Katten's IP Practice Leader Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

(NEW YORK) Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP announced today that partner Karen Artz Ash received the Global Lifetime Achievement Award from Managing Intellectual Property magazine.

As national co-chair of Katten's Intellectual Property department and co-head of the Trademarks and Trademark Litigation practice, Ash was presented with the award this week at the Managing Intellectual Property's Americas Awards ceremony held at the Essex House in New York.

"Karen has long been greatly admired and respected by leaders in the fashion industry and elsewhere, having carved out a niche as a thought leader, shaping fashion law," said Katten Chairman Roger P. Furey. "Because of her extraordinary skills and experience in all aspects of intellectual property, she is known as the best in the business, and rightly so. We are all very proud of her."

A fixture in the multibillion-dollar fashion industry for more than 30 years and a regular attendee of some of the shows during New York Fashion Week, Ash has an enviable book of clients, representing luxury brand designers, apparel manufacturers, retailers and other clothing businesses in addition to her clients in the publishing, banking, financial services and consumer electronics industries. Ash has successfully and creatively guided matters involving intellectual property law, ranging from strategic trademark licensing to international distribution agreements.

Ash has fiercely protected valuable intellectual property assets and handled the fine-print details when it comes to establishing holding companies and trusts, advising on complex corporate transactions such as the acquisition and disposition of major designer properties and businesses, and counseling clients in securitizations, financings and joint ventures. She assisted top designers in pioneering brand diversification, helping them branch out beyond clothing lines to other products and distribution.

"I'm extremely honored to receive this award. Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity and pleasure of working with a dedicated and talented team of attorneys and creative minds behind some of the most innovative companies and iconic fashion labels known throughout the world," Ash said. "I've been very fortunate to combine my love of fashion with my passion for the law."

Among her many achievements was the groundbreaking work on a fashion brand worldwide sale, in the mid-1990s, which resulted in shared ownership of the trademarks and insulated assets from any potential bankruptcy in the future. Once unheard of, similar types of structures are commonplace today across industries.

Ash writes a monthly column for Managing Intellectual Property, has been a contributing author for three books and pens a quarterly newsletter, The Katten Kattwalk, for her clients. Ash also has been a panelist and sponsor for legal and fashion industry events as well as an adjunct professor at New York Law School, where she teaches a course on fashion law and has been honored as a distinguished alum.

Ash is Katten's pro bono committee chair for the New York office as well as the chair of the board of directors for the Volunteers of Legal Service, an organization that provides pro bono legal assistance to low-income residents in New York. Additionally, she serves on the panel of mediators for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.