Overview
CHICAGO – International law firm McDermott Will & Emery today announced the arrival of all-star intellectual property lawyer Christina Martini as partner in the Chicago office. Martini joins from DLA Piper, where she practiced for nearly 25 years. She was recently named by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of Chicago’s Most Influential Minority Lawyers.
Martini’s experience reaches across a wide variety of business sectors, including the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, which are known for their unique, high-stakes challenges in the development and protection of brands. Previously, she served as on-loan intellectual property counsel for both Kraft Foods, Inc. and Searle/Monsanto, where she gained invaluable insight regarding the legal and business responsibilities of in-house counsel.
Martini was Chair of the Chicago Intellectual Property Practice at her prior firm and held a number of other key leadership roles, including as the National Hiring Partner – Associate Recruiting and as a member of its Executive, Policy, and Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committees.
Martini has been named to the BTI “Client Service All-Star Team” and is consistently recognized for her intellectual property prowess. In 2014 she was included on Managing Intellectual Property’s “IP Stars – Top 250 Women in IP”, and for the last eight consecutive years she has been named to the World Trademark Review 1000. Martini has also been designated as an Illinois Super Lawyer and is ranked in Chambers and The Legal 500.
“Tina strengthens our copyright and trademark work, solidifying McDermott’s ability to provide comprehensive and across-the-board intellectual property counsel,” said Nicole Jantzi, leader of the Firm’s Global Intellectual Property Practice. “She has a well-deserved reputation in the legal community and a proven track record of both leadership and the ability to collaborate across teams and practice areas. We are excited to onboard her as we continue to expand and fortify our domestic and international service offerings.”
“We are also particularly delighted to welcome such an extraordinary role model and effective champion for gender and racial and ethnic diversity,” added Ira Coleman, chairman of McDermott. “We know from discussions with our clients, our engagement with diversity thought leaders and our participation in diversity advancement programs that we are not going to meaningfully move the needle without hiring diverse talent into our equity partnership. Tina is just one example of how we are listening to our clients, reaching out and bringing in skilled and high-achieving diverse lateral partners. We are delighted to have Tina join our team; her energy, enthusiasm and passion are simply contagious.”
Martini has extensive international experience in counseling, prosecution, enforcement, due diligence and licensing matters, and in assisting clients in protecting their intellectual property rights through litigation and other means. She is instrumental in domain name proceedings before various administrative organizations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization. Martini advises clients in the areas of brand development and management and designs, executes, maintains and enforces large intellectual property portfolios globally. She also regularly handles domain name, social media and online advertising strategy and enforcement. She holds a BSIE from University of Illinois at Chicago and a JD from Northwestern University.
“I am thrilled to be part of McDermott’s IP team and look forward to collaborating with my exceptionally talented colleagues. McDermott’s strong client-service orientation and its commitment to seamless service offerings across the globe is a terrific match to meet the always-evolving business and legal needs of the sophisticated multinational companies with whom I have the honor and privilege to partner,” Martini said.
Martini joins McDermott’s flourishing Intellectual Property practice, which is renowned for its broad trial, appellate, prosecution and transactional experience. The more than 140 IP professionals in the group hold degrees in a variety of technical and scientific fields and are uniquely capable of handling intellectual property matters across a wide spectrum of industries. Some 110 members of McDermott’s intellectual property team hold technical and/or scientific degrees and nearly 100 are registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). McDermott’s Intellectual Property practice includes numerous lawyers with valuable industry experience as well as former USPTO examiners and petition specialists.
About McDermott
McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice. Numbering more than 1,000 lawyers, we have offices in Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC. Further extending our reach into Asia, we have a strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices in Shanghai.
