Leading Commercial Litigators Join King & Spalding in Austin


AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwire - October 5, 2009) - King & Spalding, a leading international law firm, announced today that two experienced complex commercial litigators, Geoffrey R. Unger and Juan M. Alcalá, have joined the firm's business litigation practice as partners in the Austin office. Both lawyers will draw on their expertise to advise clients on a variety of disputes related to business transactions, organizational structures, financial liabilities and involved lending transactions.

"In this turbulent economic environment, companies are increasingly confronted by contentious issues with potentially serious consequences to their business," said Robert E. Meadows, managing partner of King & Spalding's Houston and Austin offices. "We're thrilled to welcome seasoned litigators like Geoff and Juan to deepen our commercial litigation practice."

Unger and Alcalá join from DLA Piper.

Geoffrey R. Unger's practice is primarily focused on complex commercial litigation, with experience representing clients in large business fraud cases, consumer class actions, securities litigation, real estate development, and antitrust cases. He has also defended and prosecuted more than two dozen cases involving misappropriation of trade secrets and noncompetition clauses in employment agreements.

Unger has successfully defended companies against claims controlled by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and represented companies and their officers and directors in shareholder litigation and derivative suits throughout the country. His securities litigation experience also includes "backdating" option scheme cases in Texas and nationally. With trial experience in federal and state courts in Abilene, Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, Unger has represented insurance companies, other public companies, individuals and venture capital-backed startups.

He received a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Trinity University.

Juan M. Alcalá is a litigator and trial lawyer who handles a wide range of complex business disputes for local, national and international clients in state and federal courts, at both the trial and appellate levels, in the areas of business torts, partnership conflicts, copyright and trademark disputes, misappropriation of trade secret cases, deceptive trade practices controversies and fiduciary litigation. He also has extensive product liability experience involving medical devices and automotive products.

Fluent in Spanish, Alcalá also concentrates his practice on Latin American matters, representing Latin American clients with business needs in the United States and Europe and assisting American and European clients with business needs in Latin America.

He earned a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, and a B.A. from Yale University.

King & Spalding's business litigation practice is recognized nationally and internationally as one of the best. The firm's litigators are noted for their trial skills, and they have handled hundreds of high-stakes class actions in federal and state courts across the United States. Seventeen King & Spalding partners, including five retirees, are fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers. The firm has been named twice as one of the top defense firms in the nation in The National Law Journal's Defense Hot List and chosen three consecutive times as one of the top U.S. litigation firms in The American Lawyer's biennial Litigation Department of the Year survey.

About King & Spalding

King & Spalding is an international law firm with more than 880 lawyers in Abu Dhabi, Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dubai, Frankfurt, Houston, London, New York, Paris, Riyadh (affiliated office), San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. The firm represents half of the Fortune 100 and in Corporate Counsel surveys consistently has been among the top firms representing Fortune 250 companies. For additional information, visit www.kslaw.com.

Contact Information: Contact: Kimberly Brooks King & Spalding (212) 827-4378 kbrooks@kslaw.com