The new leader of Duane Morris' Washington branch has legal experience that matches the largest practice area in the office: intellectual property.
Patrick McPherson, a 51-year-old I.P. litigator who spent eight years working on submarines with the U.S. Navy, joined Duane Morris in 2002 to establish its Washington intellectual property group. Since then, he and his three partners rethought how they could grow the group.
Law schools and associate programs weren't the answer for technical-minded patent lawyers. Instead, the group approached recruiters who worked with major technology companies, including Procter & Gamble, General Electric and International Business Machines, and asked them to find engineers—possibly former military officers like McPherson—who had worked in industry and wanted to go to law school, he said. The firm hired the engineers as clerks and patent agents and paid for their nighttime law school classes.
The approach became a pipeline for McPherson's practice group of patent attorneys in Washington. Two law students are in the program now at the firm, he said, and five completed it over the past decade. The firm's Atlanta office is training engineers in the same way. Philadelphia will try the approach too, he said.
Now as the leader of the 35-lawyer Washington office, McPherson plans to continue growing the patent attorney group as well as highlighting the firm’s work with defense industry clients and in energy.
His own clients include AT&T, Cisco Systems and Verizon. On Tuesday, he found himself in court in Detroit defending bracelet maker Geeky Baby on a patent and trademark dispute involving a loom.
"I found out years ago that if you work really hard and do a good job, people recognize you and give you more work," McPherson said of his new position.
Douglas Woloshin, who has served as D.C. office managing partner since 2001, will return to his corporate practice and will serve on the firm's partners board.
This article originally appeared in LegalTimes and is republished here with permission from law.com.