April 3, 2015
LOS ANGELES DAILY JOURNAL
By Kevin Lee
Amid concerns over the long-term future of patent litigation, a handful of prominent law firms are doubling down on the practice by hiring experienced litigators and their support teams.
These firms have obtained practitioners who are capable of leading trial teams in bet-the-company litigation between rivals, especially since recent legal developments may lead to a decline in lawsuits filed by nonpracticing entities.
“We will see more litigation becoming competitor-versus-competitor cases, and these types of cases moving toward higher valuations,” said Yar R. Chaikovsky, the new vice chairman of the intellectual property practice at Paul Hastings LLP.
“You want to be practicing at the highest levels and representing clients in their most significant problems,” he added.
Paul Hastings nabbed Chaikovsky, Blair M. Jacobs and six other lawyers from McDermott Will & Emery in a high-profile move completed this week.
Amid concerns over the long-term future of patent litigation, a handful of prominent law firms are doubling down on the practice by hiring experienced litigators and their support teams.
These firms have obtained practitioners who are capable of leading trial teams in bet-the-company litigation between rivals, especially since recent legal developments may lead to a decline in lawsuits filed by nonpracticing entities.
“We will see more litigation becoming competitor-versus-competitor cases, and these types of cases moving toward higher valuations,” said Yar R. Chaikovsky, the new vice chairman of the intellectual property practice at Paul Hastings LLP.
“You want to be practicing at the highest levels and representing clients in their most significant problems,” he added.
Paul Hastings nabbed Chaikovsky, Blair M. Jacobs and six other lawyers from McDermott Will & Emery in a high-profile move completed this week.
Joseph M. O’Malley Jr., the global chairman of the intellectual property practice at Paul Hastings, said firms with financial stability will be well-placed to land practitioners who have a steady client base.
“I think as the firms have come out of the recovery, there is beginning to be a separation between the top-tier firms and the second-tier firms,” O’Malley said. “The growth is more concentrated in the very top-tier firms which will continue to separate themselves from those in the tiers below.”
While Paul Hastings already had a deep biotechnology patent litigation bench, O’Malley said the firm was looking to expand its expertise in computer-related technologies, including software, hardware, Internet, semiconductors and networking patents.
Naveen Modi and Joseph E. Palys joined the firm’s Washington, D.C. office from Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP last summer. Andrew B. Grossman in Los Angeles joined in September from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP.
Despite the departures, McDermott Will & Emery has maintained its aim to hire attorneys with expertise in both the semiconductor and computer technology industries as well as the life sciences field.
“I and a number of our current senior IP litigation lawyers have been among the busiest in the Firm in recent months,” wrote Sarah Chapin Columbia, the head of McDermott’s intellectual property litigation practice group, in an email to the Daily Journal. “That said, we are always looking to bring experienced IP litigators into the firm and we will continue to put a high priority on that.”
Douglas J. Kline, the chair of Goodwin Procter LLP’s IP litigation group, warned that hiring patent litigators takes time and due diligence from both firm and lawyer.
“There are always people who are interested in moving,” Kline said. “But trying to find people who you think are going to fit properly, trying to find the right folks that fit with the strategy that you’re trying to execute and the culture you’re trying to build, that’s really difficult.”
In September, Goodwin brought in a seasoned trial team from Kenyon & Kenyon LLP led by Elizabeth J. Holland in New York. The group focuses on disputes in the pharmaceutical industry and counts Israeli generic drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. among its most prominent clients.
“We have a very strong practice nationally, if not internationally, on the pharma side,” Kline said. “Pharma patent litigation has been a little insulated from the global economic changes that the tech side has faced. You don’t really get [nonpracticing entity] cases on the pharma side.”
Goodwin also expanded its presence in Northern California and its expertise with technology companies, bringing on Shane Brun from K&L Gates LLP in November and Brett M. Schuman from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in December. Both are based in the firm’s San Francisco office.
Marcia H. Sundeen, the former chair of Kenyon’s International Trade Commission practice, also joined Goodwin’s D.C. office last month.
Kline said the moves are part of a multi-faceted strategy to bolster their expertise in the ITC and with pharmaceutical and technology clients. He added that the firm would continue to look to add to its bench in California and Washington, D.C.
Latham & Watkins LLP added three litigators in Washington this year with significant biotechnology expertise from Finnegan. Led by Michael A. Morin, the team had represented AbbVie Inc. in litigation over the company’s popular arthritis drug Humira.
Latham’s intellectual property group co-chair Kenneth G. Schuler said the firm is looking to be opportunistic in hiring practitioners with life sciences and trial experience.
“We have an entire lineup of litigators who have first-chair experience. We think that diversity offers clients the best service and our firm some sophistication,” Schuler said. “That’s one of the most critical aspects we look for.”
Larry Watanabe, a Solana Beach-based legal recruiter, said lawyers with significant life sciences experience are particularly in demand.
“Most legal industry observers were predicting the slow death of IP,” Watanabe said. “When people perceive a softening of the market, it can become a buyer’s market.”
Michael J. Malecek, the co-chairman of the intellectual property department at Kaye Scholer LLP, said his firm sought practitioners who had experience with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, a specialized arm of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that screens patents for validity.
This year, Kaye Scholer hired four lawyers from Dickstein Shapiro LLP led by partners Deborah E. Fishman and Jeffrey A. Miller. Fishman focuses primarily on biotechnology matters, while Miller has particular experience in semiconductors and electronic technologies.
Malecek said law firms are looking for talented laterals to help make sense of the very technical rulings coming from the patent office as well as the courts.
“The same factors that are supposedly reducing litigation are dramatically increasing the complexity of litigation,” Malecek said. “It is both frustrating and exciting to practice at a time when so many questions are literally not answered.”