Paul Storm shutters his IP firm, moves to Gardere Wynne Sewell

If you’re going to start your own Texas firm, focusing on intellectual property litigation is one of the better choices. IP has always been one of the hotter practice areas in the Lone Star State. But Paul Storm — who recently shut down his own IP firm, Storm LLP, to join Dallas’ Gardere Wynne Sewell as litigation partner on Tuesday — says it’s just as well he’s no longer running his own shop.

“I did have an IP firm,” Storm says of the firm he founded in 1998, but noting that the firm did so much litigation, “we were almost a litigation shop.”

Storm says his clients wanted to use him for nonlitigation matters, primarily applying for patents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is not exactly his specialty. It will be nice to hand those matters off to other Gardere lawyers, he says.

“Many firms this size have decided to get out of the patent prosecution practice. And Gardere hasn’t, so that is one of the big attractions,” say Storm.

Steven Good, Gardere’s managing partner, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. But in a press release, Good wrote, “Paul will be a great addition to our established intellectual property litigation and litigation avoidance practice.”

While Storm LLP’s website is still up, Storm plans put his forwarding address on the site on Monday. And he still has to deal with other unresolved business: a contract dispute between Storm LLP and one of its former lawyers, Chris Kling, that was filed last year.

Storm says he disclosed the suit to Gardere before joining the firm, and it’s not his new firm’s problem.

“In this case, it remains my issue,” Storm says. “This is my problem — or solution. Who knows. It’s a live case; I don’t want to talk too much about it.”

Rogge Dunn, a partner in Dallas’ Clouse Dunn, who represents Kling, says discovery has been exchanged and depositions have been scheduled in the case.

--- John Council 

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