McGuireWoods partner Lucy Jewett Wheatley has been shortlisted for Trademark Lawyer of the Year in the 2023 Women in Business Law Awards: Americas, presented by Euromoney’s Legal Media Group. The annual awards honor women lawyers and law firms for exemplary service and advancing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on June 8, 2023.
Wheatley is an intellectual property litigator and trial attorney who has won complex cases in jurisdictions across the country. In 2022, she won two federal jury trials in trademark infringement cases for firm clients Sprint Communications and Lexington Home Brands. A jury in Miami returned a verdict for Sprint and awarded $9.7 million in damages, while a jury in New York returned a verdict for Lexington and awarded over $2.5 million in damages.
Last year Wheatley also co-led teams representing Vans Inc. in two high-profile suits alleging trademark infringement of the company’s iconic sneaker designs. In one, a federal judge in New York issued a preliminary injunction to temporarily block a Brooklyn art collective from selling a shoe modeled on Van’s “Old Skool” sneaker, despite the defendant’s assertion that the shoes are parody protected by the First Amendment.
In a separate case, a California federal judge granted a preliminary injunction requiring Walmart to halt sales of private label shoes that mimicked Vans’ designs and remove millions of infringing shoes from store shelves. The ruling was one of the most significant preliminary injunction victories of the year for a brand owner.
“I am honored to defend clients’ trademarks and intellectual property and grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with outstanding lawyers at McGuireWoods,” Wheatley said.
McGuireWoods’ intellectual property team represents clients from virtually every sector of the global economy, providing comprehensive solutions to help individuals and companies develop and protect creative, technological and business innovations.
The firm earned a Tier 1 nationwide ranking for patent litigation in the 2023 edition of U.S. News-Best Lawyers’ “Best Law Firms.”