RAK was founded in 1987 by its current managing partner, Larry C. Russ. In 1990, Richard August and Jules Kabat joined Mr. Russ as founding partners. In those early years, the firm focused on antitrust, intellectual property, real property and complex business litigation.
In 2003, Marc Fenster joined the firm with the mission of building a world class patent infringement practice. He was joined by Reza Mirzaie in 2015 as a co-department head. Mr. Fenster and Mr. Mirzaie have since built a formidable patent litigation department, employing 35+ patent and IP litigators. Mr. Fenster and Mr. Mirzaie are acknowledged to be among the best trial lawyers in the country, having prevailed in multiple jury trials against the largest tech companies.
Founding Partners Richard August, Jules Kabat and Matthew Rips focused on building a sophisticated real estate practice representing some of the leading real estate developers and property owners in both transactional and litigation contexts. After Mr. August passed, Mr. Rips has continued to chair this jewel of a department.
Growing the RAK family
In 2018, Christine Shin moved from Latham & Watkins to RAK as the department head of our Mergers & Acquisitions Department. RAK founding partner Larry Russ recognized the need to seek out M&A legal talent based upon requiring representation in connection with his own entrepreneurial transactions outside of the law practice. In short order Ms. Shin built a significant size team and practice, representing clients in an extraordinary array of transactions varying in size from $5,000,000 to close to a billion dollars. Ms. Shin, Larry Russ and the M&A team assist clients in numerous ways from guiding purchase and sales transactions to helping clients grow their companies.
Irene Lee, joined RAK as one of its first intellectual property litigators in 2005. Since that time, Mrs. Lee has created a dynamic trademark and copyright practice representing businesses and entertainers in both transactional and litigation matters. Renowned entertainment lawyer Stanton Larry Stein brought his entertainment team to RAK in 2018. That team now works hand in hand with Mrs. Lee to represent a number of well known musicians and holders of valuable intellectual property.
In Memoriam: Rick August
For over 30 years we succeeded in not having a need for this page to be part of our website. But even we cannot avoid the passage of time, and the occurrence of personal loss. We honor the memory.
A co-founder of our firm, Rick passed away in January 2019. Rick was a dear friend, loyal partner, gifted mentor, peerless lawyer and trusted advisor. He enabled projects, and protected clients, from coast to coast. Together, we created our firm, pursued our success and raised our families. With great appreciation for the time we had, we honor his memory.