Five Attorneys Join Winston & Strawn in Silicon Valley

SILICON VALLEY – Winston & Strawn LLP is pleased to announce that Michael Rueckheim, Noori Torabi, and Matthew McCullough have joined the firm’s Silicon Valley office as a partner and associates, respectively. In addition, Winston attorneys John Albers and Keiyana Fordham have permanently relocated to Silicon Valley from Chicago and Newark.  

“I couldn’t be more excited about the interest in Winston’s platform and the speed with which we are assembling a heavy-hitting, diverse team to serve Silicon Valley and tech clients through collaboration with our practice groups and talent across the country,” said Kathi Vidal, managing partner of Winston’s Silicon Valley office. “It takes a special type of thinking to succeed in Silicon Valley, and we will continue to recruit high performing, passionate attorneys with the legal prowess, tech business know-how, and appreciation for diversity and inclusion that directly benefit our clients.”

Kathi, a leader in technology trial work and recognized champion for women and diversity, joined the firm in April. Her move affirmed Winston’s commitment to growing the firm’s presence in Silicon Valley and serving the technology sector, particularly in intellectual property, litigation, and corporate transactions.

With a high-level technology background, Mike, who has spent the past six years litigating cases, including alongside Kathi, focuses on patent litigation, post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial & Appeal Board, and related intellectual property and trade secret matters in a variety of sectors, including telecommunications and electronics, hardware and software, semiconductors, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and manufacturing. He started his career as an analytical chemist in oil and gas and environmental laboratories and worked as a process technician at Motorola, Inc. Mike received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Washington University School of Law, where he served on the Washington University Law Review. He earned a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Texas.

Matthew concentrates his practice on intellectual property litigation, with an emphasis on patent litigation and inter partes review. With a strong background in and in-depth understanding of computer engineering, he has experience representing clients in a wide variety of industries and technologies, including cloud-based software, video game systems, data compression and management, mobile devices, and consumer products. In addition to patent litigation, Matthew assists clients with trade secret litigation and intellectual property due diligence. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was a submissions manager for the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology. He received a B.S.E. in computer engineering, summa cum laude, from the University of Michigan. 

Noori focuses on a variety of intellectual property matters, including patent, copyright, and trademark litigation. In the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields, she has experience with prior art searching, document production and review, prosecuting history analysis, and other non-litigation patent analysis. She received her J.D., cum laude, from New York University School of Law, her Ph.D. from Princeton University, and her M.S. and B.S. from the University of Tehran.

An experienced corporate attorney, John spent six years in Winston’s Chicago office and focuses on international and domestic corporate transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investment management, and general corporate issues. He represents publicly traded, multi-national organizations on international and domestic joint ventures and investment activities, and he counsels private equity fund sponsors and their portfolio companies in transactional, restructuring and other corporate activities, as well as formation and operation of their investment funds and related management entities. John received his J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law, where he was a member of the North Carolina Banking Institute Journal and Holderness Moot Court team. He received a B.S. in accounting and finance, cum laude, from the University of Dayton.

Keiyana focuses on intellectual property and complex commercial litigation matters, including representing pharmaceutical companies in patent disputes under the Hatch-Waxman Act and defending companies and individuals against product liability, breach of contract, consumer class action, and employment claims. She has also handled matters involving insurance, employment, ERISA, and healthcare litigation. Keiyana received her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and a B.A. in politics from Princeton University.