CHICAGO (April 19, 2010) — Ulmer & Berne LLP today announced that Michael D. Switzer has joined its Chicago office as partner and chair of the Intellectual Property Group’s Medical Device Practice. The addition of Mr. Switzer, who was previously a partner in the Chicago office of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, continues Ulmer & Berne’s aggressive growth in the Chicago market.
“We are thrilled to add Michael to our rapidly growing Chicago office. His outstanding legal skill and extraordinary experience, especially in the areas of IP litigation and medical device technology, will be of tremendous value to our clients,” said Kip Reader, managing partner of Ulmer & Berne. “We have said throughout our Chicago expansion that our intention is to grow the breadth and depth of our Chicago capabilities through high-level lateral recruiting, and during the last year, we have done just that.”
Mr. Switzer focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation, licensing, and client counseling. He has litigated numerous cases before the federal courts and the United States International Trade Commission (ITC). Mr. Switzer’s litigation practice involves a broad range of technologies, including medical devices, RAID storage devices, facsimile machines, analog and digital circuit designs and semiconductor processes.
Mr. Switzer has a unique background in intellectual property law. Prior to becoming an attorney, he was a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 1990 until 1995. After becoming an attorney, he spent 10 years at McDermott, during which he interspersed two stints as in-house counsel. From 1997 through 1999, Mr. Switzer served as the first-ever in-house U.S. patent counsel for Hitachi Ltd. While with Hitachi he was based in Tokyo and, as a member of the International Licensing Group, focused on licensing and litigation management, participating in the negotiation and management of numerous intellectual property agreements. More recently, Mr. Switzer served as senior patent counsel for a leading medical device company from 2005 until 2007.
Mr. Switzer earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from Union College, and his J.D. from the American University-Washington College of Law.
In the last year, Ulmer & Berne has substantially expanded its presence in Chicago, adding a number of outstanding partners, associates, and counsel from well-known Chicago firms. It also rolled out new service offerings and practice areas, including Hedge Funds, Investment Management, Regulatory Counseling and Compliance, and Risk Management, with the goal of adding additional practice groups in Chicago through strategic lateral recruiting. Ulmer & Berne also recently moved into larger, state-of-the-art office space in Chicago, occupying more than 18,000 square feet on the 36th floor of the Citigroup Center at 500 West Madison St., to better accommodate its anticipated expansion.
Ulmer & Berne, established in 1908, is a full-service Midwest regional law firm with 175 attorneys in Chicago, Illinois and Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. Ulmer & Berne represents publicly traded and privately held companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, family businesses, international joint ventures and affiliations, investor groups, start-ups and emerging businesses, public bodies and nonprofit organizations. For more information, visit www.ulmer.com.
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