The $4 Million Man: Meet Trump's Patent & Trademark Pick

If confirmed, he'll be taking a gigantic pay cut.

Andrei Iancu

The Trump administration is teeming with Biglaw partners, and their required financial disclosure forms are giving members of the legal profession an inside look at the financials of some of the most prestigious law firms in the country. Thus far, we’ve learned that Christopher Wray made more money than the average King & Spalding partner, that Jones Day’s Eric Dreiband was doubling up the firm average, and that C.J. Mahoney was right in the middle of Williams & Connolly’s partnership payouts. Today, we’ll be focusing on partner pay at Irell & Manella, because the firm’s managing partner has been nominated to lead the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Meet Andrei Iancu, an expert patent litigator who was last year named by the Los Angeles Business Journal as Lawyer of the Year for firms with up to 125 attorneys. A graduate of the UCLA School of Law, Iancu also has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. If Iancu is confirmed as director of the Patent and Trademark Office, he’ll be taking a gigantic pay cut. How large of a cut are we talking?

The salary one can expect to earn as USPTO director is $165,300, which is less than a first-year Biglaw associate’s paycheck. Iancu may be in for an incredibly rude awakening, because he lists his take from his partnership share at Irell during 2016-2017 at $4,733,748, with another $500,000 to $100,000 still owed. That puts Iancu way above the firm’s most recently recorded profits per partner, which were about $2.985 million in 2016. As noted by The Recorder, Iancu also holds between $500,000 and $1 million in Irell’s capital account, to be refunded to him upon his withdrawal from the firm’s partnership, and lists $250,000-500,000 in Irell’s cash balance pension plan. (For what it’s worth, Iancu teaches patent law at his alma mater, for which he received the small pittance of $3,274 over the past 12 months.)

Congratulations to Andrei Iancu on his nomination. We’re sure that his love of patent law will leave him paid back in spades, despite the enormous salary cut he’ll be taking.

(Flip to the next page to see Andre Iancu’s financial disclosure form.)

How Much Did PTO Pick Andrei Iancu Pull In at Irell? [The Recorder]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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