In brief: Law firm Lee & Hayes opens D.C. office
Spokane law firm Lee & Hayes has opened an office in Washington, D.C., and named former U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt as head of its government relations practice.
The D.C. office is the firm’s second new location this year, following the opening of an office in Rochester, N.Y.
Lee & Hayes, best known for its strong focus on intellectual property law, also has offices in Austin, Seattle and Portland, with a total of 71 attorneys on staff.
“The primary objective of our new office is to promote our clients’ intellectual property interests in the political, legislative and regulatory processes in Washington, D.C.,” said company co-founder Lewis Lee.
Nethercutt, who served in Congress for 10 years, has been with the law firm for the past several years, working at the Spokane office.
Also based in the D.C. office are Poh Chua, who heads the office’s international and business practice, and Colin Barnitz, an experienced IP attorney who previously worked at the firm’s Austin office.
Lee & Hayes also provides services in corporate and securities law and litigation.
The firm has been recognized as the national leader in patent quality for four consecutive years by Intellectual Asset Management magazine. IAM also recently ranked Lee as one of the world’s leading IP strategists in its Strategy 300 issue.
Facebook will be added to Standard & Poor’s 500
NEW YORK – Facebook will join the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, replacing technology supplier Teradyne Inc., while Abercrombie & Fitch is downgraded from the benchmark index.
S&P Dow Jones Indices on Wednesday announced a broader reshuffling of several of its market trackers, effective after the close of trading Dec. 20.
Paper clips
• Fortis Inc., a Canadian utility company, said Wednesday that it plans to buy power provider UNS Energy Corp. for $2.5 billion, expanding its business into Arizona. Fortis will pay $60.25 per share for UNS Energy. That’s 31 percent above UNS Energy’s closing price of $45.84. Fortis will also assume $1.8 billion in debt. The companies said Wednesday that they value the deal at $4.3 billion.
• Air Canada plans to spend up to $6.5 billion to buy 61 narrow-body aircraft from Boeing as it moves to update its fleet over the next decade. Canada’s largest carrier said Wednesday it could expand the order to as many as 109 of Chicago-based Boeing’s 737 MAX planes as it replaces older Airbus and some Embraer aircraft.
• IKEA is recalling millions of children’s lamps following the death of a child who choked on the lamp’s cord. Another child was injured. The “SMILA” series wall-mounted children’s lamps were sold at IKEA from 1999 through May 2013 for $10 to $13. The recalled lamps are about 11 inches high and 11 inches wide and were sold in eight designs: A blue star, yellow moon, pink flower, white flower, red heart, green bug, blue seashell and orange seahorse. There were 2.9 million of the recalled lamps sold in the U.S., the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday. For more information, IKEA can be called at (888) 966-4532 or online at www.ikea-usa.com. Click on the “Recall” link at the top of the page.