Press Release

Addition of Two Partners Continues Morgan Lewis Expansion in Washington, DC

3 октября 2022 г.

WASHINGTON, DC, October 3, 2022: Morgan Lewis today welcomes Meaghan Kent, an intellectual property litigator, and Denise Wood, a telecommunications infrastructure lawyer and former in-house counsel, as partners resident in Washington, DC.

Denise, who returns to Morgan Lewis after having spent nearly five years as an associate with the firm, arrives from Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she served as senior corporate counsel leading a global team. She will focus on advising telecommunication and technology clients on regulatory and transactional matters.

Meaghan arrives from Venable, where she served as co-chair of the IP litigation - advertising, brand, and copyright group. She will continue to focus on copyright litigation and counseling.

“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.”

Denise joined AWS in 2019 as corporate counsel for infrastructure, and earlier this year, she was promoted to senior corporate counsel. She has led a global team of attorneys and legal professionals to support AWS global networking connectivity in a high throughput environment. Denise was responsible for negotiating terrestrial and subsea dark and lit fiber service agreements; Indefeasible Rights of Use (IRU), joint build, and supply agreements; and providing counsel on related regulatory issues. In addition, she is involved in organizations 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 firm’s 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.”

Meaghan 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. Her representation of entertainment and media companies includes brand protection, rights clearance, and claims defense and mitigation, including compliance with legal immunities for user-generated content and liability; her representation of software companies includes copyright registration, enforcement and anti-piracy strategy. Meaghan is also an adjunct professor of law at the George Washington University School of Law.

“Meaghan comes to us with a history of collaboration, leadership, and team building,” said Louis Beardell Jr., leader of Morgan Lewis’s intellectual property practice. “We are focused on building out our copyright disputes and registration/counseling practice to serve our clients with lawyers as accomplished and impressive as Meaghan.”

The arrivals of Meaghan and Denise follow other DC hires this year, including former 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. Meaghan’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 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.