New York — October 16, 2008 — Hunton & Williams LLP announces Torsten M. Kracht, has joined as a partner with its litigation and IP practice in Washington. Kracht is the 14th lawyer to join Hunton & Williams as partner from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP since August. In Washington, he rejoins Richard L. Wyatt Jr., co-head of Hunton & Williams' litigation, IP, competition and labor practice groups; Michael J. Mueller, co-head of the firm's commercial litigation practice; litigation partners Joseph P. Esposito, Michael A. O’Shea, and Todd M. Stenerson; and J. Steven Patterson, a corporate, securities and M&A partner.

Kracht focuses his practice on complex civil litigation and arbitration. He has conducted internal investigations and litigated and arbitrated claims across a spectrum of substantive legal areas: antitrust, unfair competition; contracts; fraud; trade secret, patent, bankruptcy, trademark; and government contracts. He has litigated multibillion-dollar restitution demands under the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victims Protection Act, and has specific experience in issues of jurisdiction and discovery, particularly as they apply to foreign entities. He received an undergraduate degree cum laude from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a law degree with honors and distinction in international law from Rutgers University. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1995, during which time he studied law in Berlin, Germany. He speaks fluent German.

With more than 300 attorneys, Hunton & Williams maintains one of the largest litigation teams among global firms, and over the last 10 years, Hunton & Williams has litigated more than 10,000 matters in 48 states and numerous countries worldwide.