Exclusive: Tyler Federal Judge Davis to Join Fish & Richardson

© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.By Mark Curriden (March 30) – U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis of the Eastern District of Texas is taking his expertise in handling complex patent disputes to Fish & Richardson in Dallas when he steps down in May. In an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook, Judge Davis said multiple law firms made inquiries during the past few months, but that he decided to practice at Fish because of the firm’s strength in intellectual property law and his personal knowledge of some of the partners. “It made sense to go from the busiest patent docket in the U.S. to the busiest patent law firm in the U.S.,” he said. Judge Davis has been on the federal bench for 13 years, including the past three years as chief judge of the Eastern District. From 2000 to 2002, he was chief justice of Texas’ Twelfth Court of Appeals in Tyler. He was the general counsel of the Texas Republican Party from 1983 to 1988. When Judge Davis took the bench in 2002, there were less than 10 patent cases on the docket. Today, there are about 1,100 such disputes pending in the Eastern District. During the past 13…