Vanessa Halley joins Cain Hibbard & Myers PC

January 5, 2009

Pittsfield, MA: Vanessa Halley has joined the firm of Cain Hibbard & Myers PC, Berkshire County's oldest and most diversified law firm, with offices in Pittsfield and Great Barrington. Ms. Halley joins the firm as an associate, with a highly successful background in intellectual property law and litigation.

“Vanessa will be a strong addition to our intellectual property group,” says Lucy Prashker, Managing Partner of the firm, who has practiced in the field of intellectual property for 23 years, and who has led Cain Hibbard's Intellectual Property, Technology and Internet Law Group since Prashker joined the firm in 2000. “Vanessa's special expertise in licensing, her strong interest in nonprofit work, her impressive professional accomplishments, and her demonstrated leadership skills, provide a particularly good fit for us, the needs of our clients, and the needs of our community, and we are thrilled that she has joined our team,” says Prashker.

Halley was raised in New York City and the Berkshires, having attended high school at Mount Everett in Sheffield. After spending a number of years traveling and studying abroad, Ms. Halley received a Bachelor of Arts in Russian Language and Literature, and Political Science, with High Distinction from the University of Toronto (Trinity College). She returned to the Berkshires and in 2006, she received a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from the Western New England College School of Law. Ms. Halley served as Editor-in-Chief of the Western New England Law Review, and received numerous awards during the course of her studies, including the American Law Institute-American Bar Association's Scholarship and Leadership Award.

Ms. Halley is admitted to the Bar in Massachusetts and in Connecticut. She has worked as a Staff Attorney with the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services and as Director of Licensing and Distribution of a small music publishing, recording and arts management label. She has interned with judges at both the state and federal levels, and spent a summer on a joint internship with the Canadian company The Co-operators and the prominent Canadian law firm, Lang Michener.

Ms. Halley serves on various committees of local nonprofit organizations. She is a singer and spends much of her spare time performing and recording with professional and semi-professional choirs. She lives in Monterey with her husband, Shaylan Burkhart, and their 6-month-old son, Wyn Christopher.