Six Haynes Boone partners were recognized as the “Nation’s Best” by Lawyers of Color in their inaugural Law Firm Leaders issue:
Tom Chen, Ricardo Garcia-Moreno, Brian Kwok, Monika Sanford, Albert Tan, and Frank Wu.
Lawyers of Color created the Law Firm Leaders issue to provide in-house counsel with minority attorneys who are leaders in their practices and within their law firms. The directories include lawyers who are managing partners, executive committee members or practice group heads.
Below are additional details about the Haynes Boone honorees:
Tom Chen
Under Tom’s lead, the firm handles patent matters for start-ups to Fortune 100 companies. Tom plays a major role in expanding his client’s patent portfolio and maximizing its value to his clients. He regularly provides his opinion and analysis on patent related matters for his clients and manages client teams, large and small, with continual communication with in-house counsel. Tom’s experience extends to patent litigation as well, including matters before the International Trade Commission and district courts. He has been involved in all phases of litigation. Aside from being a skilled and insightful IP attorney and member of the firm’s Executive committee and Partners’ Compensation committee, he is co-chair of Haynes Boone’s Attorney Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, which focuses on advancing the hiring, retention and promotion of diverse lawyers.
Ricardo Garcia-Moreno
Ricardo brings over 28 years of experience to clients in connection with a range of domestic and international transactions. Ricardo focuses on cross-border transactions, mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, and securities matters. He regularly represents clients engaged in the energy (including oil and gas, midstream, downstream, oilfield services and renewables), food and beverage, manufacturing, services, infrastructure, real estate, healthcare, financial and technology industries. Royal Dutch Shell plc recently sought Ricardo’s representation in connection with the sale of their entire downstream business in Argentina. In 2020, Ricardo represented Stratos Management Systems Holdings, LLC in a de-spac transaction with American Virtual Cloud Technologies, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed special purpose acquisition company. Ricardo’s a committed civic servant to the Houston community through his pro bono legal work and service to Texas charter schools.
Brian Kwok
Brian Kwok helps clients build, manage, and successfully monetize patent portfolios. Brian evaluates patent portfolios and negotiates deals ranging from a few hundred thousand to many billions of dollars. Brian also counsels clients through pre-litigation conflicts to resolve assertions and licensing disputes before patent litigation ensues. An experienced engineer, he provides clients with insightful and pragmatic advice, based on his ability to understand deeply the technical merit of a case and to explain its intersection with legal strategy. Brian is well versed in all aspects of litigation, including deposing expert and fact witnesses, case-dispositive motions practice, and Markman proceedings. Brian’s practice also includes representing clients in inter partes review and post-grant review proceedings before the U.S. Patent Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board as part of a comprehensive litigation strategy.
Monika Sanford
Monika’s practice is focused on the representation of financial institutions and borrowers in commercial loan transactions. Monika has experience in representing lenders with negotiating and documenting loans to real estate private equity funds in connection with subscription secured financings as well as negotiating and documenting other secured and unsecured transactions. Additionally, Monika has represented borrowers in intercreditor relationships and in subordinated financing transactions and has represented issuers in connection with offerings of senior secured notes. Monika was featured in D Magazine’s “Best Lawyers Under 40” directory, D Magazine Partners, 2021-2022. She also has been recognized by Texas Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Thomson Reuters, from 2013 to 2022. Monika is co-chair of the Finance Section of the firm.
Albert Tan
Albert Tan serves as a member of HB’s (i) 5-person Appointments Committee, which appoints and oversees all of the firm’s strategic leadership and management roles, (ii) Board of Directors, (iii) Partners’ Compensation Committee and (iv) Strategic Growth Committee. He formerly served as a co-chair of HB attorney development and diversity committee.
During his career at HB, Albert has represented investment and commercial banks, as agents and arrangers in more than 600 subscription financings with total value of over $130 billion to Asia, US, Europe, Latin America and global real estate, infrastructure, debt, buyout and energy private equity funds, including structuring and documenting some of the first subscription financings to real estate private equity funds in Japan, Greater China, Singapore and Korea and to some of the largest global infrastructure funds and Asia-focused buyout funds.
Frank Wu
Frank Wu represents both U.S. and international companies on domestic and cross-border transactions. From the energy industry to the biotechnology sector, Frank has taken startup companies to successful IPOs and worked with business leaders on strategic alliances, mergers, and acquisitions. Frank brings years of experience to his clients’ transactions as one of the earliest practitioners of corporate cross-border M&A transactions between U.S. and Asian companies. Frank works with an array of public and private companies with a range of interests: energy in the oil service sector, biotechnology in licensing and acquisitions, pipeline acquisitions and buildouts, technology growth and IPOs, and international chemical distribution.
Haynes Boone is an international corporate law firm with 18 offices spanning Texas, New York, California, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, providing a full spectrum of legal services in energy, technology, financial services and private equity. With 600 lawyers, Haynes Boone is ranked among the largest U.S.-based firms by The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer and The Lawyer. It was recognized in the BTI Consulting Group’s 2022 “A-Team” report, which identifies the law firms that in-house counsel commend for providing superior client service.
