Fernald Law Group

Fernald Law Group LLP — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview. Fernald Law Group LLP is a small trial-litigation boutique founded in 2009, with its principal office in Los Angeles (510 W 6th Street, Suite 700) and a second office in Las Vegas. Public directory data (Salary.com, LegalReach, Avvo) places the firm at roughly 6–10 employees, describing it as a cost-effective alternative to national firms. It is not an IP-only shop and does not appear in AmLaw or Chambers rankings; the firm's stated practice spans general business litigation, class actions, employment, insurance, real estate, and intellectual property, with litigation accounting for the bulk of principal Brandon Fernald's work (his Avvo profile lists litigation at 65% and IP at roughly 10%).

IP litigation specialty. Patent work appears to be a modest slice of a broader civil-litigation practice, and in the tracked docket data the firm's role is consistently local counsel for out-of-state lead counsel in C.D. Cal. patent cases. The technology areas reflected in the tracked matters center on software/wireless-printing systems: Flexiworld Technologies' assertions against Epson America involved patents covering wireless printing and mobile-device/software functionality. Public filings corroborate semiconductor and LED/electronics matters as well (e.g., SRAM/sense-amplifier patents for Progressive Semiconductor Solutions against Qualcomm, Broadcom and Marvell; LED-lighting patents for Technical LED against TP-Link), though those specific appearances fall outside the tracked case list.

Side preference. The firm's tracked appearances are entirely plaintiff-side (3 plaintiff, 0 defendant), all in the local-counsel role for Brandon C. Fernald. The underlying matters are NPE/patent-owner assertions — Flexiworld Technologies is a non-practicing patent monetization entity — so the firm's tracked patent practice skews toward serving plaintiff patent holders as California local counsel rather than defending operating companies. That said, the public record also shows defense trial work by Mr. Fernald in non-patent litigation (an endorsing attorney describes a complete defense verdict at trial), so the plaintiff-side patent posture may reflect the tracked sample rather than a firmwide policy.

Notable cases or outcomes. The most prominent tracked matter is Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. v. Epson America, Inc. (C.D. Cal., No. 8:21-cv-00807), in which Flexiworld sued Epson over 14 patents; the docket shows pro hac vice orders designating Fernald as local counsel for plaintiff-side lead attorneys (Edward R. Nelson, Timothy Grochocinski, Ryan Griffin). The case was resolved by settlement and dismissed in early 2022, per the district court closing docket and contemporaneous trade coverage. A second tracked Flexiworld/Epson entry appears to be the same or a companion dispute.

PTAB / IPR practice. No evidence supports a notable IPR/PGR filing or defense practice at Fernald Law Group. The only PTAB-adjacent trace found is a district-court complaint exhibit bearing Fernald's signature block in IPR2017-00090 (a proceeding involving U.S. Patent No. 6,862,208), which reflects the underlying litigation rather than firm-level PTAB advocacy. On available records, the firm's patent work is district-court local counsel work, not post-grant practice.

Key partners / practice leaders. The firm was founded by Brandon C. Fernald (Duke Law, J.D. 1999; former Fulbright & Jaworski associate; licensed in California, Nevada, Illinois, and North Carolina) and Rachel D. Stanger, with Robert S. Schulman joining as of counsel in 2011; all three identifications trace to LegalReach, Salary.com, and Martindale profiles rather than the firm's own website, which was not accessible for verification. Fernald is the only attorney appearing in the tracked patent cases. Attorney headcount, revenue, and any rankings beyond those noted could not be independently verified.