After 19 years at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Steven McCracken left private practice in 1994 to take on the challenge of working in-house for client Callaway Golf, then a relatively new San Diego–based company breaking into the golf equipment market.

Eighteen years later, McCracken is making a reverse commute. He left Callaway on May 15 and two weeks later took an of counsel position with Fish & Richardson, the firm his former employer relied on throughout the years-long patent dispute with rival Acushnet that came to be known as the “golf ball wars.”