Kenyon & Kenyon Elects Stephen Colbert’s Brother as Managing Partner

Kenyon & Kenyon said on Tuesday that it had elected Edward Colbert as its manager partner — the brother of the new Late Show host Stephen Colbert.

A press release from the intellectual property-focused law firm doesn’t mention the relation between Edward and his brother, but noted that Edward Colbert had been with the law firm for more than 25 years practicing IP litigation, licensing and other matters.

Colbert, 68, succeeds Michael Loughnane, who served in the managing partner role for five years. Colbert was previously managing partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He will serve a three-year term in his new role and lead the firm’s operations in New York, Washington and Palo Alto.

He comes into leadership at a time when Kenyon & Kenyon has experienced turnover following the passage of the 2011 America Invents Act, which created a new forum for parties to challenge patents out-of-court — a popular method, but one that requires fewer lawyers and fewer billable hours, as Above the Law has previously noted .

The firm ranked No. 9 in The American Lawyer’s list of law firms with the largest number of departures in the first six months of 2015, one of which included Marcia Sundeen, the head of its International Trade Commission practice, who joined Goodwin Procter in March.

“We are going through a short-term dislocation,” said Colbert, in an interview, who acknowledged the changing intellectual property litigation landscape. But he remained confident the turbulence was temporary, and said it was not unlike downturns that have happened in other practices over the years.

Colbert was bullish on areas such as unfair competition, trade secrets and patent prosecution, where he said the firm remains busy. He also noted that in out-of-court proceeding created by the AIA if a patent is found to be valid, the case gets kicked back to court.

Asked if the firm would ever merge, Colbert said, “Never say never.”

But he was largely dismissive of any large scale merger strategy taken on by firms such as DLA Piper and Dentons: “Those aren’t really firms — they are conglomerates made up of eight to ten different sub groups... We are a single partnership; a single firm.”

Colbert said it is more likely that Kenyon & Kenyon will look to expand via lateral acquisition into other practices and industries, like the emerging tech space in New York.