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Durie and Lemley Lead Group From Keker & Van Nest
Stanford law professor will work one day a week at the new law firm
The Recorder
February 03, 2009
Keker & Van Nest is the gold standard for litigation boutiques. But on Monday, the firm lost a little bit of its luster as a handful of its patent litigation stars left to form their own firm.
Law partners (and life partners) Daralyn Durie and Ragesh Tangri are setting out with Stanford patent law professor Mark Lemley and Keker partners Clement Roberts and Ryan Kent to found Durie Tangri Lemley Roberts & Kent.
"Mark and Ragesh and I all went to law school together -- it's something we talked about for a long time," Durie said Monday. "We all thought it would be fun to be in a smaller environment. It allows us to be a little more entrepreneurial -- it's very personal."
Durie has grabbed headlines for her work as an IP lawyer. In 2006, she won a huge patent infringement trial for Comcast, saving them from Caritas Technologies' $2.2 billion demand. More recently, she represented Google in its settlement with authors and publishers in a copyright dispute over putting books online.
Keker & Van Nest managing partner Christopher Kearney said, "They're great lawyers and we wish them well," but maintained that the departures wouldn't put a dent in the firm's patent litigation practice.
"We're going to keep doing what we're doing," Kearney said Monday. "We have a lot of partners who have handled a lot of IP cases." News of the new San Francisco firm traveled fast in Bay Area legal circles on Monday.
"It's a big deal -- you don't want to see such incredible lawyers as Daralyn and Ragesh leave, but the firm is top-to-bottom of the highest quality," said Gary Davis, a legal recruiter with Patterson Davis Consulting.
A recession probably isn't the ideal time to start a new firm, but the new partners insist they'll be busy. Durie said the new firm, which opened Monday, is handling matters for marquee clients including Google, Genentech, Comcast and Ticketmaster.
Durie, Tangri and Lemley first talked about starting their own firm when they were law students at Boalt Hall in the early '90s. But the idea jelled in earnest about a month ago.
"It's the right time, in the sense that we were at the right stage in our careers, where it would make sense and we could bring in enough business to support the firm," she said.
A week and a half ago, she and Tangri flew down to Los Angeles, where partner John Keker was working on the big Televisa-Univision case. Over dinner, they told him that they'd be starting a new firm. "The firm has been wonderful, and we have a really high regard for the firm and John," said Durie, who has worked at Keker her entire 15-year career, and was on the management committee when she left.
Lemley will continue to teach at Stanford and work one day a week at the new firm, as he did at 60-attorney Keker. Only this time he'll be a partner rather than of counsel. Lemley said he's looking forward to the flexibility a smaller firm can offer.
"I think there are things you can do in a firm of six or eight lawyers that you can't do in a firm of 60 or 80 lawyers," Lemley said. "We could take on smaller cases or cases for smaller clients in the digital copyright field who couldn't pay the higher rates."
The new firm's rates will be 15 percent to 20 percent less than what they were charging at Keker, Durie said. They'll also be more open to alternative fee arrangements. "This is not at all driven by a desire to make more money," Durie said. "It is the desire to be somewhere that is smaller and more personable."
Although small firms can be more flexible, it's also more difficult to staff up for big-ticket litigation. Durie said the firm will work with other law firms or contract attorneys for big cases.
The firm has just one associate right now. Durie said the firm could grow to eight to 10 lawyers, but not much more. The firm won't be highly leveraged and instead will look to take advantage of the efficiency of experienced partners, she said.
