Faegre Baker Daniels Welcomes 9 Partners in Chicago

Faegre Baker Daniels is pleased to announce that nine partners from four firms have joined our Chicago office: Jeffrey Blumberg, Kurt Lebakken, James Martignon and David Porteous from Ulmer & Berne; Matthew Garrett, Douglas Prochnow and John Roberts from Locke Lord Edwards, LLP; George Stohner from Morgan Lewis & Bockius; and Daniel Schwartz from Seyfarth Shaw.

“We are committed to long-term, strategic growth in the Chicago market, and these additions significantly propel our momentum on that front. Since 2014, our Chicago attorney and consultant workforce has grown by more than 40 percent to more than 60 professionals,” said Rick Michaels, partner and Chicago office leader. “The skillsets of these nine partners in business litigation, intellectual property litigation, health care, product liability, labor and employment, transactional and regulatory legal practices are ideally suited for our clients’ needs.”

“These partners reinforce our strength in financial services and life sciences, two of the firm’s industry focus areas,” said Andrew Humphrey, managing partner. “We’re thrilled to expand and enhance our Chicago capabilities, and look forward to continued growth in the market and within our industry teams.”

Investment Management
Porteous, Blumberg, Lebakken and Martignon join FaegreBD’s corporate practice with specializations in financial services law. Collectively, the group brings more than 65 years’ experience counseling public and private companies on regulatory and litigation matters, securities and commodities futures markets, broker-dealers, clearing firms, hedge funds, commodity pools, and public companies.

Porteous and Martignon are experienced in regulatory and litigation matters including investigations and enforcements proceedings, compliance, risk management, and arbitration. Blumberg advises on regulatory, corporate governance, business and structural matters. Lebakken advises on securities, mergers and acquisitions, and investment fund matters, and brings unique experience with cross-border matters in Europe and Latin America.

Intellectual Property Litigation
Schwartz is an intellectual property litigator and counselor, representing his clients in complex patent litigation across numerous technologies and disciplines, as well as trade secrets, trademark, copyright and licensing litigation in federal court and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Product Liability Litigation
Prochnow, Roberts and Garrett, formerly of Locke Lord Edwards, LLP, bring unique experience and insight to the firm’s health and life sciences industry team.

Prochnow is a trial lawyer defending and prosecuting commercial and health care-related claims, financial disputes, indemnity actions, insurance and reinsurance disputes, professional negligence matters, toxic torts, and product liability suits. Roberts advises pharmaceutical, medical device, medical equipment, health care and other companies in product liability, class action, financial services and insurance coverage litigation. He also provides counsel to health care companies and health care providers on a wide variety of health care regulatory matters, including fraud and abuse, Stark, corporate practice of medicine, state licensure and HIPAA compliance. Roberts also served as the Partner-in-Charge of the Chicago office for Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP prior to its January 2015 merger with Locke Lord. Garrett is a litigator who represents clients in commercial, toxic tort, health care and product liability matters.

Employment Litigation
Stohner brings with him more than 35 years of employment litigation experience, including establishing Morgan Lewis’ complex employment litigation group and defending significant class action employment litigation cases across the United States. He started Morgan Lewis’ New York-based labor and employment practice and later served as West Coast leader of its employment and labor practice teams. He offices in FaegreBD’s Chicago and Silicon Valley locations.