Shook, Hardy & Bacon has lured away a midsize law firm’s top attorney to join its intellectual property practice group at its Atlanta office.
Kansas City-based Shook, an Am Law 200 firm, hired Chris Leonard, who’d spent the past five years as Minneapolis-based Merchant & Gould’s CEO and managing director. He started at Shook Feb. 27 under the role of senior counsel. Leonard, who’s been a licensed attorney since 1994 and a patent lawyer since 1997, spent 22½ years of his career at Merchant & Gould. For six years, beginning in 2000, he worked at the firm’s Atlanta office, and, prior to becoming CEO, spent seven years on its executive committee.
