Andy Gass and Joe Wetzel Named 2026 Top IP Lawyers by the Daily Journal

Bay Area partners Andy Gass and Joe Wetzel have been named 2026 Top Intellectual Property Lawyers by the Daily Journal — an annual award given to the best IP lawyers in California based on their recent accomplishments in patent litigation, trademark, and copyright. This is the fifth time that Andy has received this distinction, and Joe’s debut appearance on the list.

Andy is an acclaimed antitrust and IP lawyer who represents technology companies in their highest-stakes disputes. Andy is the architect of the firm’s decorated Copyright Practice and teaches a course titled “Copyright, Competition & Technology” at the UC Berkeley School of Law. He serves a wide range of clients, from early-stage startups to the largest companies in the world, as a trusted counselor and lead litigator. In his published profile, he discusses how his practice is built at the intersection of copyright, antitrust, and the technology industries that engage both, and how that convergence has made him one of the central figures in the wave of generative AI copyright litigation reshaping intellectual property law.

Joe is a trial lawyer with decades of experience litigating cutting-edge copyright issues in bet-the-company disputes. He serves as Co-Chair of Latham's Bay Area Litigation & Trial Department and on the Brown University Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee. Joe's roster of clients spans the tech and music industries, and his work on their behalf has been widely recognized across the media, tech, and AI fields. In his published profile, Joe discusses how his practice has shifted toward defending generative AI developers against copyright claims brought by rights holders. “These cases raise legal questions of first impression that courts have not yet had the opportunity to weigh in on,” he explains, “which means you’re building the framework as you go.”