Friedland Cianfrani Adds Amazon Counsel Nicole Townes as Partner

(January 6, 2025)  California intellectual property boutique Friedland Cianfrani LLP announced today that IP lawyer Nicole R. Townes is joining the firm’s partnership as of January 6. Ms. Townes was most recently in the role of corporate counsel at Amazon where she provided IP legal support to the company’s retail, grocery, private brands, and payments businesses.

She is also an alumna and former partner of IP firm Knobbe Martens, where she first met name partners Michael Friedland and Joseph Cianfrani in 2009. 

Townes said she never lost her appetite for litigation, which was not a part of her Amazon responsibilities. 

“I’ve been looking forward to getting back to the outside counsel role,” Townes said, “but working in-house was truly enlightening. Now I have a clear picture of what clients need from their outside counsel—what information is required, what’s important to them, and how to deliver legal knowledge and advice in a way that’s most valuable to them. I’m looking forward to putting that understanding to work from day one.”

The addition of Townes will expand the firm’s capabilities in trademark litigation, IP transactions, and trademark counseling, prosecution, search, and clearances. 

“I’ve enjoyed working with Nicole ever since her summer associate time at Knobbe Martens,” said co-founding partner Michael Friedland. “She brings great energy to her work. She takes care of the details and sees the big picture. And clients love her. I always got rave reviews from my clients who worked with her. We’re incredibly excited that she’s joining us.” 

Added Joseph Cianfrani, “Nicole’s in-house experience will be invaluable to us. Some outside counsel find the workings of an in-house legal team mysterious, but she’s worked with one of the world’s largest. We look forward to adding her unique perspective to our own. We’re coupling the expansion of our legal personnel with new space that will allow for still more growth. It’s an exciting time.”

Townes earned her bachelor’s degree in Engineering Sciences and Economics at Vanderbilt University in 2007 and her law degree, also at Vanderbilt, in 2010.

A resident of Newport Beach, Townes and her husband are busy with family activities as the parents of an eight-year-old boy and four-year-old girl.

Friedland Cianfrani represents clients in patent, trademark, trade secret, and copyright litigation and related transactions and counseling in nearly every industry, from medical devices, to software, semiconductors, electric vehicles, consumer products, apparel, accessories, sporting goods, beauty products, furniture, and food and beverages.