Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner has raided the New York office of Weil Gotshal & Manges, hiring patent litigation partner Steve Rizzi.
Rizzi, who joined Thelen on Tuesday (16 October), will look to spearhead the growth of his new firm’s East Coast patent litigation group. Thelen’s group also includes IP trial lawyers in New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
Rizzi spent 15 years at Weil, representing a number of prominent companies in IP disputes, including News Corp, Time Warner and Disney. He said he was attracted to Thelen because of, “the opportunity to play a leadership role”.
Rizzi’s arrival at Thelen’s New York office follows that of another prominent addition last month, when the firm hired veteran energy finance lawyer Ellen Friedman from Dewey Ballantine as a partner in the firm’s business and finance department.
Nick Groombridge, a partner and co-chair of Weil’s patent litigation practice commented: “Steve was offered the opportunity to build a patent practice at Thelen and decided to take it. We wish him the very best.”
