ATLANTA, April 13 - Duane Morris LLP, one of the nation's 100 largest law firms, has named John Herman, a partner in the firm's Atlanta office, vice chair of the Duane Morris Intellectual Property Practice Group.

The appointment was jointly announced today by Sheldon Bonovitz, firm Chairman, and Lewis Gould, head of the IP Practice Group.

"John has shown extraordinary leadership abilities as chair of the E-Discovery Task Force and as an IP Litigation partner in the Atlanta office. I am confident he will thrive with this additional responsibility in helping to manage our firm's fastest-growing practice group," Sheldon said. "We look forward to John's leadership position in the group as he assumes this new and important role."

"John is an excellent and accomplished IP litigator with impressive work for many companies, including Lanier Worldwide, McLane Company, and the Atlanta Olympics," said Lewis. "I know he is going to succeed as a leader of our team."

John's experience includes handling traditional patent, trademark and copyright matters, as well as entertainment, media, biotechnology, franchising, distribution, trade secret matters and licensing projects. He also assists clients in disputes regarding rights of privacy, antitrust and Internet and e-commerce issues.

John is recognized by his peers as being among the leading intellectual property litigators in Georgia. He is regularly named as a Georgia Super Lawyer by Atlanta Magazine, and in 2007 he was named to the "Top 100" Georgia Super Lawyers list. John also has been named one of "Georgia's Most Effective Lawyers" by Legal Trend.

A member of the Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries and the Section of Science and Technology Law of the American Bar Association, he is also active in the Intellectual Property Law and Entertainment and Sports Law sections of the State Bar of Georgia and a member of the International Trademark Association.

A frequent author on intellectual property and technology issues, John is a 1992 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School and a 1988 summa cum laude graduate of Marquette University (B.S., Biochemistry). Prior to practicing law, John worked in a genetics laboratory handling a NASA-sponsored project.

Duane Morris' Intellectual Property Practice Group attorneys represent clients ranging from large multinational corporations to individual inventors, authors and owners of creative works. The IP team includes highly trained attorneys with multiple technical degrees and jury trial experience as well as former patent examiners and patent agents, former corporate patent counsel and professors of IP law. The group handles matters such as trade secrets and licensing projects, among others, for such industries as entertainment, media, biotechnology, franchising, and distribution.