Microsoft’s chief patent counsel joins Shook Hardy

Microsoft’s former chief patent counsel Bart Eppenauer has joined Shook Hardy & Bacon and will open the firm’s new Seattle office.

Eppenauer, who spent a decade at Microsoft and was based at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, joins Shook Hardy as a partner. Before joining Microsoft, he spent three years as an associate in Shook Hardy’s intellectual property department.

The office will open on December 1 2013, and Eppenauer will serve as its managing partner. He will initially be the only lawyer at Shook Hardy’s Seattle office, but the firm expects to expand the practice there.