GDC vs Mckool vs Winston (Dallas litigation)? Forum

[Anonymous User]

1L YHS Dallas native who wants to do commercial/IP lit. Don’t have a technical background but doesn’t seem necessary for anything outside of patent prosecution from what I’ve heard. I know GDC is seen as the most “credential heavy” and elite but I don’t know about their IP department. Seems Mckool has cooled off on their patent lit since the TC Heartland decision but maybe with Waco and Judge Albright that’s changed? Working alongside Melsheimer and company would be cool too but also aren’t that familiar with the department. Any insights that aren’t already on this forum?

[Anonymous User]

1L YHS Dallas native who wants to do commercial/IP lit. Don’t have a technical background but doesn’t seem necessary for anything outside of patent prosecution from what I’ve heard. I know GDC is seen as the most “credential heavy” and elite but I don’t know about their IP department. Seems Mckool has cooled off on their patent lit since the TC Heartland decision but maybe with Waco and Judge Albright that’s changed? Working alongside Melsheimer and company would be cool too but also aren’t that familiar with the department. Any insights that aren’t already on this forum?

Do you want to do plaintiff side work? If so, then McKool is your best bet. You'll get lots of experience early-on and work on high profile cases to boot. If not, then don't go to McKool. From personal experience, I'm not a fan of contingency fee work or their culture. It's incredibly competitive and partners seem interested only in the next paycheck.

[Pneumonia]

Why do you want to do patent lit specifically? Plenty stumble into it without a technical background, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone without that background express a preference for it so early.

[Anonymous User]

GDC has a pretty active group of patent lawyers, but it's not their core strength. McKool could be a better option if you're sure that you want to go all-in on IP work. For commercial lit and appellate more generally, Gibson Dallas is a juggernaut like you say; it's an unusual heavyweight within the firm itself. The reasons not to go there would be higher hours and the fact that it's harder to set yourself apart from your peers (for partnership and so on). Haven't heard anything bad about Winston.

[Anonymous User]

Several McKool partners and associates have lateralled to Sidley in recent years, so it could be worth looking at. Not sure if that says anything about McKool's health. Sidley has a thriving office in Dallas, although people report a tough culture.

[Anonymous User]

GDC has a pretty active group of patent lawyers, but it's not their core strength. McKool could be a better option if you're sure that you want to go all-in on IP work. For commercial lit and appellate more generally, Gibson Dallas is a juggernaut like you say; it's an unusual heavyweight within the firm itself. The reasons not to go there would be higher hours and the fact that it's harder to set yourself apart from your peers (for partnership and so on). Haven't heard anything bad about Winston.

Unfortunately, all the top litigation shops in Dallas have high hours. McKool is probably the most infamous for this actually. But all the other ones are probably not too far behind.

[Anonymous User]

GDC has a pretty active group of patent lawyers, but it's not their core strength. McKool could be a better option if you're sure that you want to go all-in on IP work. For commercial lit and appellate more generally, Gibson Dallas is a juggernaut like you say; it's an unusual heavyweight within the firm itself. The reasons not to go there would be higher hours and the fact that it's harder to set yourself apart from your peers (for partnership and so on). Haven't heard anything bad about Winston.

Unfortunately, all the top litigation shops in Dallas have high hours. McKool is probably the most infamous for this actually. But all the other ones are probably not too far behind.

Not in Texas, but I have experience with some of the firms discussed ITT. I think this is common for pretty much all high-dollar IP lit shops, whether on plaintiff or defense side. Not that general lit is that much better, but IP lit seems to be worse at most of the firms I know of.

[Anonymous User]

If you're ok with representing patent trolls and everyone in the field basically hating the bullshit you have to spout to Texas juries to spin an shitty patent into gold, and also crazy hours, then McKool provides a lot of opportunities and does a ton of high-profile patent lit. Though I do think they tend to prefer lawyers with engineering backgrounds.

If you still want some semblance of a soul, then go with GDC. Their patent lit group is one of the least focused on engineering talent compared to other high-profile patent lit groups. Dallas has a lot of patent lit partners/associates, so there should be a lot of interesting work to go around. They do a lot of high profile cases, although they're a tier down compared to some other firms like Wilmer and Quinn.

I wouldn't consider Winston unless you're ok with doing a lot of post-grant work (i.e. IPRs), which is basically super laid back patent lit, but that also means it's not very exciting.

[Anonymous User]

GDC has a pretty active group of patent lawyers, but it's not their core strength. McKool could be a better option if you're sure that you want to go all-in on IP work. For commercial lit and appellate more generally, Gibson Dallas is a juggernaut like you say; it's an unusual heavyweight within the firm itself. The reasons not to go there would be higher hours and the fact that it's harder to set yourself apart from your peers (for partnership and so on). Haven't heard anything bad about Winston.

What’s the story for how GDC Dallas became such a big destination for highly credentialed Fed Soc types? Of course conservatives like TX but it’s hardly the only good firm there

[Anonymous User]

GDC has a pretty active group of patent lawyers, but it's not their core strength. McKool could be a better option if you're sure that you want to go all-in on IP work. For commercial lit and appellate more generally, Gibson Dallas is a juggernaut like you say; it's an unusual heavyweight within the firm itself. The reasons not to go there would be higher hours and the fact that it's harder to set yourself apart from your peers (for partnership and so on). Haven't heard anything bad about Winston.

What’s the story for how GDC Dallas became such a big destination for highly credentialed Fed Soc types? Of course conservatives like TX but it’s hardly the only good firm there

The office has an interesting history. Until 2010 or so, GDC Dallas was just another satellite office that existed to service the coastal offices. Around that time, Vinson & Elkins had a big internal fight over the future direction of the firm. Eventually, the firm decided to put all their chips in transactions and sideline lit. The big fish in V&E lit decided to decamp and build up GDC. They joined forces with appellate stars like (now Judge) Jim Ho and that became the foundation for what GDC Dallas is today. Judge VanDyke and several of the most recent Texas SGs earned their chops in the office as associates too.

Interestingly enough, this paid off for both firms. V&E dominates Texas transactions along with Kirkland, while Gibson is at the top of the pecking order in Dallas lit. There is a noticeably big FedSoc circuit-clerk presence, but plenty of liberals and moderates as well (including Ron Kirk, a huge rainmaker at the firm). The office is probably about evenly split in terms of politics. The recent addition of one of Lynn Pinker's name partners was another big development as well.