Joseph R. Palmore

Joseph R. Palmore is a distinguished patent litigation attorney and a co-chair of Morrison & Foerster's Appellate and Supreme Court practice, serving as the Managing Partner of the firm's Washington, D.C. office. His practice includes a focus on intellectual property, with experience spanning diverse technology areas such as communications, software, and financial technology, as indicated by his role as lead counsel in Visa USA Inc v. Cortex MCP Inc. He also serves as a member of the Technology Litigation Advisory Committee of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center.

In his patent litigation practice, Mr. Palmore primarily represents technology companies, often in appellate contexts. He notably secured a victory for Immersion Corporation in a Federal Circuit patent appeal, an outcome described by one practitioner as having "saved from the fire tens of thousands of patents that would have gone up in smoke." While his tracked case involved plaintiff-side representation, his extensive appellate background suggests a versatile approach to advocating for clients' intellectual property interests regardless of their original trial-court posture.

Before joining Morrison & Foerster in 2014, Mr. Palmore held significant government roles, including Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice and Deputy General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, where he oversaw litigation involving constitutional, statutory, and administrative-law challenges to agency actions. He has argued 13 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, handling appeals across various issues including antitrust, class actions, and intellectual property. His experience does not explicitly detail regular appearances in PTAB or IPR proceedings.

Mr. Palmore earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, an M.A. in legal history from the University of Virginia, and an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University. He is admitted to practice in New York, the District of Columbia, and numerous federal circuit courts. He clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge John Gleeson on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and Judge Dennis Jacobs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.