and of the Trust and Cyber security Forum of the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (ABBL).
Catherine is also visible in the Luxembourg market through her participation in technical working groups and speaking engagements. She has lectured IT law at the University of Luxembourg. She is ranked “Band 2” by Chambers Europe 2021 and as a “Rising Star” by Legal 500 2021.
Saranpaal Calais –
Saranpaal is a technology and digital lawyer, advising clients in APAC on a wide range of strategic technology transactions including tech-driven collaborations and joint ventures, digital transformation projects, software development and licensing, cloud computing and complex commercial contracting.
Saranpaal regularly advises on the tech and data aspects of fintech, ecommerce, payments, insurtech and digital assets, and well as on the commercialisation of emerging technologies including AI, blockchain, and advanced robotics. Saranpaal also advises on the operational aspects of mobile telecoms and digital infrastructure deals.
Saranpaal has significant experience advising on technology and operational separation and transition issues for complex M&A transactions, as well as on Australian privacy and data protection compliance.
Saranpaal has spent time seconded to two of Australia’s largest banks leading negotiations on enterprise-wide strategic digital transformation projects. In 2015, Saranpaal co-founded a technology company that developed a data analytics platform for the aviation industry.
