DLA Piper expands market-leading patent litigation and ITC practices with addition of Partners Robert Shaffer and Sean Trainor

DLA Piper today announced that Robert Shaffer and Sean Trainor have joined the firm as Partners in its Intellectual Property and Technology (IPT) practice in Washington, DC. Shaffer will serve as Head of the Life Sciences Patent Litigation practice and Trainor will serve as Co-Head of the US International Trade Commission (ITC) practice.

Shaffer brings patent litigation capabilities to the firm’s life sciences platform, positioning DLA Piper to provide pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device clients with a full suite of support from regulatory strategy and transactions through high-stakes patent disputes, trial, and appeal. The arrival of Trainor, a seasoned trial lawyer with decades of experience handling ITC investigations across a broad range of technologies, cements the firm’s position as the market leader in ITC Section 337 investigations.

DLA Piper offers an integrated global platform built to handle clients’ most complex cross-border matters. A single product launch or technology standard can now trigger parallel proceedings in US district courts, at the ITC, and before the US Patent and Trademark Office, often alongside related actions abroad. Shaffer and Trainor have deep experience across the US forums at the center of those disputes. Their addition expands the firm’s ability to serve major pharmaceutical, life sciences, medical device, technology, semiconductor, automotive, battery, and consumer electronics clients on a national and global scale.

“The companies we represent need lawyers they can trust when their most valuable innovations are on the line,” said Loren Brown, the firm’s Global Vice Chair and Global Head of Disputes. “Rob and Sean are exactly that. Rob is one of the leading first-chair life sciences patent trial lawyers in the country, and Sean is among the most respected practitioners and trial lawyers before the ITC. By bringing Rob and Sean to the firm, our clients gain first-chair trial strength in two of the most important arenas for protecting innovation: life sciences disputes and the ITC. Recruiting the market’s leading partners in the areas that matter most to our clients is an important part of our global strategy, and this is only the beginning.”

A nationally recognized first-chair IP trial lawyer, Shaffer has spent more than 25 years handling significant patent disputes, with a particular concentration in life sciences. He has represented leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies in dozens of major matters, including Hatch-Waxman litigation, ITC Section 337 investigations, PTAB proceedings, and complex commercial arbitrations. His background includes significant trial victories and resolutions involving some of the world’s most valuable drugs, medical devices, and technologies.

Trainor is a nationally recognized Section 337 trial lawyer who has handled dozens of ITC investigations, including many through trial, for clients facing disputes over some of their most important technologies. His experience spans wireless telecommunications, mobile devices and chipsets, lithium-ion batteries, data storage systems, semiconductors, and advanced medical devices. He has experience establishing and challenging the domestic industry requirement unique to ITC investigations.

“DLA Piper is the preeminent full-service law firm in the ITC, and Sean is the right person to help lead that practice into its next chapter, along with Helena Kiepura in Washington, DC,” said Erin Gibson, who has led DLA Piper’s ITC practice for several years and now leads the firm’s global IPT practice. “With Rob’s first-chair trial strength in life sciences joining our existing first-chair trial strength in the ITC and federal district courts, we are building a patent litigation platform no other firm can match, backed by the reach of a truly global firm. Our clients’ most valuable technologies are contested in multiple forums and markets at once. We offer them one integrated team, deep sector acumen, and a bench of elite patent trial lawyers. That combination is what makes DLA Piper the right firm for the highest-stakes disputes.”

With a deep bench of lawyers with advanced technical and scientific degrees in key jurisdictions worldwide, DLA Piper’s Patent Litigation team has a strong track record of driving successful outcomes in complex cases by combining courtroom skill with in-depth technical knowledge and experience across the electronics, computer science, telecommunications and wireless, pharma and biotech, medical device, chemical engineering, materials, and automotive industries.