Munck Wilson Mandala is proud to congratulate intellectual property partner Gary Hecker who received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Honor at the 2024 Los Angeles Business Journal’s Top 100 Lawyers Award Reception held on Apr. 18. Hecker brings more than 43 years of legal experience in technology, intellectual property, and entertainment law in the Los Angeles market.
Hecker began his professional career as a mechanical engineer, designing power systems for a multinational architectural engineering firm prior to attending law school at the University of San Diego School of Law where he served as a member of the San Diego Law Review. Hecker’s engineering and science background, combined with his longstanding involvement in the Los Angeles business and entertainment community, positioned him for a dynamic, high-profile Los Angeles-based legal career. Throughout his career, he has represented many of the world’s leading technology companies as well as celebrities and entertainment clients in patent, trademark, and copyright law litigation and transactional matters in the Southern California region.
A natural born leader, Hecker began his legal career working at a renowned, private IP boutique law firm before founding his own boutique Los Angeles firm, The Hecker Law Group, which he ran successfully for more than three decades.
Throughout his legal career, Hecker has been known as the tech-savvy, go-to lawyer for businesses of well-known technology and entertainment leaders, including luminaries such as Steve Jobs, Steven Spielberg, Mark Burnett, and Maria Shriver. He also testified twice on behalf of Apple Computer, Inc. before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
In addition to representing many of the nation’s leading technology companies in patent, trademark and copyright matters, Hecker has also represented an impressive roster of high-profile celebrities including Kim Kardashian against Old Navy, Sharon Stone against rapper Chanel West Coast, and the late Ray Liotta against skin care company Nerium. In those cases, Hecker asserted claims of unlawful use of the likeness, image, and Identity of those celebrities. The cases garnered substantial media coverage and were resolved through settlement.
The case involving Sharon Stone was covered by Forbes in an article addressing the legal question of whether Coast’s First Amendment rights would trump Stone’s right of publicity rights. The case involving Kim Kardashian included claims alleging wrongful use of a celebrity lookalike in an Old Navy television commercial. Hecker also represents recording artists such as music legend Smokey Robinson and American rapper Redfoo of LMFAO in trademark matters.
In 2018, Hecker joined forces with Munck Wilson Mandala, and under the new moniker, helped grow the firm’s LA office from four to 17 attorneys. His influence has helped MWM’s LA office land significant originations including substantial patent infringement litigation and he has been instrumental in the hiring of multiple impressive lateral partners, expanding the firm’s legal services in real estate, entertainment, labor and employment, and commercial litigation.
Among his honors, Hecker was one of four finalists out of 25 lawyers selected as final nominees in the IP category for Los Angeles Business Journal’s Leaders in Law in 2019. He has been honored as a Best Lawyer in America by Woodward White for his IP litigation work, and he has been honored among the Top 100 Lawyers by Los Angeles Business Journal since the inaugural listing in 2022. Hecker is also listed annually as an AV® Preeminent™ Peer ReviewRated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell.
Munck Wilson Mandala is a full-service, technology-focused law firm known for its powerful litigation teams that represent clients in patent, trade secret, trademark, and other intellectual property disputes as well as high stakes and complex commercial litigation. Honored with a Top 100 Verdict in 2021 by the National Law Journal, the firm has offices in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Waco, Texas, Los Angeles, California, and South Florida (Boca Raton). Munck Wilson Mandala represents clients from start-ups to Fortune 50 companies. Learn more about the firm at http://www.munckwilson.com.
