Why Us?
We understand the business of creative collaboration.
Most IP attorneys treat legal matters as isolated transactions. A contract is a contract. A trademark dispute is a trademark dispute. What this misses is that your gallery represents multiple artists with overlapping interests, your label manages relationships that predate and will outlast any single deal, and your institutional partnerships depend on trust accumulated over years. A legal strategy that wins the transaction and damages the relationship has not, in fact, served you well.
We practice relational law—an approach borrowed from family law and applied to intellectual property. Every contract, negotiation, and IP decision is evaluated not just for what it secures today but for what it preserves in the professional ecosystem your work depends on.
This is not a softer version of IP practice. It is a more accurate one.
We provide strategic counsel through contracts, [intellectual property protection, and ongoing advisory—legal partnership built for businesses that don’t operate in isolation.
Meet the Team
Katherine de Vos Devine
Katherine founded Implement Legal after years of work that most IP attorneys haven’t done: advising private foundations, navigating the business infrastructure of a Michelin-starred culinary empire, directing arts nonprofits through the particular legal pressures of institutional life. That background is not incidental to her practice. It is her practice.
She approaches IP disputes and complex negotiations the way an art historian approaches a painting—looking past the immediately visible for the structural logic underneath. The result is counsel that protects legal position without treating professional relationships as acceptable collateral damage.
She knows what not to break. And she knows it before the pressure arrives.
Robert Devine
Robert brings Fortune 50 legal experience to clients who need sophisticated counsel without the overhead that typically accompanies it. He has advised Google, Sony, and T-Mobile on complex transactions—he knows how sophisticated businesses structure deals, where the leverage actually sits, and what the other side is counting on you not to know.
That background now serves production studios, game developers, wellness brands, and creative entrepreneurs navigating acquisitions, restructuring, and growth.
His military career—Naval Academy, a decade as a Navy officer, $700M+ in operations managed at the Department of Veterans Affairs—produced a specific kind of legal instinct: systematic, calm under pressure, oriented toward protection rather than reaction. When a transaction is complex and the stakes are high, he is the person who has already thought three moves ahead.
About
Our Firm
An implement is a tool used to perform a task. To implement is to accomplish a purpose. Both definitions apply here.
We provide contracts, trademarks, patents, copyrights, and strategic counsel to artists and the businesses they work with. We tell the truth, including when it’s unwelcome. We consider the professional relationships a matter affects, not just the legal position it protects. We follow through.
When you have a question, you’ll have someone to call. Always.
Our Services
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What you create has value only to the extent the law recognizes your claim to it. Trademark registration protects your brand—your name, your mark, the identifiers your clients and collaborators associate with your work. Copyright registration establishes the evidentiary record you need when your work is reproduced, licensed, or litigated. Patents protect novel processes and inventions. Licensing agreements are how all three become revenue.
We advise on which protections to pursue, in what order, and at what stage—so that the registrations you build reflect the actual value of what you’ve made. -
A commission agreement that doesn’t address rights reversion, a distribution deal that buries the audit clause, a brand partnership with no exit terms—these are ordinary documents until they become expensive ones. Creative businesses run on relationships, and a contract that wins on paper but damages the collaboration has not, in fact, served you well.
We draft, review, and negotiate the full range of creative business agreements: artist commissions, licensing deals, production contracts, distribution agreements, brand partnerships, vendor terms, and the business formation documents that govern how creative entities are structured and transferred.
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Loops & Leaps™ is our signature strategic consultation: a 90-minute review of your legal and business infrastructure, followed by a written report identifying your most pressing open loops and the forward-looking projects that will materially change what your business can do. It is the right starting point for any client who needs a clear picture of where they stand and what to address first.
Continuous Counsel™ is the ongoing structure. For clients with consistent legal needs, it provides priority scheduling, quick questions at no additional charge, and attorneys who already know your business—so the conversation starts at the actual issue. When something lands in your inbox at 4pm and needs an answer before morning, you have someone to call.
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![A woman with curly hair in a bun, wearing a striped long-sleeve shirt and overalls, smiling in front of a decorative wall made of intertwined paper or fabric tubes.]()
"I continuously recommend Katherine and Rob to other artists and business owners within my circle because I deeply trust, respect, and appreciate the work they have done and continue to do. "
Meredith Connelly | Art by Meredith Connelly LLC
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"She transformed an experience that could have felt cold and tedious into something truly meaningful and empowering. I'm so grateful!"
Nicole McConville | Nicole McConville Photography
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![A woman with wavy dark hair, round glasses, light skin, pink lipstick, and a septum piercing, wearing a white textured top, smiling against a dark green background.]()
"The confidence that I have in my contracts, terms, and other legal documents makes it easy for me to secure high-value projects and to pursue business growth without fear."
Sarah Chappell | Think Piece
