By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Jones Day bolstered its intellectual property practice at the end of July with the addition of former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas Richard J. (Jay) Johnson to its Dallas office as of counsel.
Johnson said that while the U.S. Attorney’s Office was a rewarding place to work, Jones Day had much to offer.
“While there is never an ideal time to leave a place such as the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jones Day’s significant presence in Dallas, its capabilities across multiple legal disciplines and jurisdictions and its roster of clients, both domestically and internationally, made for an excellent opportunity.
As the Eastern District’s coordinator for computer hacking and intellectual property issues and a member of its national security team, Johnson guided the Eastern District’s preparation for and response to cyber and intellectual property crime, conducted industry outreach and related law enforcement training and counseled prosecutors on collecting electronic evidence.
His practice at Jones Day, an extension of this work, will focus on intellectual property theft, computer breach cases and patent litigation matters.
While at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Johnson earned a Director’s Award—one of the Justice Department’s highest honors—for his role as the government’s lead trial counsel in one of the largest mortgage fraud cases in Texas history, United States v. John Barry, et al., 4:10cr57. He says the case was unique because of its scope.
“It involved the actions of attorneys, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, appraisers and others, and resulted in guilty verdicts after two separate jury trials during which the government presented numerous witnesses and summarized voluminous records,” he said.
Cyber risk, including structured query language (SQL) injection attacks, phishing attempts and unauthorized network access by insiders and outsiders alike, has been an area of increasing concern for corporate executives and general counsel, he said.
“One noticeable trend is the degree to which many companies are thinking about cyber security,” he added. “They are working to stave off a cyber attack and taking steps to insure that they have teams in place to handle the immediate response and any compliance and litigation issues that subsequently arise.”
Johnson said staying abreast of the changing regulatory environment, both domestically and internationally, will continue to pose legal challenges for his clients. As an example, Johnson cited the Executive Order President Obama issued earlier this year that directed the creation of a cyber security framework for critical infrastructure. He says that process is underway now, and the White House is said to be considering incentives to encourage compliance.