August 12, 2014

LOS ANGELES DAILY JOURNAL
By Alex Shively

PALO ALTO – King & Spalding LLP on Monday added intellectual property partner Thomas J. Gray to its Palo Alto office to help bolster its litigation department, the firm said.

Gray was a co-leader of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP’s trade secret subgroup for many years. He will join King & Spalding’s patent and trade secret litigation team in Palo Alto.
“King & Spalding has a great IP practice,” Gray said, “and I look forward to helping us grow our team throughout the state and nationwide.”

Gray declined to comment on which clients would follow him to King & Spalding. He said only that he plans on working closely with partners Michael F. Heafey and Emma Maconick in the firm’s Palo Alto office. Heafey is himself a former Orrick IP partner.

“We worked with Mike and Tom for a long period of time and we were thrilled to get Mike on our team when we did,” Palo Alto managing partner Timothy T. Scott said. “From that history, we knew that Tom would be a great addition to our team as well.”

Scott indicated that this hiring is part of the firm’s broader effort to expand its corporate offerings.

“We have already gone from about 3 to 15 lawyers working on corporate matters at the Palo Alto office in the last 18 months,” Scott said.

Gray looks forward to a fast start at his new firm.

“Right now our team is in the middle of a number of patent cases,” he said. “We are working on issues that run the gamut of IP.”

Gray’s move to King & Spalding comes during a period of transition for the firm’s IP practice. Just before Heafey jumped ship from Orrick in September 2013, the firm lost two IP partners to Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Palo Alto.

Watanabe Nason LLC founder Larry Watanabe, who was not involved in Gray’s transition, said trade secrets is an area that is in demand right now.

“King & Spalding lost a significant number of lawyers to Steptoe & Johnson and they wanted to make up for that departure,” Watanabe said. “But this is the third time in recent memory that the firm has had to rebuild their IP practice.”

“Meanwhile, Orrick has been losing IP partners to a number of firms,” he said.
Orrick representatives could not be reached for comment.