San Francisco-based Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin debuts in the rankings this year for its trade mark and copyright expertise. "I would work with the firm any day of the week," said a client. "It comes up with outstanding solutions." Transactional lawyer Ronald Star was praised by a client as "stellar" and "keenly intelligent". He added: "Ron didn't miss a single undotted 'i'." Tom Magnani, a transactional lawyer and co-chair of the IP group, "does a nice job of knowing the nitty gritty esoteric details of IP law, and then can translate it well to the non-IP experts," said a client. Noted for his trade mark litigation expertise, managing director and firm chair Douglas Winthrop represents the United States Olympic Committee in infringement actions in the US. "I think Doug is the single best attorney I've ever worked with," said a client. "He is in command of the subject matter, seems to have excellent judgment and advice and is comfortable being challenged by me or his team."
The firm represents the University of California, the University of Michigan and Stanford University in the $125 million settlement proposed in the copyright infringement suits brought by the Authors Guild and major publishers against Google. If reached, the settlement would give Google the right to digitise out-of-print books (called orphan works due to the inability to locate their rights holders) housed in major universities and libraries.