Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton
Encyclopedia
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton is an international law firm
headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia
. The firm has eighteen offices, including U.S. offices in Georgia, California, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Washington State, and the District of Columbia, and international offices in Dubai, Japan, Sweden, and Taiwan. The firm is particularly well known for its intellectual property
practice, and has represented major clients in cutting-edge IP cases. For example, the firm has represented Google
in litigation related to its Google Print product, and represented Sony
in its suit against 21-year-old hacker George Hotz
for jailbreaking the PS3.
The firm has been recognized by American Lawyer magazine as one of the country's best law firms to work for. It has won numerous awards for its role in community service, and it credits fifty hours of charity work per year toward its attorneys' billable hour requirements.
In 1978, the firm counseled The Northwestern Bank in a merger with First Union National Bank. The transaction was a harbinger of the mass bank consolidation that would take place in the next three decades. The next year, the firm took on representation of the town of Triana, Alabama, whose water had been polluted by the pesticide DDT. The firm eventually secured a recovery of $26 million, plus all annual health care costs for the injured townspeople.
In 2000, Kilpatrick Stockton successfully represented Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family in a lawsuit over the CBS network's unauthorized use of the famous "I Have a Dream
" speech. In 2001, the firm took on the defense of the Houghton Mifflin
Company's parody The Wind Done Gone
. In a precedent-setting case, the firm defeated a pre-publication restraining order from Margaret Mitchell
's estate.
Also in 2001, the firm participated in a groundbreaking win in the case of Cobell v. Kempthorne. Elouise Cobell brought a class-action suit on behalf of hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs alleging that the United States mismanaged funds held by it in trust for Native Americans
. The plaintiffs prevailed in the first stage of the case, proving that the government mismanaged trust funds. The accounting portion of the case has not been resolved (as of July 2006).
On January 1, 2011, Kilpatrick Stockton and Townsend and Townsend and Crew merged to form Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.
In 2011, the firm assisted Sony it its lawsuit against George Hotz
and some people associated with the group fail0verflow, for "jailbreaking" the PlayStation 3. This included the attempted subpoena of Hotz's webhost to gather information about visitors to the site, as well as attempted subpoenas of YouTube
, Twitter
, Blogger
and Paypal
.
Law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...
headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. The firm has eighteen offices, including U.S. offices in Georgia, California, Colorado, North Carolina, New York, Washington State, and the District of Columbia, and international offices in Dubai, Japan, Sweden, and Taiwan. The firm is particularly well known for its intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
practice, and has represented major clients in cutting-edge IP cases. For example, the firm has represented Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
in litigation related to its Google Print product, and represented Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
in its suit against 21-year-old hacker George Hotz
George Hotz
George Francis Hotz , alias geohot, million75 or simply mil, is an American hacker known for unlocking the iPhone, allowing the phone to be used with other wireless carriers, contrary to AT&T and Apple's intent...
for jailbreaking the PS3.
The firm has been recognized by American Lawyer magazine as one of the country's best law firms to work for. It has won numerous awards for its role in community service, and it credits fifty hours of charity work per year toward its attorneys' billable hour requirements.
History
Kilpatrick Stockton was formed by the 1997 merger of two firms, Kilpatrick & Cody of Atlanta, Georgia, and Petree Stockton of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The firm that would become Kilpatrick & Cody was founded in 1874 by Milton W. Candler and William S. Thomson. The firm became in-house counsel for the Coca-Cola company, and as early as 1893 secured federal registration of the Coca-Cola trademark.In 1978, the firm counseled The Northwestern Bank in a merger with First Union National Bank. The transaction was a harbinger of the mass bank consolidation that would take place in the next three decades. The next year, the firm took on representation of the town of Triana, Alabama, whose water had been polluted by the pesticide DDT. The firm eventually secured a recovery of $26 million, plus all annual health care costs for the injured townspeople.
In 2000, Kilpatrick Stockton successfully represented Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family in a lawsuit over the CBS network's unauthorized use of the famous "I Have a Dream
I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination...
" speech. In 2001, the firm took on the defense of the Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
Company's parody The Wind Done Gone
The Wind Done Gone
The Wind Done Gone is the first novel written by Alice Randall. It was a bestselling historical parallel novel that reinterprets the famous American novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.- Plot summary :...
. In a precedent-setting case, the firm defeated a pre-publication restraining order from Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell was an American author and journalist. Mitchell won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937 for her epic American Civil War era novel, Gone with the Wind, which was the only novel by Mitchell published during her lifetime.-Family:Margaret Mitchell was born in Atlanta,...
's estate.
Also in 2001, the firm participated in a groundbreaking win in the case of Cobell v. Kempthorne. Elouise Cobell brought a class-action suit on behalf of hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs alleging that the United States mismanaged funds held by it in trust for Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. The plaintiffs prevailed in the first stage of the case, proving that the government mismanaged trust funds. The accounting portion of the case has not been resolved (as of July 2006).
On January 1, 2011, Kilpatrick Stockton and Townsend and Townsend and Crew merged to form Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP.
In 2011, the firm assisted Sony it its lawsuit against George Hotz
George Hotz
George Francis Hotz , alias geohot, million75 or simply mil, is an American hacker known for unlocking the iPhone, allowing the phone to be used with other wireless carriers, contrary to AT&T and Apple's intent...
and some people associated with the group fail0verflow, for "jailbreaking" the PlayStation 3. This included the attempted subpoena of Hotz's webhost to gather information about visitors to the site, as well as attempted subpoenas of YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, Blogger
Blogger (service)
Blogger is a blog-publishing service that allows private or multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. It was created by Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google in 2003. Generally, the blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com. Up until May 1, 2010 Blogger allowed users to publish...
and Paypal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
.
Partners
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton has over 270 partners. The firm's most notable partners include the following:- Miles J. Alexander is a co-chairman of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton.
- Alexander was honored in 'The Best Lawyers in America 2006' for his prowess in the fields of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Antitrust Law, Corporate Law, and Intellectual Property Law.
- Rupert Barkoff was named one of the top 10 franchise law practitioners in the world by the International Who's Who of Business Lawyers for 2006.
- Joseph M. Beck is known for representing clients in high-profile cases.
- Beck is lead counsel for Google in the Google Print case, and he has represented the family of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in intellectual property matters.
- Beck also defended the musical group OutKastOutKastOutkast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. They were originally known as Two Shades Deep but later changed the group's name to OutKast...
in 1999, when OutKast was sued by Rosa ParksRosa ParksRosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
over one of the group's most successful radio singles, which bore Parks' name as its title. - In 2006, Beck was honored as one of 'The Best Lawyers in America' in the fields of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Entertainment Law, and Intellectual Property Law.
- William H. Brewster is Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton's managing partner, and was named one of 'The Best Lawyers in America 2006' in the field of Intellectual Property Law.[
- Keith Harper is one of the United States' leading Native American attorneys. In 2008, the National Law Journal selected Keith as one of 50 "Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America."
- Harper has been involved in the Cobell v. Kempthorne case since its inception. He first represented the plaintiffs while working at the Native American Rights Fund, before he joined Kilpatrick Stockton.
- Harper is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and serves as an appellate judge on the highest court of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.
- Paul HaugheyPaul HaugheyPaul C. Haughey is a novelist, patent attorney and partner with the law firm Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP. He was an electrical engineer with Hughes Aircraft before becoming a patent attorney. His first novel, Undue Diligence, was published in 2006 and reportedly took 20 years to...
, a prominent patent lawyer, manages the firm's San Francisco office.- Haughey is also a novelist, having published Undue Diligence in 2006.
- David M. Zacks is a past chairman of the American Cancer SocietyAmerican Cancer SocietyThe American Cancer Society is the "nationwide community-based voluntary health organization" dedicated, in their own words, "to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and...
.- Zacks was named one of 'The Best Lawyers in America 2006' in the fields of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Health Care Law, and Personal Injury Litigation.
High-profile clients
- AdidasAdidasAdidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and parent company of the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company , and Rockport...
- American UniversityAmerican UniversityAmerican University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
- BellSouthBellSouthBellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield AssociationBlue Cross and Blue Shield AssociationThe Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is a federation of 39 separate health insurance organizations and companies in the United States. Combined, they directly or indirectly provide health insurance to over 100 million Americans. The history of Blue Cross dates back to 1929, while the history of...
- British Petroleum
- CitigroupCitigroupCitigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
- DaimlerChryslerDaimlerChryslerDaimler AG is a German car corporation. By unit sales, it is the thirteenth-largest car manufacturer and second-largest truck manufacturer in the world. In addition to automobiles, Daimler manufactures buses and provides financial services through its Daimler Financial Services arm...
- Delta Air LinesDelta Air LinesDelta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
- DuPontDuPontE. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
- EquifaxEquifaxEquifax Inc. is a consumer credit reporting agency in the United States, considered one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Experian and TransUnion. Founded in 1899, Equifax is the oldest of the three agencies and gathers and maintains information on over 400 million credit...
- General ElectricGeneral ElectricGeneral Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
- GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
- Harley-DavidsonHarley-DavidsonHarley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
- IMAXIMAXIMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
- Krispy KremeKrispy KremeKrispy Kreme is the name of an international chain of doughnut stores that was founded by Vernon Rudolph in 1937 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The parent company of Krispy Kreme is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc...
- Office DepotOffice DepotOffice Depot is a supplier of office products and provides many services. The company's selection of brand name office supplies includes business machines, computers, computer software and office furniture, while its business services encompass copying, printing, document reproduction, shipping,...
- PepsiCo, Inc.
- PGA Golf Course Properties
- Putt-Putt
- RaytheonRaytheonRaytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
- Sara Lee
- SonySony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
- WachoviaWachoviaWachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States based on total assets...
Practice areas
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton is a "full-service" law firm, which means that its attorneys work in essentially all areas of law. Its main practice areas are:
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