Plaintiffs firm Grant & Eisenhofer has branched out into intellectual property, hiring former Reed Smith partner Eric Evain to lead a litigation practice focused on patent, trade secrets and other IP cases.

Grant & Eisenhofer announced Evain's arrival in a statement Wednesday, touting his hire as another indication that the firm has expanded beyond the shareholder litigation and corporate governance cases upon which it built much of its reputation. Outside of the new IP group headed by Evain, who joins as a director in Wilmington, Delaware, Grant & Eisenhofer said it has moved in recent years into representing plaintiffs in antitrust and bankruptcy litigation, consumer class actions and mass torts.

The firm has dabbled in IP before but determined that it could also house a dedicated practice in that area, according to a joint statement from firm leaders Stuart Grant and Jay Eisenhofer.

“Over the past decade we've selectively taken on cases involving intellectual property and trade secrets, and felt the time was right to create a dedicated IP capability to complement our existing work on behalf of investors and consumers,” they said in the statement.

Grant and Eisenhofer, their firm's co-managing directors, described Evain as a skilled trial lawyer and noted that he has a science background, including a doctorate in organic chemistry, and early career stops as a corporate research scientist in the chemical and petroleum industries.

Evain's past legal experience came at Reed Smith and, before that, at Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz, a legacy firm that later merged to become Novak Druce Connolly Bove & Quigg before that firm wound down in 2016. Evain has specific experience in chemical-related IP disputes involving pharmaceuticals, petroleum, polymers and other specialized products. Grant & Eisenhofer's statement welcoming him to the firm said that Evain has taken part in successful litigation efforts that brought some $500 million to his clients over the past 15 years.

Recently, Evain led a trial team that secured a favorable $1.5 million verdict in Delaware federal court for German global specialty chemical company Evonik Degussa GmbH. Previously, he represented chemical company Albemarle Corp. in a number of patent and trade secrets cases that played out in multiple courts across the U.S., according to Grant & Eisenhofer.

“We welcome Eric to head our new practice offering. He brings outstanding trial skills and an impressive record of courtroom success for his clients on some of their most challenging IP matters,” they said. “Eric's strong background as a scientist who holds a number of his own chemical-related patents makes him additionally qualified in understanding the technical aspects of complex patent cases.”

Evain said in an interview that he was drawn to Grant & Eisenhofer by its reputation as a strong litigation firm and the opportunity to start a whole new practice group there. He's also thrilled to have a chance to pursue IP cases on a contingency basis—in which clients generally don't pay legal fees unless they win, as opposed to the traditional billable hour model—which he said sometimes makes patent litigation too costly for startups and other companies.

“They have a contingency fee model and you don't see a lot of that in patent litigation,” Evain said of his new firm. “We're going to be very selective in the cases we take, but by having this sort of model, the advantage is … it aligns the interests of the firm exactly with the interests of the client.”

Evain added that in the early days at Grant & Eisenhofer, he's likely to tap the experience of other lawyers who have handled IP cases in the past. But his practice group may grow over time too.

“There are a lot of folks here who actually have some patent litigation backgrounds,” he said. “But as a need develops, I'm sure the group will meet that need with more people as necessary.”