Patent Litigation Associate

Location:Dallas, Texas (remote considered for the right candidate)

Experience:1–5 years of active litigation

Skiermont Derby LLP is growing its patent litigation group. We are looking for an experienced patent litigation attorney with a strong technical background and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Skiermont Derby LLP

Location:Dallas, Texas (remote considered for the right candidate)

Experience:1–5 years of active litigation

Skiermont Derby LLP is growing its patent litigation group. We are looking for an experienced patent litigation attorney with a strong technical background and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Skiermont Derby is a litigation boutique that tries high-stakes patent and complex commercial cases, often against the largest firms in the country, and often for clients who need a firm willing to share the risk.

Our model has a direct consequence for the lawyers who join us: responsibility arrives years earlier than it would at a larger firm. Our associates are not document reviewers waiting for a turn. They take depositions, argue motions, build the case theory, and sit at counsel table.

It also shapes how we work together. We are a small group of people who like practicing law and like each other. Partners are down the hall and answer their own email. Ideas get credited to whoever had them. There is no hierarchy to navigate before you can say what you think about a case.

• Take and defend fact and expert depositions
• Draft and argue discovery and dispositive motions
• Develop infringement, invalidity, and damages theories from the ground up
• Work directly with technical and damages experts on reports, rebuttals, and Daubert practice
• Handle claim construction briefing and Markman preparation
• Support — and, as you grow, lead — related PTAB proceedings
• Work directly with clients and inventors
• Try cases

Three to five years of active litigation experience. The emphasis is on active. We care more about what you have actually done — depositions taken, motions argued, cases tried — than about the number of years on your resume. Depending on your industry and technical background, we will consider candidates on either side of that range.

Excellent writing and a real appetite for the record. Patent cases are won on the details — the prosecution history, the source code, the license comparables. We want lawyers who go find them.

An entrepreneurial spirit. Our economics reward lawyers who think like owners: who evaluate cases critically before the firm commits to them, who care about the outcome and not only the hours, who build relationships that generate work, and who want a genuine path to partnership rather than a long queue.

A strong technical background. A degree or equivalent professional experience in electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, physics, telecommunications, materials science, chemistry, or the life sciences. Registration before the USPTO is a plus.

Significant responsibility, early. You will be given as much as you can handle, and then some. If you want to take the deposition, write the summary judgment brief, or handle the expert, the opportunity is there.

Direct mentorship, not a training program. You will work shoulder to shoulder with partners who have tried these cases, and you will get real feedback on your work.

A collegial, low-bureaucracy environment. We are serious about the work and easy to work with. Good lawyers do their best work when they are not spending energy on internal politics, and we have built the firm accordingly.

• Comprehensive medical insurance employees and their dependents
• Paid parental leave for all new parents, including paternity leave
• 401(k) with firm matching
• Paid time off and firm holidays
• Bar dues, CLE, and professional membership expenses covered
• Generous bonus structure

This position is for our Dallas office. For the right candidate, the firm would consider remote work.

Skiermont Derby LLP is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable law.

No unsolicited submissions from search firms or recruiters, please.