Michael Wheaton

Win Porter represents banks and other financial institutions in bilateral and syndication lending transactions with an emphasis on financial sponsor acquisitions. Win has extensive experience in lending transactions across a variety of industries, including technology, healthcare and government contractors.

Noell P. Tin is a lawyer recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice areas of Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Noell P. practices law in Charlotte, North Carolina Best Lawyers has recognized Noell P. Tin since 2010. The Best Lawyers recognition is based on a peer-review survey of lawyers in the same geographic region and legal practice area. The recognition reflects the professional regard in which Noell P. Tin is held by other lawyers.

Chris Douglas is active in Alston & Bird’s pre-grant and post-grant patent practice areas. Chris represents both petitioners and patent owners in post-grant proceedings and is recognized as one of the more active post-grant practitioners nationwide. Chris remains one of the few practitioners to tout confirmation of all claims in an inter partes review in a final written decision on behalf of a patent owner. In addition, he maintains a robust pre-grant patent prosecution practice. Hi...

Carolyn Meade has 20 years of experience serving as corporate counsel, helping partners negotiate the terms of their ventures, shepherding investments for sponsors, high net worth individuals and private equity, and advising founders from the day-to-day through an exit. Carolyn’s steady hand, market knowledge, and ability to drive successful outcomes have made her a trusted ally to her clients. Carolyn’s practice encompasses a wide range of corporate transactional matters, with a ...

Richard Simons regularly represents developers, real estate investment trusts, investors, landlords and tenants in complex commercial real estate transactions. Richard's experience includes acquisitions, dispositions, financing, joint venture formation, large-scale office, industrial and retail leasing, and advising on condominium matters, land planning and real estate components of mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining the firm in 2015, Richard practiced with a firm in Columbia, South C...

George Taulbee heads the firm’s Technology, Privacy & IP Transactions Group in North Carolina. He focuses on all intellectual property and transactional matters involving computer and Internet technology, electronic commerce, and sports and entertainment. Mr. Taulbee has more than 25 years of experience working in software licenses and development outsourcing, joint venture, website hosting, and content and linking agreements. He has extensive experience in patent, trade secret and ...

Andrew focuses his practice on federal tax and structuring aspects of complex domestic and cross-border transactions.

John D. Cole is a litigator with broad experience across the spectrum of employment law and labor law. For more than 20 years, John has represented employers of all sizes in cases throughout the eastern United States. He has handled numerous cases involving virtually all aspects of employment law before various federal courts, federal and state administrative agencies, and the state courts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. He has also handled employment arbitration cases before A...

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...

Patrick Hayden is a partner in the Global Finance & Debt Products Group. His practice focuses on mortgage-backed and asset-backed securitization, and he has represented global financial institutions as indenture trustee in negotiating and closing hundreds of CDO transactions, including CLOs, commercial real estate CDOs and synthetic CDOs. He currently represents indenture trustees in connection with the administration of CDO transactions and has extensive experience with questions and dis...