Insights

Washington – February 23, 2021: Chambers and Partners has ranked three Crowell & Moring practice groups and ten individual lawyers in the Chambers Global 2021 guide. The rankings are driven by independent interviews of clients and members of the legal community.

Los Angeles and Brussels – February 22, 2021: World Trademark Review has ranked Crowell & Moring as one of the top trademark firms in Brussels and California in the WTR 1000 research directory, which focuses exclusively on the world’s leading trademark practices and practitioners. The annual list identifies firms in the trademark space by considering depth of expertise, market presence, and level of work, as well as peer and client feedback.

Washington – February 19, 2021: Crowell & Moring counsel Michelle Pham has been selected as a member of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity’s 2021 class of Fellows. In addition, associates Helen Osun and Chris Garcia have been named to the LCLD 2021 class of Pathfinders. The Fellows and Pathfinders programs are widely considered two of the most comprehensive legal talent development programs in the nation.

Washington—February 17, 2021: Michael K. Atkinson, the former Inspector General of the U.S. Intelligence Community, is joining Crowell & Moring as a partner, expanding the firm’s white collar, internal investigations, and national security capabilities.

San Francisco – February 10, 2021: Crowell & Moring advised Kountable Inc., the leading global trade and technology platform, in connection with its Series A-1 financing lead by Lateral Capital. Kountable secured this round of funding as part of its efforts to expand its U.S. presence and widen its COVID response to further support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Kountable platform operates as the necessary missing element that gets critical goods delivered in difficult market conditions. For the past five years, Kountable has activated the capability of SMEs through is curated execution network to efficiently complete large scale projects for governments, foundations, NGOs, and corporations that have had a positive impact on millions of lives. Kountable has solved the challenges of collaboration between critical but overlooked SMEs who play a key role in the success of vast swaths of global trade activity, global multinational suppliers, funders, and logistics and trade services providers.

Washington – February 10, 2021: Crowell & Moring successfully secured summary and final judgment as well as attorney fees and costs for ScentAir Technologies, a global leader in scent marketing, in a patent infringement case that has spanned almost a decade against competitor Prolitec. ScentAir develops scents and scenting technologies for many of the world’s most recognized retail and hospitality brands. The final order came down January 27: the team won costs and attorney fees it had sought from Prolitec. U.S. District Court Judge Brett H. Ludwig of the Eastern District of Wisconsin summarized his award of the full amount of attorney fees sought: “Prolitec’s Unnecessary and Meritless Challenges to the Entry of Judgment Make this an ‘Exceptional’ Case under 35 U.S.C. 285.”

San Francisco – February 8, 2021: Crowell & Moring advised Onyx Inc., a California-based fitness-tech company building the world’s smartest digital training experience, in its acquisition by Cure.fit, India’s largest health and fitness conglomerate. This all-stock transaction combines the digital and offline experiences across fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being offered by Cure.fit with Onyx’s body-tracking technology and personalization of workout feedback. Founded in 2018, Onyx has been featured by Apple, Forbes, CNN, and others. Its mission is to make personalized fitness accessible to anyone and provide the greatest connected fitness experience that does not rely on expensive hardware. Cure.fit aims to bolster its digital offerings in India and abroad with this acquisition.

Washington – February 8, 2021: The Irish Voice named Crowell & Moring’s Christine Hawes to the annual “Irish Legal 100” list. The list is a “compilation of the most distinguished legal professionals in the United States who share one common bond: pride in their Irish roots.” The “Irish Legal 100 2020” marks the thirteenth annual edition of the list.

Washington – February 5, 2021: The Human Rights Campaign Foundation awarded Crowell & Moring a score of 100 percent on their 2021 Corporate Equality Index, its national benchmarking survey and report. The foundation rates companies based on their corporate policies and practices related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) workplace equality. This year marks the 11th consecutive year that the firm has been recognized by HRC.

Orange County – February 4, 2021: Lawyers of Color named Crowell & Moring’s David Griffith to the “Hot List 2020,” an annual list of “the most dynamic junior- and mid-level lawyers of color who have demonstrated a strong commitment to advancing diversity in the legal profession.”

London – January 26, 2021: Crowell & Moring has teamed up with LawWorks, a UK-based nonprofit organization, to expand the firm’s long-standing commitment to social justice and provide high quality legal services to those in need at no cost.

Washington – January 21, 2021: Crowell & Moring is offering clients an array of breaking news updates, in-depth analyses, and forward-looking insights into President Biden’s first 100 days in office.

San Francisco—January 21, 2021: Crowell & Moring is expanding its Litigation and White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement groups in San Francisco with the addition of Warrington Parker, a former federal prosecutor and first-chair trial lawyer with more than two decades of experience representing clients in high-stakes civil and criminal litigation and investigations.

Washington – January 13, 2021: Crowell & Moring has released Litigation Forecast 2021: What Corporate Counsel Need to Know for the Coming Year. The ninth annual Litigation Forecast focuses on the front page story this year: how the COVID pandemic is transforming litigation from remote depositions to virtual juries and backlogged dockets to new types of cases and opportunities. 

Brussels – January 5, 2021: Karel Bourgeois is joining Crowell & Moring’s Brussels office as a partner in its Antitrust and Competition Group, expanding the firm’s capability to counsel clients on their most complex European competition and state aid matters.

Washington – January 4, 2021: Crowell & Moring elected nine lawyers to the firm’s partnership, effective January 1, 2021. The firm also promoted 18 associates to the position of counsel. The new partners have been promoted from within the ranks of the firm’s Washington, Los Angeles, and New York offices and from across several practice groups, including Advertising & Media, Environment & Natural Resources, Litigation, International Trade, Antitrust & Competition, Government Contracts, and Intellectual Property.

Washington – December 22, 2020: As part of its efforts to address systemic racism, Crowell & Moring is donating a total of $750,000 to two organizations dedicated to the advancement of racial equity, justice, and fundamental human rights – the Equal Justice Initiative and the Lawyers’ Committee forCivil Rights Under Law. In addition, the firm has committed $1 million in pro bono legal services in 2021 to further these causes and launched a Racial Equity Task Force to identify near-term actions and goals to enhance the experience of the firm’s diverse talent.

Washington – December 22, 2020: Crowell & Moring’s Government Contracts Group has been selected as a Law360 2020 Practice Group of the Year. The group was recognized for its “deft navigation this year of politically complex deals,” including efforts to help clients respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an Affordable Care Act “risk corridors” victory at the Supreme Court. This is the eleventh consecutive year that the group has earned this honor.

Los Angeles – December 22, 2020: The Los Angeles Business Journal has named partner Nicole Janigian Simonian to its 2020 “Thriving in their 40s” list. The feature honors 95 outstanding professionals from various industries “who serve as terrific examples of trusted advisors whose services the businesses of Los Angeles simply cannot do without.” Simonian is co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade Group and serves as the firm’s International Employment and Global Mobility lead.