Paul D. Clement

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Paul D. Clement — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Focus and side. Clement's tracked patent appearances are narrow but uniform: all eight are on the plaintiff/patent-owner side, and all are for Centripetal Networks, a cybersecurity company asserting network-security patents. The technology at issue is computer networking and cybersecurity software — packet filtering, rule-based network-threat detection, and detection of threats in encrypted traffic — rather than Wi-Fi/standards-essential, pharmaceutical, or mechanical subject matter. That said, Clement is not an NPE-focused or plaintiff-only patent lawyer; he is a generalist Supreme Court and appellate advocate who is hired for high-stakes appeals on either side. The plaintiff-only cast of this docket reflects his long-running representation of one client rather than a claimant-side practice model.

Notable tracked matters. In Centripetal Networks v. Cisco Systems (E.D. Va.), Clement represented Centripetal in the appeal of a bench-trial judgment that included roughly $2.75 billion in enhanced damages and royalties — among the largest patent awards in U.S. history. The Federal Circuit vacated the judgment in June 2022 on judicial-recusal grounds (Centripetal Networks, Inc. v. Cisco Sys., Inc., 38 F.4th 1025), and the Supreme Court denied Centripetal's cert petition in December 2022. On remand the district court found no infringement, a result the Federal Circuit affirmed in a nonprecedential disposition in Centripetal Networks, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc., No. 24-2097 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 29, 2026). Clement also argued Centripetal Networks, LLC v. Palo Alto Networks, Inc., No. 23-2027 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 22, 2025), where the court rejected Centripetal's administrative-patent-judge recusal challenge but vacated the Board's obviousness holding for failing to consider Centripetal's evidence of copying and remanded. The parallel district court action against Palo Alto Networks remained pending as of Palo Alto's most recent public filings, with trial once set for February 2026. Several entries in the tracked list are untitled or unresolved and cannot be characterized further.

PTAB/IPR posture. Clement's IPR-related work in this docket is appellate rather than first-instance: he argued Federal Circuit appeals from final written decisions in the Centripetal IPRs (Nos. 23-2027, and the related Cisco remand appeal). The available record does not show him appearing as counsel of record before the PTAB itself, so IPR/PGR trial-level experience should not be assumed from these entries.

Firm, prior history, and credentials. Clement is a founding partner of Clement & Murphy, PLLC (Alexandria, Va.), which he launched in June 2022 with Erin Murphy after departing Kirkland & Ellis. His earlier career includes the 43rd U.S. Solicitor Generalship (2005–2008), the appellate practice head role at King & Spalding (2008–2011), Bancroft PLLC (2011–2016), and Kirkland & Ellis (2016–2022), plus an early associate stint at Kirkland & Ellis. He holds a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School (Supreme Court editor, Harvard Law Review), a B.S.F.S. summa cum laude from Georgetown, and an M.Phil. from Cambridge, and clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman (D.C. Cir.) and Justice Antonin Scalia. Reliable sources describe him as having argued more Supreme Court cases since 2000 than any other lawyer; specific bar admissions are not verified here.