The Week at Ropes & Gray

In The News
November 1, 2019

This week, Ropes & Gray attorneys guided a Bay Area private equity client in a strategic investment in a vacation rental platform, offered insight on key developments in a wide range of areas—including corporate litigation, data privacy, intellectual property litigation and cryptocurrency—and earned recognition for exceptional work and leadership. The firm also announced a new group of partners and counsel, more than half of whom are women. Here’s a summary of the week’s highlights:

  • Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners led a $319 million strategic investment round in Vacasa, a vacation rental management platform. Ropes & Gray advised Silver Lake on the investment.
  • “Use” clauses in non-disclosure agreements, which limit the ways in which a party receiving confidential information may use that information, can have collateral consequences if litigation arises. Corporate & securities litigation practice co-chair David Hennes examines how to avoid the pitfalls of “use” clauses in a special report focused on M&A in The New York Law Journal.
  • The U.S. financial services industry is under increasing pressure to ensure that retirement savings are protected from rapidly evolving cyber threats. Data, privacy & cybersecurity practice co-leader Ed McNicholas discusses the impact of the California Consumer Privacy Act on potential data breaches in Financial Times.
  • Several developments in intellectual property litigation are capturing headlines. To shed light on these legal issues, Ropes & Gray lawyers shared their insights:
    • The deployment of 5G cellular technology is ushering in a new round of licensing disputes and potential litigation. IP litigation partners Steven Pepe and Kevin Post and associate Allen Cross identified these challenges in Bloomberg Law.
    • A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision found a ban on the registration of immoral and scandalous trademarks to be unconstitutional. A team of attorneys, including IP litigation partner Peter Brody, counsel Evan Gourvitz and Emilia Cannella, associate Steve Meil, and IP transactions counsel Erica Han analyzed the decision in IP Litigator.
    • A three-judge panel recently signaled that it may have to remove Patent Trial and Appeal Board judges’ civil service protections in order to keep the board viable under the U.S. Constitution. IP litigation partner Scott McKeown discussed these constitutional concerns on Law.com.
  • With the widespread arrival of initial coin offerings, U.S. authorities have made progress in keeping pace with the fast-growing cryptocurrency industry. Litigation partner Ryan Rohlfsen proposed four ways to address rising cryptocurrency oversight by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in Law360.
  • Litigation partner and Ropes & Gray diversity committee co-chair Joan McPhee was named the inaugural recipient of the Laurie A. Miller Leadership Award for the Advancement of Women in White Collar Defense by the Women in White Collar Defense Association. Joan was recognized for her achievements as a white collar defense attorney and her leadership in advancing women in law.
  • Ropes & Gray expanded its partnership ranks by naming 16 attorneys, including nine women, partners of the firm. With these promotions, 30 percent of the firm’s partners are women. The largest geographic concentration of new partners is in New York, where the firm has more than 400 lawyers. The firm also announced that eight attorneys have been promoted to counsel.
  • In a new episode of Ropes & Gray’s Alumni @ RopesTalk alumni podcast series, IP transactions partner Megan Baca is joined by Ropes & Gray alum Sabrina Ross for a wide-ranging conversation about Sabrina’s journey from Ropes & Gray associate to global head of policy for Uber. The conversation touches upon the challenges and opportunities involved with transitioning from big law to an in-house position.
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