CareersOn an ongoing basis, Walter Haverfield continues to evaluate the range of legal services we offer our clients to identify complementary practice areas that provide added value and meet our clients’ ever-evolving needs. That’s why, in the past year alone, we have added four new practice areas—intellectual property (IP), public and structured finance, loan workouts/creditors’ rights, and liquor control law. These practices had been identified as high-demand areas by our existing and prospective clients.
The firm’s newest practice group—IP—was initially created as a result of the legal professionals of D. Peter Hochberg Co, LPA, joining the firm at the end of June. D. Peter Hochberg Co. is well recognized in the national and international IP markets, having served clients around the globe for more than 30 years. In addition to its long-standing trademark and patent business, which has been responsible for writing more than 1,500 patents over the years, the firm also provided counseling relative to copyright and trade secret licensing and litigation, as well as arbitration of major patent infringement cases. Peter will be the Chair of the International Patent Group at Walter Haverfield. The full legal team, including Peter Hochberg and Sean Mellino, were part of the transition.
Also in late June, Walter Haverfield successfully recruited the entire Cleveland-based IP group of Kegler Brown Hill and Ritter. Jamie Pingor, who was the director-in-charge of the Cleveland office, will head up the new IP group at Walter Haverfield. Beyond his IP work, Pingor is a licensed patent attorney, and he also counsels clients on a variety of corporate transactions, including business formation and structuring.
Leading the firm’s new public and structured finance practice group is 30+-year veteran Irene MacDougall, who joined Walter Haverfield in the spring.
In order to better serve Cleveland’s burgeoning hospitality industry, the firm also added a liquor control law practice group that is under the direction of new partner John Neal.
Kirk Roessler, who joined the firm last fall, will lead the new commercial loan originations and workouts team which also offers experience in creditor/debtor law.
Walter Haverfield also attracted high-level legal talent to support its existing practice groups in the last year. A number of these additions were mentioned in our previous newsletter. Brand new to the firm’s corporate transactions team, however, is T. Ted Motheral, who focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, having handled a wide array of transactions valued between $200,000 and $350 million.
Combined with the attorneys who were brought on board to start the four new practice groups, there were a total of 24 new attorneys joining the firm in the past 12 months. This is the second time in the last four years that the firm has documented double-digit growth in its professional ranks.
We are honored to be able to recruit such exceptional lawyers. All of these attorneys are well recognized in their individual practice areas and will allow us to not only serve our existing clients better but also attract new clients. We are also pleased to be attracting younger attorneys that will support the continued growth and vitality of this firm well into the future.
Ralph can be reached by phone at 216-928-2908 or e-mail rcascarilla@walterhav.com.