Federal Judiciary

"Fallout From In re TS Tech: Venue Disputes in Texas" - presentation at 2009 State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting

By Michael C. Smith

If you were attending the State Bar of Texas' annual meeting in Dallas today, at 9 this morning you could have heard me speaking on the state of patent venue law post-In re TS Tech, or you could have heard Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner talking about their new book Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges.  Amazingly, a roomful of patent lawyers made the wrong choice and came to listen to me instead of the Supreme Court justice, but I got out in time to get Justice Scalia to autograph my book (very nice inscription - it reads "To my favorite renegade jurisdiction lawyer, Nino.")
Great, great conference - speakers including Doris Kearns Goodwin on Lincoln (with a little LBJ tossed in), Roger Cossack on being a legal analyst, Morris Dees, Roger Cossack, a panel of law school deans including Ken Starr, New York Times columnist David Brooks (who claims he was on his way to Argentina) and historian Richard Beeman, author of Plain, Honest Men: The Making of The American Constitution, as well as my friend Talmage Boston pitching (pun intended) his latest baseball book Baseball and the Baby Boomer: A History, Commentary and Memoir.  I was pleased to score signed copies of the latter two, but unfortunately forgot to bring my three Goodwin books to have them signed, despite spending three days last week on our camping trip reading her LBJ book.  (But it was really cool getting to talk to her about it).
Great CLE as well as terrific speakers, and it was good seeing my friends from the State Bar again.

Full post as published by Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice on June 26, 2009 (boomark / email).