David L. Patrón

David Patrón serves as the Regional Practice Coordinator of the firm’s New Orleans Litigation Group where he manages one of the firm’s largest practice groups. With over twenty years of legal experience, David Patrón has established a solid reputation as a talented litigator who successfully represents businesses at all phases of litigation in state and federal courts throughout the Gulf South and beyond. Whether winning at trial or negotiating favorable settlements, he is a results-oriented lawyer whose legal successes have been recognized in several media outlets. For more than a decade, Mr. Patrón also has taught negotiation and advocacy as a law school adjunct faculty professor to more than a thousand law students, and he applies this experience in both courtrooms and boardrooms. With a strong background in commercial litigation and deep experience in the energy sector, Mr. Patrón provides counsel to clients on a wide variety of complex legal issues, including antitrust and trade regulation, intellectual property, and employment law. Whether defending a breach of contract or prosecuting a breach of fiduciary duty, Mr. Patrón focuses on finding real world business solutions for his clients.

Mr. Patrón regularly counsels and represents clients in the energy sector, including publicly traded exploration and production companies with domestic and international operations. For more than a decade, he has acted as the primary counsel for an oil and gas company that consistently ranks as a top producer in the State of Louisiana. Mr. Patrón also actively represents several oilfield services companies specializing in drilling, pressure control, snubbing, nitrogen and fluid pumping, wireline, barge and towing services, offshore catering, hydraulic fracturing, and well control. He handles a variety of litigation matters affecting the energy sector, including disputes with lessors, royalty owners, contractors, operators, and regulators. His experience includes a host of government and regulatory issues affecting the oil and gas industry, including coastal use permitting, environmental regulations, severance taxes, oilfield legacy litigation, royalty disputes, criminal investigations, and lease disputes. He represents energy clients before the Department of Revenue, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Environmental Quality, State Mineral Board, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Justice.

Mr. Patrón also represents corporate clients on a variety of intellectual property and technology issues including trade secrets, copyright and trademark law, software rights and licensing, confidentiality and non-competition agreements, e-commerce and internet use, cybersquatting, and unfair trade practices. Mr. Patrón litigates intellectual property cases on a regular basis and frequently works with the Patent and Trademark Office to secure various registrations for emerging companies. He represents clients in the sale of intellectual property and the use of trademarks and copyrighted materials on websites. He reviews, drafts, negotiates, and litigates software licensing agreements and counsels clients regarding business systems designed to protect trade secrets. Mr. Patrón is the former chairman of the Intellectual Property Law Committee of the Louisiana State Bar Association and remains active in the IP committees of New Orleans and Louisiana Bar Associations. He is a frequent speaker on a wide variety of intellectual property topics, and the media regularly seeks his legal analysis regarding intellectual property issues.

Mr. Patrón has substantial experience in antitrust and trade regulation. At Stanford Law School, he studied antitrust and trade regulation under the former United States Attorney General of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Since then, he has defended and prosecuted antitrust claims on behalf of clients at the trial and appellate levels, has prepared amicus briefs on antitrust issues, and has monitored antitrust litigation, legislation, and guidelines on behalf of interested clients. Outside of the courtroom, Mr. Patrón has defended clients being investigated by federal antitrust regulators, has designed an Antitrust Compliance Manual for businesses, and has published articles on antitrust law developments. He has also counseled trade associations and practice groups on various antitrust issues, including information sharing, price-fixing, and state-action immunity.

In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Patrón serves on the firm’s E-Discovery Team and helps guide the firm’s efforts to ensure that our lawyers are on the cutting edge of the evolving legislative and jurisprudential rules which govern electronic discovery and have the best tools available to efficiently collect, review and produce electronic data for the firm’s clients. The E-Discovery Team also works with clients to develop strategies for electronic data organization, retention and collection – both before and during litigation – so that they are prepared to actively avoid, pursue or defend disputes in the most efficient way possible.

Mr. Patrón has published several articles concerning developments in antitrust, trade regulation, intellectual property, and commercial litigation. He has drafted several papers and moderated a series of American Bar Association roundtable discussions on a variety of legal topics and has appeared as a legal commentator on WDSU-TV, WGNO-TV, and WVUE-TV to discuss various government and court actions.