Brandon C. Helms, a litigator and patent attorney who has split his 15-year career equally between private practice and federal service as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan, has joined AddyHart P.C. as a partner in its Chicago office.
“We are thrilled to welcome Brandon to AddyHart,” said firm co-founder and nationally recognized patent litigator Meredith Martin Addy. “I worked alongside Brandon for many years before he joined the US Attorney’s Office; we litigated cases in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. He also has varied experience across a broad range of civil proceedings, which allows AddyHart to present even better counsel to our many commercial clients.”
At the US Attorney’s Office in Detroit, Helms’ work included investigating and prosecuting complex criminal cases in health care fraud, immigration fraud, and white-collar crime such as bank fraud involving US Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and grants. He investigated, negotiated, and litigated cases under the False Claims Act and defended federal agencies and employees in civil suits alleging excessive force, medical malpractice, and employment discrimination. During his tenure, Helms first-chaired three multiple-week jury trials, drafted appellate briefs, and argued at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Prior to that, Helms spent three years a senior associate at AmLaw 100 firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Chicago, where he first-chaired and second-chaired multiple jury and bench trials in federal court, and litigated Hatch-Waxman (ANDA) cases on behalf of generic drug companies and patent infringement actions involving semiconductor technology.
Helms began his legal career at intellectual property law firm Brinks Gilson & Lione (now Crowell & Moring) as a summer associate and spent four years as an associate. He represented companies in patent infringement cases, particularly generic drug companies in Hatch-Waxman lawsuits, and prepared, filed, and prosecuted utility and design patent applications.
Throughout his career, Helms has prioritized pro bono service. At Steptoe, he initiated the firm’s involvement with the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic, and he represented pro bono clients in Title VII discrimination lawsuits and cases involving constitutional violations. He earned his J.D. at DePaul University College of Law, where he was an associate editor of the DePaul Law Review, and a B.A. in Chemistry from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Founded by experienced AmLaw100 intellectual property litigators and corporate attorneys, AddyHart in 2022 will begin its fourth year of operations; the firm specializes in complex litigation from discovery and claim construction to settlement or trial and appeal, and has grown to nine attorneys in its offices in Atlanta, Chicago, and Irvine, Calif. AddyHart’s patent litigation and appellate practice includes work in US district courts across the country, at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and inter partes reviews at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the USPTO. The firm’s full-service corporate practice assists entrepreneurial companies throughout all phases of their growth and development.
AddyHart’s Chicago office now boasts five attorneys, including firm co-founder Robert P. Hart, Helms, partner Ben Cappel, and patent attorney and partner Greg Gulliver.