World IP Review (WIPR) has listed five Haynes and Boone, LLP partners among the world’s leading intellectual property (IP) lawyers for 2024, up two from last year. Newly ranked Partners Vera Suarez and Jeff Morton, who is new to Haynes Boone, join the ranks of Partners Purvi Patel Albers, Jeff Becker and David McCombs.
WIPR Leaders recognizes the full spectrum of IP practices, including patents, trademarks, design, copyright, licensing and trade secrets, and it ranges from dispute resolution to litigation and prosecution. The process of selection involved canvassing the opinions of 50,000 IP professionals across the world—a nomination drive which generated nearly 600 lawyer nominations and rigorous in-house research and vetting.
WIPR said this is “the most extensive, diverse list that the team has produced in almost a decade since it began,” with the gender ratio of North American rankings consisting of 45 percent women and 55 percent men.
Read more about Haynes Boone’s WIPR Leaders below:
Suarez is co-chair of the firm’s Attorney Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and a registered patent attorney and partner in the Dallas office. Not only does she develop and manage patent portfolios in a wide variety of technology areas, but she also advises clients with respect to patent validity, freedom to operate, product clearance and preparing IP portfolios for acquisition. Suarez was the lead patent attorney on the Haynes Boone team that secured an expedited Issue Notification for Moser Energy Systems' new EV charger controller patent application under the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program.
Morton’s practice focuses on the life sciences industry, where he primarily spends time working for innovative companies on patent strategy and prosecution. He has patent experience in technologies including genomics, immunology and gene editing, and he advises on complex freedom-to-operate life sciences issues. Morton is recognized as a world-class IP attorney by IAM Patent 1000 (2022-2024), as a Leader of Influence by San Diego Business Journal (2022-2023) and as a California Trademark Leader by WIPR (2022).
Albers is a member of the firm’s board of directors and serves as trusted adviser and counsel to Fortune 500 companies and high-growth ventures on the management of their valuable brand investments. She has been recognized as someone who "is very strategic and a strong communicator both orally and in writing." (Chambers USA, Chambers and Partners, 2024).
Becker is one of only 11 U.S. trademark attorneys who has been repeatedly, nationally recognized by World Trademark Review’s WTR 1000, Globe Publishing, Ltd. (2011-2023) for his experience in trademark law and for having the rare combination of both “prosecution and strategy” and “enforcement and litigation” skill. Additionally, Chambers USA has ranked Becker as one of the country’s top trademark lawyers for 21 years.
McCombs is primary counsel for many leading corporations in inter partes review (IPR) and is regularly identified as one of the most active attorneys appearing before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). His clients benefit from his 35 years of practice, which include appellate argument, patent litigation and portfolio development. McCombs was recently inducted into Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for Patents: Prosecution (Including Re-Examination and Post-Grant Proceedings).
