Barton LLP is growing once again with the addition of three more attorneys. Partner Heather D. Bennett has joined our Nashville office as a member of our intellectual property practice and associates Barak Bacharach and Raquel Chávez are now part of Barton’s New York-based team.
Heather Bennett is a highly experienced transactional IP attorney and great complement to Barton’s intellectual property litigation practice. She maintains a broad range of services and expertise, particularly in digital content.
Heather’s practice focuses on intellectual property matters including copyright, trademark, trade secret, and right of publicity from creation and acquisition to licensing and litigation. With over a decade of experience in entertainment, art, media, and technology in the U.S. and abroad, Heather’s client relationships go beyond negotiating deals and handling judicial matters. Her clients consider her a trusted advisor and fellow strategist in running their day-to-day business from drafting a variety of commercial and vendor agreements to designing company-wide policies and procedures relating to employment, consumer protection and privacy, regulatory compliance, and risk management.
Heather’s international practice encompasses Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Australia, France, Dubai, and Greece. In addition to her native English, she is fluent in French and Italian and is working diligently to add Spanish to the list.
As it relates to content, Heather helps her clients expand and manage copyrights in film and music, visual arts and design, and software and literary works from the earliest stages of development and production to digital distribution and reversionary rights. Heather has also litigated sophisticated multi-jurisdictional copyright infringement and DMCA matters, Fair Use/Fair Dealing issues, and moral rights defenses. Regarding film, while Heather’s focus is on indie films, her passion is documentary films and user-generated content (UGC).
Additionally, Heather is no stranger to the world of music. She has played the fiddle since childhood and is a National Fiddle Champion, one of the many factors spurring her move to Nashville. When she’s not in the office, Heather can likely be found fiddling at one of Nashville’s many local music haunts.
Heather works one-on-one with a wide variety of global brands including Hulu, LLC; Roselane Records, LLC; Roselane Studios, LLC; Mr. Zogg Sex Wax; and InstaShop.
Barton’s New York office welcomes two outstanding young talents to complement its already strong associate line up: Barak Bacharach and Raquel Chávez.
Barak Bacharach is an associate in Barton’s litigation group. He has handled matters involving securities, employment, and corporate disputes before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the American Arbitration Association (AAA), and state and federal courts. Barak is also experienced in litigating and prosecuting intellectual property matters before federal courts and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as well as the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Barak received his J.D. from Columbia Law School where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, member of the Science and Technology Law Review, and a 2020 Columbia Law Public Interest Honoree. While in law school, Barak interned for Magistrate Judge Steven L. Tiscione of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and served as a research assistant to Professor Abraham Wagner, an expert in national security and information privacy law.
Raquel V. Chávez is an associate in Barton’s litigation group focusing on commercial litigation, dispute resolution, regulatory enforcement, white-collar matters, and family law practice. Prior to joining Barton, Raquel was an Assistant District Attorney in the Domestic Violence Bureau/Human Trafficking Unit at the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office where she engaged in criminal prosecution of domestic violence and human trafficking misdemeanor and felony crimes.
As a prosecutor, she has experience in both the courtroom and in the investigative process. Raquel managed a significant criminal case load while handling all aspects of the litigation process, including court appearances; hearings; initial charging documents; discovery; evidentiary management; witness, perpetrator and victim interviews; motion practice; and trial preparation. She brings her tenacity, unique experience, and the skill sets she developed prosecuting hardened criminals in New York City for the most sensitive of criminal violations to Barton’s litigation group.
Raquel is a graduate of Northern Illinois University College of Law where she was a Dean’s List student and recipient of the Lenny Mandel Scholarship and Thurgood Marshall Award. While pursuing her J.D., Raquel was a law clerk for Northern Illinois University Office of the General Counsel, served as a legal liaison to the university’s Board of Trustees, and was a family court judicial extern for the Honorable Mark J. Lopez where she assisted all pro-se litigants prior to their appearance and drafted orders on pre- and post-decree family law matters. As a licensed student attorney for Zeke Giorgi Legal Clinic, Raquel managed a case load and represented low-income clients by filing petitions and conducting evidentiary hearings in Civil Court to obtain Orders of Protection for victims of domestic violence.
This addition of new talent and expertise are demonstrative of Barton’s growth-oriented approach to providing sophisticated legal services across a variety of practice areas. As a nationally recognized law firm, Barton’s focus on client engagement, value, and innovation has consistently attracted high-caliber partners, associates, and clientele from all strata of BigLaw. With an emphasis on intra-firm collaboration, Barton offers a competitive alternative for both attorneys and clients looking to maximize the value of their legal services without compromising on quality.
