Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale Dorr

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WilmerHale — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Firm overview. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP ("WilmerHale") is a full-service Am Law 100 firm formed by the 2004 merger of Boston-based Hale and Dorr and Washington-based Wilmer Cutler Pickering. It maintains co-headquarters in Washington, DC (1875/2100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW) and Boston (60 State Street), with U.S. offices in New York, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Denver and Waltham, and international offices including London, Oxford, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt and Beijing. It is a large, diversified BigLaw firm rather than an IP boutique: ILRG's 2025 headcount ranking lists roughly 990 attorneys and 255 partners (a secondary aggregator, cited as such). The firm has appeared repeatedly on The American Lawyer's A-List and was named The American Lawyer's Law Firm of the Year in 2020. I did not verify a specific Am Law revenue rank for 2025 from a primary source and therefore do not state one.

IP litigation specialty. The firm's own practice description and Legal 500/IAM/World IP Review coverage identify a broad technology spread rather than a single niche: semiconductors and microprocessors (Intel, TSMC, Skyworks, ASML), consumer electronics and smartphones (Apple/Samsung), networking and standards-adjacent technologies (VirnetX, X2Y, Qualcomm power patents), medical devices (Becton Dickinson, Permobil, Insulet/Roche), and life sciences including Hatch-Waxman and biologics (Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer, Gilead, Takeda/Millennium, Genentech). It also handles Section 337 ITC investigations and trademark matters. WilmerHale states its IP practice includes more than 100 lawyers, many with advanced scientific or technical degrees (older firm materials cite 200+ across general IP, IP litigation and appellate work).

Side preference. The tracked dataset is thin — a single appearance, on the defendant/respondent side, as lead counsel — so it should be read as a sample of PTAB-centric activity, not a full docket. Taken with the public record, the firm is predominantly a defense-side shop for operating companies: nearly every marquee patent matter above (Intel, Apple, Google, Comcast, BMS, Gilead, BD) involves defending or clearing products. It nonetheless works both sides — it has served as plaintiff's counsel (Apple's $539M jury win against Samsung) and as petitioner in a large volume of IPRs for Unified Patents, a defensive patent aggregator rather than a PAE.

Notable tracked case and outcomes. The sole tracked matter is Unified Patents v. Neurent Medical Ltd, with David L. Cavanaugh listed as lead counsel for the Neurent side. Public PTAB records confirm Cavanaugh as lead counsel for Neurent Medical Inc. and Neurent Medical Ltd. in a family of IPRs (IPR2024-00277 through -00282, and IPR2024-00669) challenging Aerin Medical/The Foundry nasal neuromodulation patents, where the Board issued final written decisions in July 2025 invalidating challenged claims; Neurent also appears as patent owner in Aerin's later IPR2025-01124–01127 filings. I did not locate a proceeding literally captioned Unified Patents v. Neurent Medical in the sources reviewed, so the tracker caption should be treated with caution. Separately verified headline results include the Federal Circuit's 2023–24 vacatur of a $2.18B VLSI verdict against Intel and affirmation of PTAB invalidation of the asserted patents; reversal of a $506M WARF verdict and elimination of a $576M VirnetX judgment against Apple; and a defense win for Gilead defeating government-asserted patent claims.

PTAB / IPR practice. Post-grant work is a core strength. Firm materials state its attorneys have handled 590+ IPRs, that a 2021 Law360 report placed it among the top three full-service firms for PTAB work, and that Unified Patents credited WilmerHale with the highest institution rate by claim of any U.S. firm. Verified results include PTAB invalidation of USAA mobile-banking claims against PNC, affirmance of four IPRs invalidating Qualcomm claims against Intel, and successive Unified Patents wins against SportBrain and Nonend patents. Cavanaugh is the practice anchor for post-grant work (400+ IPR proceedings as lead or counsel of record; IAM Patent 1000 "Highly Recommended" for post-grant proceedings).

Key partners. Practice leaders and prominent names, per the firm site, Legal 500, IAM and World IP Review: Mark D. Selwyn (Palo Alto) and Amy K. Wigmore (Washington, DC) co-chair the IP Litigation practice, alongside Emily R. Whelan (Boston) and, per Legal 500, Lisa Pirozzolo as practice heads; David L. Cavanaugh (Washington, DC) leads post-grant/PTAB work; and William F. Lee (Boston) remains one of the most-cited trial and appellate advocates in the group. Other frequently recognized practitioners include Mary "Mindy" Sooter, Joseph Haag, James Dowd, Sarah Frazier, Brittany Amadi and Joseph Mueller.