Limelight Networks, a prominent player in Digital Presence Management, announced yesterday that its Senior Intellectual Property Corporate Counsel, Dion Messer, has received the “George Hutchinson Award” from the Federal Circuit Bar Association (FCBA). FCBA’s most prestigious award recognizes Messer and Lawrence Kass, her co-chair of the FCBA’s Veterans Appeals Committee, a partner in the New York office of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, for their impressive leadership and notable achievements over the years.
The Veterans Appeals Committee established and manages the FCBA’s Veterans Pro Bono Program. The program centers around identifying and screening appeals filed pro se with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (COAFC), then, after selecting the appropriate appeals, securing pro bono counsel from FCBA interested attorneys. The committee also creates and fosters relationships with other Veterans Law Committees from other bar associations. Furthermore, it monitors ongoing developments and offers educational programs regarding veteran’s law with the judiciary and legislature.
Messer and Lawrence worked as committee chairs over the last two years, and in the two years before that they served as vice-chairs of the committee. Throughout their tenure, pro bono attorneys secured by the FCBA’s Program have successfully argued cases before the COAFC to recoup benefits previously denied to veterans and their families by the Veterans Administration. In addition, the Court’s opinion in many of those cases set precedents that will help untold numbers of veterans newly applying for benefits to the Veterans Administration. Messer herself successfully represented Vietnam War veteran Leroy Comer in his more than 30 year battle with the VA to get disability benefits for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder disability. Messer argued on Mr. Comer’s behalf, and the Court agreed, that veterans who are not represented by an attorney do not need to make explicit formalist arguments for certain benefits when their informal arguments raise the question. In her role at Limelight Networks, Messer manages patent litigation and prosecution as well as all other intellectual property matters.
For further information, please visit www.limelight.com
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