The Lanier Law Firm, Known for PI Work, Opens IP Office
Plaintiffs lawyers, sensing opportunity for profit, are branching out into intellectual property litigation.
The latest entrant in the field is the Texas-based Lanier Law Firm, known for its asbestos and Vioxx work, the Recorder reports. The firm has announced associate Christopher Banys is leaving Howrey to open a new IP office for Lanier in Palo Alto, Calif.
Name partner W. Mark Lanier told the Recorder that his firm has “dabbled” in patent cases over the past couple years, and they represent about 5 percent of its work. “We think we can bring the dynamic of a trial … firm to patent cases,” he said. The firm represents mostly individuals pursuing patent infringement cases, but some of the plaintiffs are so-called patent trolls, companies that buy patents and then pursue litigation.
The story notes that Howrey recently denounced patent trolls in a brochure that said none are among its clients. But Banys doesn’t share the firm’s distaste for these litigants. “They have every bit a right to be in court as the big corporations,” he said.
Plaintiffs securities class-action firm Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins is also seeing the potential for IP profits. It recently formed an IP practice group in Atlanta with two lawyers from Duane Morris.
