3 Questions For A Biglaw Challenger (Part I)

Recently, I was fortunate to have had a chance to conduct a written interview with a prominent IP attorney, David L. Hecht, co-head of the IP Group and New York office of Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP (“Pierce Bainbridge”). I have known David for a few years, having first met him while he was on the in-house team at Vringo, which was embroiled at the time in a high-stakes patent litigation using original Lycos search engine patents against Google. In addition to his in-house experience, David practiced in the IP groups of Jones Day, Quinn Emanuel, and Steptoe & Johnson, before jumping over to the self-styled “fastest growing law firm in the world.” At the tail-end of last year, David and his clients took over the news with the lawsuits they launched against the popular video games Fortnite and NBA2K, an effort immortalized on these pages with the paean to David’s talents recorded by his rapper client, 2 Milly.

I very much welcome to opportunity to share David’s insights with this audience. Both he and his firm are at the forefront of challenging Biglaw firms with a mix of marketing bravado, entrepreneurial gusto, and old-fashioned securing of litigation wins for their clients. A winning combination so far, and one that promises to lead to more noteworthy accomplishments going forward. As usual, I have added some brief commentary to David’s answers below, but have otherwise presented his answers as he provided them.

1) What is most exciting about leading the IP group at the “fastest-growing firm in the history of the world”?

DH: The unlimited potential is really the most exciting part of leading the IP group.  When Max Price and I first approached John Pierce about launching the New York office and the IP group, I saw great potential.  John’s vision was to assemble outstanding talent from the best firms and the best law schools and unshackle them. Without red tape or politics, brilliant, hungry lawyers could excel in ways that they could never even imagine at Biglaw.  John set forth 10 “commandments” for the firm that reflect his core values:

  1.  All for one, one for all.
  2.  We don’t try cases, we win them.
  3.  There are only two cardinal sins — disloyalty to one another and not giving your best.
  4.  Every case is the entire firm’s case and the case of every lawyer in it.
  5.  We never give up.  There is always a way.
  6.  We are global missionaries for the rule of law.
  7.  Everyone is a rainmaker.  Everyone is a service lawyer.
  8.  We gang tackle, swarm, and crowd-source.  The firm is a matrix.
  9.  Everyone has a special gift.  Here you get to use it.
  10.  No one gets left behind.  Ever.

These values resonated with me.  Many of them are the antithesis of the values and culture I found during my many years at Biglaw.  Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP was designed to support every one of its lawyers and unleash their full potential.

When we joined, it felt like a giant weight had been lifted from me.  I have been able to jump on opportunities more quickly and push cases forward more aggressively than at any other firm I’ve ever worked. As a result, the firm has been able to run circles around our adversaries.  It’s clear that we have intimidated those other firms with our agility and resourcefulness.

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Since launching the IP group, we’ve been retained on dozens of really fantastic matters.  Our firm’s lawsuits against Epic for copyright infringement and misappropriation of likeness in Fornite are cases of the first impression widely covered by the popular media, from the Today Show to The Washington Post.  We’ve recently been retained to represent Social Technologies LLC against Apple in a trademark infringement case involving the mark MEMOJI, a registered trademark owned by our client.  We are also enforcing the “King of Bling” Chris Aire’s RED GOLD® trademark against the watch and jewelry industries (after settling one of Chris’s big cases in October, I received a Chris Aire “Capitol Hill” custom timepiece from the RED GOLD® collection — which helped me earn mad street cred with rappers like 2 Milly and another notable rapper who is about to file suit against Epic.)

We also represent former Philadelphia Eagles player Lenwood “Skip” Hamilton in another misappropriation of likeness case against both Epic Games and Microsoft.  On the patent side, we have several big patent infringement cases, including cases against Samsung, DJI, and Xiaomi.

We’ve also attracted top-tier talent to the firm.  The newest additions to our IP group are two former Kramer Levin senior partners: Brian Slater, our new Head of Life Sciences, and Greg Sephton.  Brian and Greg are first-chair patent litigators with phenomenal experience. It’s an honor to have them on the team. Our IP group now has talent and capability spanning the complete breadth of IP.

As our IP group has expanded to the point that we rival the size and capabilities of the most-respected IP groups in the country, Fortune 500 work has been steadily flowing to our firm.  Choosing Pierce Bainbridge is a no-brainer for GCs: we provide the same talent as they would find at our Biglaw competition (our firm consists of almost exclusively Biglaw expats), for drastically less cost.  Since we are fixated on world domination, we also want to ensure our clients keep coming back. So, we strive to provide the best possible services to our clients to ensure that they are not only happy with our rates but thrilled with the results we are obtaining for them.

GK: Hard to add much to the above, other than to say that David’s experience mirrors my own after leaving Biglaw to join an IP boutique. With the right moxie and dedication to client service, there really does not need to be a drop in the quality of matters one handles. In fact, the flexibility of a boutique environment can often be a catalyst for taking on higher-profile matters sooner.

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2) How has your business background helped prepare you for your current role?

DH: My background in business is really what helped the most, both educationally and in practice.  Before law school, I pursued my MBA while working full-time as a network engineer. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.  Foundational business courses like accounting, marketing, and organizational behavior should really be required coursework for law students.  Those courses have certainly helped me in my role as co-head of the IP group at Pierce Bainbridge. They have also helped me relate to and understand my clients and their business requirements.  

But even those business courses can’t teach you everything you need to know.  Much of what I have learned over the years has come from the School of Hard Knocks.  I came from humble beginnings. My father was a public school teacher and my mother was a homemaker; we were always on a tight budget when I was growing up.  I became a lawyer because I was always fascinated with patent law: the intersection between science/engineering and the humanities. I was also led to believe that a smart lawyer who went to a great school and worked at a top firm would have some job security.  But that was wrong. I saw blood in the water during the Great Recession and watched as my former classmates were axed from even the most “elite” Biglaw firms.

At that point, I realized that I needed to look out for myself.  As I continued to scavenge for work at the firm I was working at, I also started leveraging my hefty Biglaw salary and began investing in real estate in my spare time, establishing a real estate investment company as other startups.  I created a safety net for myself and my family. Since I was lucky enough to find enough legal work and weathered the storm, I never left the practice of law and continued doing what I love the most: advocating for my clients and gearing up for the next trial.  But I will never forget the apprehension of potentially losing my job and possibly even my career.

My experiences sourcing and identifying deals, project managing, setting up financing, as well as hiring and delegating so that I could focus on high-level aspects of the businesses, directly impact my roles at the firm today.  The apprehension that led me to start-up my own businesses a decade ago never faded; the fear that tough times may be just around the corner now also what drives me to continuously hunt for new business opportunities at Pierce Bainbridge.

John Pierce and most of my partners are just as ravenous as I am.  That hunger is important to the mission.  We must be relentless and focused to overtake firms like Quinn Emanuel and the old guard. My focus is no longer on looking out for myself as I did a decade ago.  I am looking out for the firm and my colleagues; I am constantly seeking out lucrative cases and good clients.

Lawyers should realize that the practice of law is also a business; unfortunately, most firms are simply incapable of teaching young lawyers how to market themselves and seldom let anyone peek behind the curtain.  At Pierce Bainbridge, there are no secrets and there is no curtain. We bring in business through sheer force of will. Everyone who wants to become a rainmaker can do so.

GK: What shines through in David’s answer is the absolute lack of entitlement. As the saying goes, “hungry dogs run faster,” and nothing is as motivating as someone’s desire to provide for their family and gain some control over their financial destiny.

We will continue with David’s answer to question 3 next week.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.


Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique, and Markman Advisors LLC, a leading consultancy on patent issues for the investment community. Gaston’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.