Bret Buckler

Marcus Lee is a business-oriented corporate attorney with extensive experience in advising companies on raising private and venture capital, licensing and protecting software, trademarks, patents, and other intellectual property, and structuring, negotiating, and documenting complex business contracts, acquisitions, and joint ventures. With over 20 years of experience advising his clients, Marcus is recognized by his clients as a business focused attorney who gets transactions completed in an...

Matthew Marcellino is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Family Law. Matthew, who practices law in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Matthew is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Hal Levinson is one of the firm’s senior corporate and transactional lawyers, having focused his career on complex mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. Hal is known for bringing experienced and practical business oriented legal advice to each transaction. Hal is counsel of choice for many business owners, including those owned by generations of family members, entrepreneurs, and strategic companies that have decided to sell their business. Hal’s extensive transactional exper...

Richard L. Farley serves as deputy counsel to the firm. Richard helps businesses and their owners across industries avoid and solve the problems, disputes and controversies that can impact their bottom lines. He counsels clients on managing risk in the structuring of contracts and transactions to avoid disputes. When disputes arise, he works closely with his clients to develop appropriate strategies for litigation or voluntary resolution in light of their business goals and potential risks. R...

Brad Johnson is a partner in the Finance Group of Alston & Bird. Brad is a senior partner in the firm’s trust, agency and asset servicing practice, one of the largest corporate trust focused practices in the country. Brad regularly represents financial institutions which provide corporate trust, custody, loan agency, reporting and administrative services in a wide variety of capital markets transactions, including transactions involving collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), projec...

After graduating from the University of North Carolina School of Law, Bryan began practicing in the employment law and employee benefits areas, working for large law firms that concentrated in those areas. In 2001, Bryan returned to school at the Georgetown University Law Center and studied to receive an LL.M. in Taxation with a concentration in Employee Benefits, a field that includes retirement plans, health insurance plans, short- and long-term disability, life insurance and other similar ...

Jeff Brown is a member within Moore & Van Allen's Commercial Real Estate group. He focuses his practice on the representation of investors and developers in an array of real estate-related transactions and ventures. Jeff represents and serves as counsel to his clients in a comprehensive range of real estate-related matters, from financing, acquisitions and dispositions, joint venture and real estate investment structuring, and development, including complex land use, entitlement and publi...

Mr. Ellsworth counsels clients to procure, protect, license and enforce intellectual property rights. Mr. Ellsworth works diligently to understand his client’s business and to leverage that understanding to achieve his client’s intellectual property goals in a turn-key and cost-efficient manner. Mr. Ellsworth manages extensive domestic and international patent portfolios for several publicly traded companies and provides strategic counseling to a variety of smaller business concer...

Ben Pleune is a partner in Alston & Bird’s Intellectual Property Litigation Group, with extensive experience litigating patents in U.S. district courts, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and before the International Trade Commission. Ben has also been involved with numerous patent validity challenges before the Patent Trial & Appeal Board. Ben’s practice has focused on a variety of industries, including bar code scanners, image sensors, pharmaceuticals, telecomm...

Rob Marcus is an experienced trial attorney who has developed a diverse litigation practice. Rob has a wide range of trial experience in high-stakes, complex business disputes. He has litigated significant cases involving intellectual property, securities and financial disputes, insurance coverage matters, contract enforcement, and class actions. Rob has handled matters in state and federal courts across North Carolina, and he has significant experience in the North Carolina Business Court. R...