Patent litigator John Desmarais raised eyebrows when he left Kirkland & Ellis two years ago to start a firm that—unlike most large firms—would be game to take on plaintiffs-side work for nonpracticing entities (NPEs), less flatteringly called patent trolls. But he appears to have sparked a trend. At least three more patent litigation boutiques with a similar strategy have since arrived on the scene. Tensegrity Law Group; Freitas Tseng Baik & Kaufman; and Feinberg Day Alberti & Thompson are each staffed by defectors from large firms seizing what they see as a tantalizing opportunity to bring lucrative patent claims on contingency—in some cases for NPEs.
Other patent litigators may follow suit, predicts Mark Lemley, the director of Stanford Law School’s program in law, science, and technology. “We are seeing more and more people moving in this direction,” Lemley says.
