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Texas' Lanier Law Firm Opens IP Office in Silicon Valley
The Recorder
April 01, 2008
Houston lawyer W. Mark Lanier
IMAGE: Tom Callins / Texas Lawyer
W. Mark Lanier, the Texas plaintiffs lawyer known for asbestos and Vioxx cases, is ambling into Silicon Valley with a new practice: intellectual property.
The Lanier Law Firm announced Monday that it had hired Christopher Banys, an IP litigation associate from an Am Law 100 firm, Howrey, to open a new office in Palo Alto, Calif.
"We've got a wonderful opportunity in the IP arena," Lanier said. "We've got a number of cases that have a Palo Alto and Silicon Valley connection."
As the value of intellectual property has increased, plaintiffs firms like Lanier's have jumped into IP. Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, known for its securities lawsuits, started a practice earlier this year.
"Given the importance of the IP bar and the money involved, a lot of the traditional plaintiff firms are migrating into IP," said Spencer Hosie, a plaintiffs' patent lawyer with Hosie McArthur in San Francisco.
But Hosie, who won recent fame representing Burst.com against Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. in IP disputes, cautioned that not every plaintiffs lawyer can cut it as a patent lawyer. "It's one thing to be a tort lawyer," Hosie said. "That experience doesn't necessarily translate well to complex IP cases."
Lanier -- who captured the first courtroom win over drug company Merck & Co. in the litigation war over prescription painkiller Vioxx -- said he hopes to bring the trial lawyer's edge to IP. "We think we can bring the dynamic of a trial... firm to patent cases."
The firm -- which has around 30 lawyers in Houston, New York and Los Angeles -- has "dabbled" in patent cases over the past few years, accounting for about 5 percent of its work, Lanier said. Lanier lawyers are currently working on an infringement case for 800 Adept against AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Cellco. All of the patent cases are done on a contingency basis, Lanier said.
"Most of the clients we've got are individuals -- we do have a couple of cases from what you might call trolls," Lanier said.
With most patent plaintiffs preferring the so-called "rocket docket" in the Eastern District of Texas and elsewhere, some Bay Area patent lawyers were perplexed by Lanier's new office.
"The patent plaintiffs bar has been so excited about Texas and Wisconsin, which they view as favorable jurisdictions," said A. James Isbester, an IP litigator with Berkeley's Isbester & Thackray. "It would be a surprise to me that there would be a need for an office in Northern California."
Lanier's new hire, Banys, was working at Howrey, which just recently declared its distaste for so-called "patent trolls" in a provocative firm brochure.
While emphasizing that he was "very happy" at Howrey, Banys also said he doesn't like when inventors are labeled as trolls. "They have every bit a right to be in court as the big corporations," he said.
Banys is heading up the Palo Alto office. No other lawyers are joining immediately.
Henry Bunsow, the managing partner of Howrey's Northern California offices, said that Banys was liked at Howrey and that the firm wishes him well. "It'll be a significant change for him and depending on their backload of cases, it'll be hard to say what he'll be doing," Bunsow said.
So, should Silicon Valley's tech companies be shaking with fear at Lanier's arrival?
"Actually some of 'em should hire us -- they get a twofer that way, because they get us on their side and we won't be suing them," Lanier answered with a laugh.
