Law 360
By Carolina Bolado
Former U.S. District Judge T. John Ward, who was instrumental in making the Eastern District of Texas a venue of choice for intellectual property disputes, has joined his son's Longview, Texas-based firm Ward & Smith to lead its new mediation practice, the firm announced last week.
Ward, who retired Sept. 30 after 12 years on the bench, joined the firm started about a decade ago by his son T. John Ward Jr., where he will focus his mediation practice primarily on IP disputes, in which he became an expert during his time overseeing the "rocket docket," according to the announcement.
"Mediation is a quicker, more effective way than trial to resolve many disputes," Judge Ward said. "Most copyright, trademark or patent disputes end up being settled, so mediation simply offers an alternative, and less expensive, way to achieve a resolution that's acceptable to all the parties involved."
The judge said he didn't set out to make the Eastern District of Texas an IP hotspot - it was the "ultimate example of the law of unintended consequences," he said.
The first patent case he tried was his last before taking the bench in September 1999. He was hired by a San Francisco firm to represent Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. in a trial against Texas Instruments Inc., which was eventually awarded $25.2 million by a jury for patent infringement.
Throughout the proceedings, the San Francisco attorneys kept mentioning that if the Northern District of California's rules applied, they would not have run into so many problems, Judge Ward said.
A short time later, when he presided over his first Markman hearing, he began to wonder if those rules might be useful. Neither of the attorneys in that case had thought to work out any agreement, despite the fact that they agreed on all but two or three issues that were easily resolved, he said.
"So I said, let's go get the Northern District of California rules that I heard so much about," Judge Ward said. "I had no idea that I was going to create a flood of cases."
Those rules include mandatory disclosure and exchange procedures and require that parties confer about the case prior to a hearing, so as to minimize the cost of discovery and save time and money on everyone's part, he said.
Since Judge Ward implemented the rules in 2001, the Eastern District of Texas has become the most popular venue in the country for patent cases.
Prior to his time on the bench, Judge Ward spent 31 years as a civil litigator, trying product liability, commercial contract and other cases. He tried more than 250 cases to jury verdict throughout Texas before his appointment to the bench by then-President Bill Clinton.
He recently served as a member of the National Patent Jury Instruction Project, which in June 2009 released a model of jury instructions to help judges and attorneys in patent disputes across the country.
He holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Texas Tech University and a law degree from Baylor University.
He said he loved his old job, which was intellectually challenging and allowed him to interact with smart people over interesting issues. At this point in his career, he said, he had always planned to seek senior status on the court, but then his son suggested he come aboard as a mediator.
"Being a United States district judge was the best job in the world - except when you have the opportunity at the age of 68 to practice law with your son," Judge Ward said.
--Editing by Kat Laskowski.
