Jonathan Lindsay of Irell & Manella. (Photo by Mark Savage)

Jonathan Lindsay is returning home.

After 15 years practicing IP law at Crowell & Moring, the patent attorney is returning to the Newport Beach office of Irell & Manella, where he began his career 19 years ago.

Irell has lost a handful of high-profile partners to larger firms in recent months, but Lindsay said he's happy to return to a firm with a premium IP brand, where he can practice alongside friends who aren't spread around the world. "I missed that, to be honest," he said. "Being more established in my career now, I can really appreciate that and hopefully leverage it."

Lindsay has recently litigated cases for BMW and T. Rowe Price, among others, before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). His practices also includes patent prosecution and IP due diligence for tech transactions, with recent emphasis on autonomous vehicles and the internet of things.

With autonomous vehicles, both the nature of the technology and the business is changing rapidly, he said. Many automakers are having to partner with technology companies, whether in the software or the component area, and that means more licensing and joint venture transactions. "It's something they haven't been as steeped in maybe as some other industries have," he said.

Jonathan Kagan, a member of Irell's executive committee, said the firm had been talking with Lindsay for many months and the hire is unrelated to the recent departures. Kagan said the firm is upfront with lateral partners that it's not aiming to be a particular size or to become a large global firm.

The firm is careful about lateral hires, which always carry some risk, Kagan said. "Our familiarity with his quality of work and his philosophy of practicing law and servicing clients" helped mitigate that risk, he said.

Irell's PTAB work is "something that has really ballooned in the last few years," Kagan noted. (The firm ranks ninth on Unified Patents' list of top firms for patent owners at the PTAB.)

Kagan also appreciates the experience and litigator's perspective Lindsay will bring in evaluating patents—including their scope and their relevance to an industry—for transactions. "Jonathan has a good background in both the transaction side and the litigation side," Kagan said.

Lindsay will join the firm as counsel. He said he's looking forward to practicing with Babak Redjaian and partner Ben Yorks, whom he worked with at the office in the early 2000s. "It speaks to what a special place this is" that they're still practicing there, and "I'm certainly looking forward to working with them again."