Hecht Partners hires three IP litigation partners from King & Wood

Hecht Partners LLP said three patent litigation partners have joined its New York office from King & Wood, expanding the firm’s intellectual property practice to 15 lawyers. The hires add trial, appellate, ITC and PTAB experience as Hecht Partners pushes deeper into high-stakes IP disputes.

Why it matters: - Hecht Partners is expanding its intellectual property bench with lawyers who bring experience across patent enforcement, defense, appeals and agency proceedings. - The move strengthens the firm’s ability to handle complex IP disputes for technology and life sciences clients. - Hecht Partners said the IP group now includes 15 lawyers.

What happened: - Hecht Partners LLP announced that Michael DeVincenzo, Andrea Pacelli, Ph.D., and Charles Wizenfeld joined the firm’s intellectual property practice from King & Wood, the firm formerly known as King & Wood Mallesons. - The three lawyers will be based in Hecht Partners’ New York office. - All three previously worked together at King & Wood, where they joined in 2020. - The trio also practiced together earlier at Goodwin Procter and at Mishcon de Reya’s New York office.

The details: - DeVincenzo has more than 25 years of trial and appellate experience. - DeVincenzo previously served as general counsel and chief intellectual property counsel for an advanced semiconductor materials company. - Pacelli holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. - Before practicing law, Pacelli was a senior device engineer at Tower Semiconductor, a postdoctoral fellow at Bell Laboratories, and an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Stony Brook University. - Wizenfeld has more than 20 years of patent litigation experience. - Wizenfeld authored the certiorari petition and helped secure a Solicitor General recommendation to grant review in Interactive Wearables, LLC v. Polar Electro Oy, Case No. 21-1281, a Section 101 case before the U.S. Supreme Court. - The three lawyers have worked on patent disputes involving electrical, computer, semiconductor, telecommunications and software matters. - Their client list has included ChanBond, OSRAM, Teva Pharmaceuticals, JPMorgan and Bell Helicopter Textron. - The group has also brought patent enforcement actions against multiple large companies. - Hecht Partners’ intellectual property practice covers patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret matters. - The firm’s IP team is led by Co-Managing Partners David Hecht and Maxim Price. - Hecht Partners is a trial-focused litigation boutique with offices in New York, California, Minnesota, Florida and Texas. - The firm has represented Proxense, LLC in a multi-year patent enforcement campaign against Intel, Google, Samsung and Microsoft. - Hecht Partners also secured a Ninth Circuit decision reviving choreographer Kyle Hanagami’s copyright claims against Epic Games. - More information is available at hechtpartners.com.

Between the lines: - The hiring spree signals Hecht Partners is leaning further into plaintiff-side IP work while still marketing a full-service defense practice. - The addition of lawyers with semiconductor and engineering backgrounds suggests the firm wants deeper technical fluency in disputes involving complex hardware and software technologies. - David Hecht said the new partners bring a rare combination of technical expertise and trial experience, and that their arrival marks a major step forward for the practice. - DeVincenzo said the team wanted a platform to grow its plaintiff-side practice while continuing to serve international clients on IP defense matters.

What's next: - The three partners are expected to help drive more patent enforcement and defense work from Hecht Partners’ New York office. - The firm is likely to keep positioning its IP practice for sophisticated litigation involving technology-heavy industries. - Hecht Partners did not announce any additional hires in this release.

The bottom line: - Hecht Partners is betting that a compact but technically deep IP team can compete for bigger, more complex patent battles.