The US Patent & Trademark Office has appointed a new chief of staff to replace Peter Pappas in the form of Covington & Burling intellectual property partner, Andrew Byrnes, Corporate Counsel reports. Mr Byrnes has sixteen years of experience practising IP in the firm’s Silicon Valley office, and was previously a shareholder at law firm Heller Ehrman. Joining the Obama administration in Washington DC in September, his official role will be chief of staff in the Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
In Maine, a new chief legal counsel has been appointed to replace US Navy Reserve officer Michael Cianchette after he resigned for a year’s service in Kabul, Afghanistan, reports boston.com. Carlisle McLean was promoted by Maine Governor Paul LePage having previously served as his general counsel since 2012. Formerly, she was the governor’s senior natural resources policy adviser when she first joined the administration after working at Preti Flaherty as an attorney.
US diagnostic company LipoScience, Inc. has appointed Kathryn F. Twiddy as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, the Wall Street Journal reports. LipoScience are the pioneers of a new field of personalised diagnostics based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology, research that is working towards better management of heart disease. Ms Twiddy joins from clinical documentation and unstructured data analytics provider M*Modal, Inc. With over 20 years of experience in the technology and life sciences industries, both in law firms and in-house, her senior executive roles over the years have included vice president and senior associate general counsel for Quintiles Transnational Corp. and general counsel and corporate secretary of Misys Healthcare Systems.
After an in-house stint, the former general counsel of China’s National Basketball Association, Steven Toronto, is to move back to private practice and join the Beijing office of law firm King & Wood Mallesons. Mr Toronto has been the head of China’s national basketball league’s legal operations since 2009, according to The Lawyer. Prior to his in-house career he was managing partner at the Beijing office of Morrison & Foerster for nine years, where through working as international counsel for the organiser of the Beijing Olympic Games Mr Toronto first collaborated with KWM.
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