Morgan Lewis adds ex-Amazon, Venable partners
Morgan Lewis has hired an IP litigator and a former in-house counsel as partners in Washington, DC.
Meaghan Kent joins from Venable, where she served as co-chair of the IP litigation— advertising, brand, and copyright group.
She will continue to focus on copyright and trademark litigation and counselling.
Denise Wood returns to Morgan Lewis from Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she served as senior corporate counsel leading a global team.
Wood, who previously spent nearly five years as an associate with the firm, will focus on advising telecommunication and technology clients on regulatory and transactional matters.
“The US capital is a critical market for multinational corporations given its impact reverberates across jurisdictions and industries,” said firm chair Jami McKeon.
“Clients turn to our elite team, which now includes these two strong women leaders with proven track records in a complex sector such as technology, to help them navigate highly regulated areas.”
Wood joined AWS in 2019 as corporate counsel for infrastructure, and earlier this year, she was promoted to senior corporate counsel. She was responsible for negotiating terrestrial and subsea dark and lit fibre service agreements; Indefeasible Rights of Use (IRU), joint build, and supply agreements; and providing counsel on related regulatory issues.
She is also involved in organisations that support these industries, such as the Women’s Technology Forum and the Federal Communications Bar Association.
“We are seeing increasing interest in active submarine cable as well as wireless and satellite spaces, both areas in which Denise has extensive first-hand experience,” said Andrew Lipman, leader of the Morgan Lewis’ telecommunications, media, and technology practice.
“Denise is a dynamic team player and we are excited to welcome her back. We look forward to collaborating with her as we help clients navigate the ever-changing telecommunications arena.”
Kent has advised on disputes involving copyrights, trademarks, patents, and the right of publicity, domain names, and other online disputes for clients in a wide range of sectors, including media, entertainment, automotive, software, and other consumer product and service companies.
“Meaghan comes to us with a history of collaboration, leadership, and team building,” said Louis Beardell, leader of Morgan Lewis’s IP practice. “We are focused on building out our copyright disputes and registration/counselling practice to serve our clients with lawyers as accomplished and impressive as Meaghan.”
The arrivals of Kent and Wood follow other DC hires this year, including former Department of Justice (DoJ) Foreign Investment Review acting chief David Plotinsky, former DoJ principal assistant chief of the Fraud Section Justin Weitz, and former SEC division of corporation finance legal branch chief Erin Martin.
Kent’s arrival follows that of a bicoastal, five-person patent prosecution team led by partner Manita Rawat, who also focuses on technology.
Also, other in-house lawyers who recently joined the firm include Lance Dial, former managing director and counsel at Wellington Management, and Amy Schuh, a former corporate senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer.
