When Alston & Bird’s intellectual property partners talk about strategy, they like to say it begins with relationships.
"Neil Williams [the late managing partner] used to call it a ‘shared enterprise,’ " says Frank G. Smith III, a partner in the firm’s IP litigation group. "It’s a relationship that we build up by working on a repeat basis with our clients. We have a common vision of what we want to accomplish. We understand the culture of the client and how they do business and we try our IP cases with that in mind."
