The intellectual property law firm McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP is pleased to announce that it has named Aaron F. Barkoff, Ph.D., Mark L. Chael, Ph.D., Bradley W. Crawford, Daniel P. Williams, and Donald L. Zuhn, Jr., Ph.D. to the firm’s partnership. All were previously associates at the firm.
“These five attorneys have shown both the solid work and commitment to excellent client service that we expect of those who advance to positions of greater responsibility in the firm,” said Matthew J. Sampson, managing partner. “We look forward to their further participation in the firm in this new role.”
Aaron F. Barkoff, Ph.D. concentrates on patent litigation, with emphasis on pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent cases. He has experience in all phases of patent litigation, from pre-filing investigations to discovery, trial, and appeals. Dr. Barkoff is also experienced in patent application preparation and prosecution, as well as in preparing opinions of counsel relating to patentability, infringement, and validity. He is especially interested in issues that involve both patent law and FDA law. Dr. Barkoff authors the Orange Book Blog (orangebookblog.com) that discusses those issues. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School (J.D.), the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D., Biochemistry), and Lawrence University (B.A., Biology).
Mark L. Chael, Ph.D. focuses his practice on all aspects of U.S. and foreign prosecution of patents and trademarks, validity and infringement opinions, legal and academic research in support of intellectual property litigation, as well as FDA-required patent certifications. He works with a wide variety of clients, from entrepreneurial ventures to established corporations, in the fields of gene therapy, drug discovery, and medical instrumentation, among others. Dr. Chael is a graduate of The John Marshall Law School (J.D.), Northwestern University (Ph.D., Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cellular Biology), and Purdue University (B.S., Biology), He also completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Argonne National Laboratory.
Bradley W. Crawford prepares patent applications and prosecutes them in the U.S. and throughout the world, he also conducts legal research, provides technological advice in support of validity, infringement and patentability analyses, patent application preparation and prosecution, and litigation matters in the areas of organic and medicinal chemistry. He has experience in synthetic organic chemistry as well as medicinal chemistry. Before joining MBHB, Mr. Crawford drafted patent applications at Abbott Laboratories, where he also worked as a medicinal chemist. He is listed as a co-inventor on three U.S. patents. Mr. Crawford is a graduate of Chicago-Kent College of Law (J.D.), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (M.S., Organic Chemistry), and the University of Illinois at Chicago (B.S., Chemistry).
Daniel P. Williams concentrates his practice in obtaining patent protection for clients in the areas of telecommunications, computer hardware and software, networks, and Internet applications, as well as business methods. He has experience in intellectual property litigation, including patent and trade secret litigation. Mr. Williams is also the inventor of U.S. Patent No. 7,130,664. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School (J.D.) and the University of Michigan (B.S.E., Computer Engineering).
Donald L. Zuhn, Jr., Ph.D. prepares and prosecutes patent applications, conducts legal research, and provides technological advice in support of validity, infringement and patentability analyses, patent application preparation and prosecution, and litigation matters in the area of biotechnology. Dr. Zuhn joined MBHB in 1998. He is an author of the PatentDocs weblog (patentdocs.typepad.com), a site dedicated to biotechnology and pharmaceutical patent law. He is a graduate of The John Marshall Law School (J.D.), the University of Illinois at Chicago (Ph.D., Mammalian Genetics), and Loyola University Chicago (B.S., Biology).
About McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP
McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP, an intellectual property boutique with more than 70 attorneys, was founded in 1996. With offices in Chicago and Washington, MBHB provides comprehensive legal services to obtain and enforce intellectual property rights, from navigating patent office procedures to litigating complex infringement actions. MBHB prosecutes patent and trademark applications in both the U.S. and abroad, handles intellectual property litigation matters in trial and appellate courts across the country, and counsels clients nationwide and worldwide on the enforcement and defense of their intellectual property rights.