Quarles & Brady Welcomes New Class of Partners

Milwaukee — Quarles & Brady LLP, a national multidisciplinary law firm, today announced 11 attorneys have been elected partners, effective October 1.

“A relentless focus on helping our clients achieve their business goals and a commitment to fostering a collegial, collaborative culture are critical to our long-term success,” said Mike Aldana, the firm’s managing partner. “Each of the new partners are exceptionally gifted attorneys who have consistently demonstrated their attention to these principles. We look forward to even greater contributions from them in the years ahead.”

The new partners are:

James J. Aquilina, an Intellectual Property attorney in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. He has extensive experience in all aspects of U.S. intellectual property law, counseling clients in the areas of utility and design patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret law, with emphases on rights procurement, portfolio development and management, rights enforcement, and licensing. Aquilina is widely recognized in the field of U.S. design law, and serves as editor-in-chief of the firm’s “Protecting the Product” design rights blog. He received his B.S. from Rutgers University and his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Angeline Babel, a Madison-based member of the Intellectual Property team. Babel represents a broad range of clients in all aspects of patent law in the life sciences, pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields, including patent prosecution, strategic management of patent portfolios, freedom-to-operate opinions, and due diligence and landscape analysis. She is familiar with preparing and prosecuting both United States and foreign patent applications.  Babel received her B.S. from Northwestern University, a Ph.D. in cancer biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a J.D. from Chicago Kent College of Law.

Adam Falkof, a member of the Real Estate team in Chicago. His focus is on commercial real estate matters, particularly commercial leasing, acquisitions and dispositions, and zoning and entitlements transactions. He has represented landlords and tenants in connection with different asset classes across the country, including general office, medical office, warehouse and industrial leases. Falkof also has substantial experience with Chicago’s startup community, having represented a number of Chicago’s leading early-stage startups. He received a B.A. from George Washington University and a J.D. from the University of Iowa.

David Groose, a Public Finance attorney in the Milwaukee office. He serves as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter's counsel and special tax counsel representing a full range of governmental issuers and financial institutions. He has an emphasis on Wisconsin school districts, providing counsel on their statutory and campaign finance compliance in connection with political referenda and bond counsel on their long-term capital and short-term cash flow financings. Groose has worked on more than 500 bond and note issues totaling over $8 billion. He received his B.B.A. and J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jacqueline Johnson, an Estate, Trust & Wealth Preservation attorney based in Naples, Fla. Johnson focuses on estate planning, tax planning, and estate and trust administration for high-net-worth individuals and families. Her experience includes the consultation and implementation of wealth preservation and tax efficient estate planning techniques and advising and guiding clients and professional fiduciaries through the probate process and the administration of trusts. Johnson holds a B.S. from the University of Iowa, J.D. from American University and LL.M. from New York University.

Nicholas Meza, a Phoenix-based member of the Health Law group. He provides regulatory and transactional counsel to healthcare businesses, specializing in advising entities in the drug and device distribution chain, including pharmacies, hubs, distributors, and manufacturers. Meza also advises hospitals, physician groups, integrated behavioral health practices and technology companies in the healthcare space. Meza earned a B.S. and a master’s in public health from the University of Arizona, and a J.D. from Arizona State University. Before attending law school, he worked at a local community health center supporting multiple cancer prevention programs.

Michael Piery, an Intellectual Property attorney in the Milwaukee office. With a focus on patent litigation, Piery has litigated cases in federal district courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. His litigation experience includes conducting pre-suit due diligence investigations; developing case strategies and managing discovery; taking and defending depositions; drafting pleadings, motions, and pre-trial briefings; arguing evidentiary motions, claim construction, and dispositive motions; and drafting appeal briefs. He received his B.S. from the University of Notre Dame and his J.D. from The George Washington University.

Patrick Taylor, an attorney in the Business Law group in Milwaukee. He focuses his practice on representing private equity, middle market and publicly held companies in acquisitions and divestitures, drafting complex commercial agreements and counseling privately held businesses. His experience includes assisting clients with both acquisitions and divestitures of companies and divisions, drafting and negotiating supply agreements in various industries and advising clients on a variety of entity formation and governance matters. Taylor holds a B.S. from Brigham Young University and an MBA and J.D. from the College of William and Mary.

Rachel Taylor, a Milwaukee-based Business Law attorney. Taylor advises clients on a broad range of transactional matters, offering practical and business savvy legal advice to ensure that each transaction is completed in a successful and efficient manner. Her experience includes representing both buyers and sellers, strategic and financial, in stock and asset acquisitions, mergers and divestiture transactions; advising businesses in general corporate and commercial matters, including business planning and governance; and reviewing, drafting and negotiating complex commercial arrangements. She earned a B.B.A. from Emory University and J.D. from Marquette University.

Nneka Umeh, a Labor & Employment attorney in the Chicago office. She practices immigration law, leveraging her in-house experience to provide practical and business savvy advice to clients. She has analyzed global immigration processes to draft in-house policies and processes that incorporate the changing immigration landscape; consulted with C-suite executives on complex, emergency matters to provide timely internal solutions; and guided the vendor selection process in-house while managing and monitoring vendor service levels with a collaborative approach. Umeh received a B.S. from Yale University and J.D. from the University of Texas.

Elizabeth Wamboldt, a member of the Intellectual Property team in Milwaukee. Wamboldt focuses her practice on IT transactions, commercial contracting, e-commerce, IP counseling and data privacy. As an experienced transactional attorney in both the commercial and technology space, she assists clients with software licensing, cloud and SaaS agreements, the Internet of Things, services agreements, website terms and policies, mobile applications, supply chain agreements and a range of other contracts. She also provides counseling on data privacy matters. Wamboldt holds a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.