Wiley Rein's Blackberry Associate Gets Promoted

Wiley Rein promoted six lawyers to the firm’s partnership yesterday – first stop, non-equity status – including the associate, Kevin Anderson, who helped win the BlackBerry case, which was the largest contingency haul in the firm’s history. The lawyers joining Richard Wiley’s crew are Anderson, Caleb Burns, Kimberly Melvin, D. Mark Renaud, Kara Sacilotto and Amy Worlton.

Anderson joined the firm in 2001 and on his first day started working on the patent lawsuit brought by firm client NTP Inc. against RIM, the maker of the BlackBerry. During trial, Anderson noticed that the equipment used for RIM’s demonstration was mid-1990s technology and not from 1987, as RIM claimed. That catch helped the jury reach a verdict in roughly four hours – and helped Wiley Rein score a $612.5 million payday for its client.