A&O Shearman

Firm overview:

A&O Shearman was formed by the merger on May 1, 2024 between Allen & Overy, a UK ‘Magic Circle’ firm, with US firm Shearman & Sterling, founded in 1873 in New York City.

Allen & Overy, founded in 1930, achieved Band 2 in the inaugural WIPR Global Trade Secrets rankings, with the research team being impressed by the global nature of the firm’s reach in protecting leading clients’ trade secrets across the USA, Europe and Asia.

The merger of nearly 4,000 lawyers, including 800 partners in 47 offices and revenues of $3.5 billion, creates new potential and inevitable fallout. The impact on the new firm’s intellectual property and trade secrets capability will play out in the months and years ahead.

A&O Shearman’s trade secrets practice operates as a multi-disciplinary function across global practice groups in the firm’s network. These groups include IP litigation and transactions, employment advisory, litigation & investigations including white collar crime, arbitration and antitrust.

A&O Shearman’s rapid response in critical trade secrets cases has successfully prevented the exposure of confidential information, saving clients millions of dollars and preventing the loss of critical competitive advantage.

In keeping with A&O Shearman’s overall strategy of ‘global reach and local depth’, it offers specialists in the critical jurisdictions (from a trade secrets perspective) of the US and China, as well as the UK and the important European jurisdictions of France, Germany and Benelux.

Team overview:

Legacy firm Allen & Overy brought about 20 partners and around 50 other lawyers with significant activity in trade secrets matters. In addition, the core practitioners work with non-specialist colleagues from around the network, such as employment, litigation and investigations, white collar crime, arbitration and antitrust lawyers, as the need arises.

UK partner, Mark Ridgway, has particular expertise in multi-jurisdictional patent disputes and patent licensing and trade secrets disputes, advising primarily life sciences, technology and financial services sector clients. 

Ridgway has a technical background (BEng (Hons) in Electronic Engineering), allowing him to take on the most complex cases while delivering strategic and commercial advice to clients. He is a member of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) Standing Committee on Trade Secrets, and chairs the trade secrets sub-committee of a major UK industry association.

UK partner and global head of employment, Sarah Henchoz, is a leading employment lawyer. Her practice is international, advising clients on global workforce issues on a multi-jurisdictional basis. Henchoz’s specialism is business protection and workplace conduct issues, and she collaborates with colleagues on trade secrets matters as needed.

Shanghai partner Jill Ge is experienced in contentious patent, trade secret and trademark matters involving multinationals and in resolving cross-border disputes. She has been involved with a broad spectrum of key and important dispute matters including crown-jewel big pharma patent litigation as well as bet-the-company IP arbitration.

Düsseldorf partner, Jens Matthes, specialises in trademark, design, patent and trade secrets law, unfair competition law, licensing and R&D projects, as well as employee inventions, anti-counterfeiting and the transfer and exploitation of IP rights.

Bijal Vakil is a founding partner in the Silicon Valley office, with broad litigation experience in successfully representing technology companies from Fortune 100 to early-stage startups. Vakill led the team acting for a Silicon Valley software company on a cross-border trade secrets litigation matter relating to the theft of significant volumes of valuable confidential information.

In Boston, life sciences partner John Bennett has more than 20 years of first-chair trial experience in high-stakes IP and technology disputes. Bennett’s experience includes trade secrets, licensing and contract disputes.

Lisa Nguyen, a partner in the Silicon Valley office of Allen & Overy, left the firm in March 2024 as part of a group of six IP litigators moving to Paul Hastings. At Allen & Overy, Nguyen had acted with Bijal Vakil for a Silicon Valley software company on a cross-border trade secrets litigation matter, relating to the theft of significant volumes of valuable confidential information.

Another member of the group of six departing lawyers was Washington, DC-based Shamita Etienne-Cummings, who was on the Global Board at Allen & Overy and lists on her credentials that she has represented clients in breach of contract and trade secret matters before US district courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC) and the International Commercial Court.

James Gagen, a partner in the Washington, DC office, is known for his expertise in litigating section 337 matters at the US ITC, where he has successfully represented both complainants and respondents in numerous investigations involving patent, trade secret, trade dress, and trademark infringement claims.

Key matters:

• Jump Trading v (1) Couture (2) Verition
  
  A&O Shearman represented Jump Trading in its application for injunctive relief against a former employee, Damien Couture, a claim for breach of contract against Couture as well as a claim of inducing a breach of contract by his new employer, Verition. The client instructed A&O based on its existing relationship and previous trade secrets advisory work.
  
  Jump was unsuccessful in securing an interim injunction, preventing Couture from starting work at Verition having been considered by the High Court to have delayed in making its application. Its substantive claim for an injunction and for breach of contract was subsequently settled on confidential terms.
  
  The A&O Shearman team was led by global head of employment, Sarah Henchoz and counsel Gordon Bartlett, with barristers James Laddie KC of Matrix Chambers, Judy Stone KC of 11 KBW, and Celia Rooney of Blackstone Chambers.
  
  Paul Hastings acted for Verition, and Excello acted for Couture. The case settled in November 2023.
• SS&C Technologies v Clearwater Analytics
  
  A&O Shearman New York office partner Christopher LaVigne represented SS&C Technologies as plaintiff in a jury trial against Clearwater Analytics in Cook County, Illinois, USA. The jury awarded SS&C $44 million for Clearwater’s misappropriation of its trade secrets, including $28 million in punitive damages for Clearwater’s “wilful and malicious conduct”.

Clients:

Jump Trading, SS&C Technologies.