IP Litigator Defects to End Conflicts With Potential Clients

SAN FRANCISCO - Cooley has picked up IP litigator Ronald Lemieux, who joined as partner this week from Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker.

Lemieux moved to Paul Hastings in 2005 to help open its Silicon Valley office, which now has about 30 lawyers.

He said conflicts with Paul Hastings' huge labor and employment group and increasing billing rate pressures over the course of the past year led him to reconsider.

Lemieux's practice focuses on manufacturers and systems integrators in the electronics industry; He counts Asustek Computer Inc., ChipMOS Technologies and MediaTek Inc. as clients. He's also done life sciences work for Apotex, a Canadian generic drug company.

"When I came to Paul Hastings five years ago, we were just building the IP practice," Lemieux said. "The practice has grown significantly, but Paul Hastings is really a more financial services, real estate, and project finance-oriented firm."

He said Cooley's tech and life sciences client base poses fewer potential conflicts within his own practice. "In the tech industry you often have to pick sides. The Paul Hastings labor and employment practice represents everybody in the industry. Because they're [on the] management side, they don't have the same kind of conflicts concerns that we do when we represent competitor against competitor."

Michael Rhodes, chairman of Cooley's litigation department, said in a press release that Cooley's current litigation docket continues to be packed. "With Ron's depth of experience in technology and life sciences, as well as the international scope of his practice, I am confident that he will be a valuable addition to the firm," Rhodes said.

Silicon Valley legal recruiter Jim Smith of Solutus Legal Search brokered the move. Lemieux said the two knew each other from Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, where Smith was a hiring partner for the Silicon Valley office.

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