During the last couple months, the law firms of Morrison Foerster, Wilson Sonsini, Cooley Godward, DLA Piper, and Goodwin Procter laid off more than 250 attorneys. While not enough to turn around the entire economy, we recently hired a patent clerk. We are not just surviving, out little boutique is thriving in this economy. I believe there are two basic reasons for our success: we have great clients, and we offer a great value for our patent work.

Through a local angel investor group, I have helped vet nearly 100 companies over the last two years. This experience has given me tremendous insight in building patent portfolios that attract investor money, but also in accepting new clients with an increased odds of eventual success. Stronger clients raise larger financing rounds, which facilitates further inventions and larger patent portfolios.

But we are doing more than just riding the success of our current clients, we are also providing a great value that is attracting new clients. We have recently accepted new clients that defected from Townsend and Townsend and Crew and from Wilson Sonsini, arguably two of the best (big) law firms in the world. Our new clients love our fixed fee arrangement, stating that - for the first time - they can now set (and keep) a budget for their patent work.

Before I founded the Schox Patent Group, I worked for five years at two large law firms. While I enjoyed (some of) the partners and (most of) their large clients, I noticed a disturbing trend. Many of the large clients appeared to be caring more about the size, rather than the strength, of their patent portfolio. The large law firms noticed this shift and restructured accordingly. Attorneys were judged solely on the quantity of their annual billings, not on the quality of their work or the satisfaction of the clients.

So I left and founded a small patent law group with the hope that, if I revised the law firm model both internally (by abandoning the billable hour requirement and focusing on a strong mentorship) and externally (by offering a fixed fee arrangement), then everything would work out for my law firm and for my clients.

It has.

In most large law firms, the partners and associates are paid a portion of their hourly billings (either through a periodic arrangement or as an annual bonus above a base salary). Hourly billing does not provide an incentive to finish a project. On the contrary, it is not uncommon for an attorney at large law firm to provide a dozen revisions of a patent application to the inventors. At a multi-national company, this extra time might go unnoticed. But in a small startup, this extra time (measured in hours or days) could be quite burdensome.

Everyone on my team is paid by the project, not the hour. This provides the incentive to get it right the first time. Typically, our clients see two drafts: the first draft and the final draft. We respect that our clients are busy building a business, and I have structured our business model around them.

I am a resource member of the Keiretsu Forum, which is the largest angel investor network in the Bay Area, and a member of the Ann Arbor Angels, which is one of the largest angel investor network in the Ann Arbor area.

In addition to these membership in two prominent angel investment networks, we also have strong ties within several venture capital firms, including Arboretum Ventures, DFJ Frontier, New Cycle Capital, and RPM Ventures.

We also have an affiliation with Bodman LLP (a large business law firm in Ann Arbor) and an affiliation with Hansen Bridgett LLP (a large business practice firm in San Francisco), which both provide business formation, licensing, and litigation services.

A strong patent portfolio is a powerful deterrent against patent infringement lawsuits brought by a competitor. For those who seek additional assurance, we maintain intelligence on the patents issued to the competitors of our clients. We also monitor new product developments and company invention disclosures in order to identify technological improvements that warrant freedom-to-operate investigations. When necessary, we render non-infringement and validity opinions and conduct brainstorming sessions to design around any problematic patents.

We do not litigate. Litigation costs millions of dollars, which is exactly what our startup clients are trying to raise, not spend.