Jonathan Goins is a co-leader of the firm’s Intellectual Property & Technology and Entertainment, Media & Sports Practice Groups. Relying on two decades of experience, Mr. Goins serves as lead counsel for Fortune 500, mid-size and profitable start-up companies in litigation across the country involving intellectual property, technology, entertainment, sports, right of publicity (name, image and likeness), and complex business disputes. His trial experience includes “bet the company” cases with multimillion-dollar exposure, including obtaining a jury defense verdict in Kinon Surface Designs, Inc. v. Hyatt Corporation, Case No. 9:18-CV-81065 (S.D. Fla. 2019). Complementary to his litigation practice, Mr. Goins is a trusted business advisor for clients regarding a broad array of various IP issues – from major corporate transactions to emerging technology innovations. Mr. Goins manages the global trademark portfolio, for example, for one of the world’s most famous brands. 

Mr. Goins is consistently peer-recognized in numerous publications for his expertise in intellectual property, including Best Lawyers In America, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Litigators in America, Georgia Super Lawyers, and the World Trademark Review (WTR). Obtaining client feedback, WTR published that Mr. Goins is “a protean IP lawyer” who “litigates assertively, counsels deftly and negotiates deals proficiently.” WTR further notes that Mr. Goins “is comfortably at ease in any role – protector, litigator, deal broker – and covers a lot of ground for clients.” 

 As reported by American Lawyer Media, Mr. Goins has “cultivated a booming niche practice,” which includes ground-breaking rulings in copyright, trademark, entertainment and technology law. He served as lead counsel in In re Jackson, which earned him among the nation’s Legal Lions by Law360 in 2020 after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held for the first time that copyright preemption can apply to a right of publicity claim. Later that same year as lead counsel in Bayoh v. Afropunk, a New York federal judge nixed the plaintiff’s right to a jury trial over copyright infringement claims after failing to present any damages. In 2021, Mr. Goins obtained a favorable result for the leading streaming service provider in Pirtle v. Netflix, which adopted for the first time a recent U.S. Supreme Court jurisdictional-related decision. And in 2022, Mr. Goins obtained summary judgment for a software technology developer involving a breach of contract, which on appeal was affirmed earlier this year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Mr. Goins is a board member and past General Counsel to the National Bar Association, the nation’s oldest and largest network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges, which earned him the “Presidential Award” in 2019 for his exemplary service.  He is a frequent speaker on various legal topics, and since 2012, lectures on copyright, trademark, entertainment and sports law as an Adjunct Professor at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School.  Mr. Goins was a judicial law clerk to the D.C. Court of Appeals (Honorable Inez Smith Reid).  He earned a J.D. from Howard University and a B.A. from the University of Louisville.