Avalon Intellectual Property Lawyers

Cyndie M. Chang is the Managing Partner of the firm's Los Angeles office and a member of the firm's governing Partners Board. Ms. Chang manages risks and resolves business challenges. She advises and partners with clients to defend them in commercial disputes, enforce their rights, mitigate exposure, and litigate their commercial disputes. She has often handled corporate litigation involving mergers & acquisitions, asset or stock sales, fraud, securities, purchase and sale agreements, business or partner break-ups. She also has handle many other complex or class action disputes involving contracts, trademarks, licensing, products liability, product safety and recall, construction defect, trade...

Neil Juneja is an intellectual property and cannabis lawyer. He is the founder and managing partner of Gleam Law, a cannabis law firm headquartered in Seattle, WA. His impeccable track record and years of cannabis business law experience – including navigating the complexities of patents, trademarks, and copyrights – helps Gleam Law stand out from the competition. Neil founded Gleam Law because he realized other cannabis law firms provided legal advice to businesses in a vacuum. He wanted to provide legal decisions in the context of the business world and counsel long-term success. Other cannabis business attorneys are not just risk-adverse...

Ethan D. Kirschner is an experienced litigator with clients in California, throughout the United States, and overseas. Originally from Wisconsin, Mr. Kirschner was a champion high school and college debater. He has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School, and received an LL.M. in intellectual property law from the University of California, Berkeley.


Mr. Kirschner has been practicing law since 2005. He is licensed to practice law in California.

Accomplished entertainment attorney with over 35 years of experience representing clients in the music, film, television, and performing arts industries.

Edwin V. Woodsome, a Phillips ADR neutral, was managing partner of Dechert LLP’s Los Angeles office and head of Global Litigation at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. With over 35 years of trial experience, he has handled consumer fraud, False Claims Act, securities, product liability, trade secrets, employment, antitrust, and intellectual property cases in state and federal courts. He has extensive appellate, mediation, and arbitration experience, including the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California’s mediation panel. Woodsome represented major firms in transportation, banking, technology, aerospace, and entertainment, serving as U.S. national litigation counsel for a global logistics company and...

Saul Acherman is an attorney licensed in California. He focuses on intellectual property matters, including patent and trademark prosecution and litigation. Saul is a registered patent attorney licensed to practice in patent matters before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (registration number 72,898). He is also involved with other business and civil litigation matters including business formation, contracts, and employment matters, and is admitted to practice in all courts of the State of California as well as the United States District Court for the Central District of California. After receiving a BA in Philosophy from the...

Michael Oberbeck is a senior counsel focusing on business litigation issues. At BKCG, Mr. Oberbeck has extensively litigated employment disputes, commercial and real property disputes, international manufacturing and distribution litigation, and trademark and franchise issues. Mr. Oberbeck has litigated cases throughout California in both state and federal courts, and he has obtained many client-favorable results at trial, arbitration, and mediation. Mr. Oberbeck also has authored and successfully argued several matters before the California Courts of Appeals for BKCG clients. Born in Evansville, Indiana, Mr. Oberbeck graduated, cum laude, from Purdue University in 1993 with a double major in Psychology...

Kashfian & Kashfian LLP is a multi-specialty full service law firm providing tailored litigation services and counseling to: individuals, public sector & governmental entities, non-profit organizations and small to large corporations in Appellate Matters, Intellectual Property (Patent, Trademark & Copyright), Business & Corporate, Real Estate and Entertainment & Media.

I am a solo practitioner primarily serving businesses with 1 - 10 million in annual sales and 5 - 20 employees. My lead services are business transactions/contracts, patents (chemical, biotech and mechanical,) trademark registrations and litigation. The industries that I serve include aerospace components, medical devices and consumer products retailing for less than $150.00. To make an appointment, call 310-670-5825 (LA County) and 760-347-3470 (Riverside County.)

I am a solo practitioner primarily serving businesses with 1 - 10 million in annual sales and 5 - 20 employees. My lead services are business transactions/contracts, patents (chemical, biotech and mechanical,) trademark registrations and litigation. The industries that I serve include aerospace components, medical devices and consumer products retailing for less than $150.00. To make an appointment, call 310-670-5825 (LA County) and 760-347-3470 (Riverside County.)

I am a 25 year veteran attorney specializing in representing music, film and television entertainment industry clients in a variety of intellectual property and complex business related disputes and transactions.

David N. Sharifi is an entertainment technology attorney based in Los Angeles and a recognized expert in new media law, competitive barrier strategy, intellectual property exploitation, social media law, trademark protection online and related legal and business affairs. David is also an entrepreneur and frequently attends and speaks at top technology conferences in Los Angeles and nationwide. David applies a blend of intellectual property law, market analysis, and contract negotiation to advise clients in deal making, development, and marketing, with a focus on web, mobile and social platforms. In 2014 David was recognized as top 30 most influential attorneys...

As a registered patent attorney, I advise entities and individuals on all patent and intellectual property matters, specializing in patent, intellectual property and complex business disputes, as well as class action litigation. In addition, I have significant experience negotiating contracts and closing transactions, with an emphasis on intellectual property and patent rights.

We are dedicated to providing quality legal services at reasonable rates. Our attorneys are experienced, business-oriented and responsive to client needs. We have experience in licensing and other technology transactions, intellectual property counseling, product distribution and marketing, contracts, corporate organization and governance, mergers and acquisitions, financings, employment, real estate, entertainment law and general business and corporate matters.

Dr. Harrison is an experienced patent attorney and founding partner of Barcelo, Harrison & Walker, LLP (BHW). His practice as a patent attorney includes patent infringement litigation, post-grant procedings, e.g., inter-partes review, before the US Patent & Trademark Office, and patent preparation and patent prosecution. Before co-founding BHW, Dr. Harrison served as an in-house counsel for Western Digital Corp., and as a litigation associate at Irell & Manella, LLP. Dr. Harrison also has many years of prior professional engineering experience in industry and academia. He was formerly employed as an R&D Manager at Seagate Technology, served on the...

I began my career as a legal administrator for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee. That experience required me to evaluate cases and claims from the perspective of a court neutral and examine the strengths and weaknesses of the respective positions of the multiple parties to a bankruptcy proceeding. It also required me to develop an in-depth knowledge of how cases proceed when they are governed almost exclusively by a complex statutory scheme. These experiences, learned early on in my career provided me with the type of analytical skills that would prove highly beneficial as my career progressed. After bankruptcy, I joined...

Jaymie Sabilia-Heffert is an attorney at Sanders Law Group and is a member of the firm’s Copyright Infringement team. She is an experienced civil litigation attorney, with diverse knowledge and experience in a wide range of legal fields, including complex construction litigation, business disputes, and administrative appeals. She has experience litigating matters in both state and federal courts. Jaymie earned her J.D. from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in New York and is admitted in New York State, the Northern District of New York, and the Southern District of New York.

Manoah S. Marton graduated summa cum laude from Concordia University Irvine with a major in History & Political Thought and a national championship in NPDA parliamentary debate. During college, Manoah worked at Klein & Wilson as a law clerk. He then attended UCLA School of Law, where he served as a Managing Editor of the UCLA Law Review. During law school, Manoah also served as a judicial extern for Judge Charles R. Eskridge III in the Southern District of Texas. After graduating from UCLA, Manoah worked at one of the biggest law firms in the nation in the litigation department where...

Elliot Brown, a Phillips ADR neutral, is the former managing partner of Irell & Manella LLP. He spent nearly 30 years in IP litigation, counseling, and licensing at a top IP practice. Elliot graduated cum laude from Harvard College (1985), earning Phi Beta Kappa and a John Harvard Scholar award. He studied philosophy of science at Princeton, receiving an MA (1987) and a Mellon Fellowship, where game theory and Daniel Kahneman’s work on bargaining and cognitive bias shaped his approach to dispute resolution. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School (1990), serving as a Harvard Law Review...

Michael G. Rhodes, a leading trial lawyer, served as Global Chair of Cooley LLP’s Litigation Department and cyber/data/privacy practice, and was on its Management Committee. He represented clients like Google, Meta, Open AI, the Kardashian-Jenner family, Justin and Hailey Bieber, Zoom, Coinbase, and the Golden State Warriors. For Meta, he won three IP jury trials and settled another during trial. He also secured a victory in a high-profile defamation trial for the Kardashian-Jenner family against Angela White (Blac Chyna). Retiring from Cooley in 2024 after 40 years, Rhodes earned accolades including American Lawyer "Litigator of the Year," Chambers USA top lawyer...

Having previously practiced at an American Law 100 firm as well as in-house counsel for a multi-national corporation, Mr. Hakala brings both legal expertise and business sense to the business transactions that clients seek to accomplish and the complex legal problems that they seek to litigate and resolve. Mr. Hakala has not only litigated various complex business and employment matters on behalf of Fortune 100 clients, he also provides general business, technology, and media law representation to various companies, including start-up businesses and those in the renewable energies sector.  Mr. Hakala is an experienced business litigator who has also...

Sheila Merchant Legal is a boutique law firm, serving California specializing in business law, real estate law, and contract law with a special interest in working with socially conscious and sustainable businesses. I’m a graduate of Columbia Law School and, prior to founding my private practice, I worked at two of the nation’s premier law firms —Akin Gump and Winston & Strawn —where I handled large scale, high-impact transactions, including billion-dollar utility-scale wind and solar energy projects. Our firm specializes in corporate formation and structuring, real estate law, contract drafting and negotiation, for sale by owner (FSBO) real estate transactions and...

I am a patent trial lawyer, with decades of experience in district courts and the International Trade Commission. After 30+ years at Morrison & Foerster, I am now with Maschoff Brennan, a mid-size IP firm. I bring large firm expertise and perspective, while working with efficient, small teams at very favorable rates.