Clifford Chance boosts Paris team with David Por

Por will join Clifford Chance as a partner. Two associates will follow, one of which is dual qualified as lawyer and engineer. Cyril Riffaud will become counsel at Clifford Chance.

So far, the European patent team has mainly centred on the Düsseldorf office, where the law firm hired two well-known young litigators from Hoyng ROKH Monegier in 2022, Tobias Hessel and Stephan Richter. The German team not only gained a good toehold in national patent litigation but also made a good start at the UPC.

At the latter, the team was highly active for Huawei against Netgear over wi-fi technology and for Oppo against Panasonic over mobile communications. Both cases have since been settled.

In addition, the patent team is active for TP-Link in a dispute with Atlas Global over SEPs for wi-fi, as well as for Pfizer against GSK over RSV vaccines. Pfizer recently retained the team to defend against a lawsuit brought by Promosome. BioNtech is also a defendant in the dispute over mRNA technology.

Claudia Milbradt, co-head of global intellectual property at Clifford Chance, says, “David’s expertise will be instrumental in building and reinforcing our growing Unified Patent Court practice, which is already robust in Germany.”

In the French market, Por is a recognised expert in mobile communications patents. Until recently he also presided over the Association des Praticiens Européens des Brevets (Association of European Patent Practitioners).

Frontman in France

Por began his career at French IP firm August Debouzy in 2000. He joined what was then Allen & Overy in 2005, now A&O Shearman, spending 20 years at the international full-service firm.

Por is A&O Shearman’s frontman in France for telecoms cases, having represented such notable clients as Google and Nokia. For the former, he led a successful case in 2023 in conjunction with Apple against an inventor concerning their iOS and Android operating systems. For the latter, he played a leading role in Nokia’s Frensch cases against Oppo over implementation patents — one of the fiercest battles in the global patent market. He also recently represented a large Korean electronics company.

Whether his clients will follow him is currently unknown. Clifford Chance’s patent team has so far worked for clients such as Oppo on the opposing side to Nokia. However, a Spanish patent team was also active for Nokia against Oppo. The law firm also has a good relationship with Nokia in antitrust law.

David Por says, “I am really excited about building up an IP practice in the Paris office of Clifford Chance. While they did not have that capability yet in France, they already have very strong teams in other jurisdictions, with whom I look forward to jointly develop a market-leading UPC practice.”

Stephen Reese, co-head of global intellectual property at Clifford Chance, says, “David is well-known to us as one of the leading practitioners and brings significant expertise to our practice.”

He adds, “This move demonstrates our unwavering commitment and continued investment in our leading global IP practice, building on the successful growth we have had in Germany and the UK. By committing to a strong presence in Paris, we are reinforcing our dedication to providing top-tier IP services across key jurisdictions.”

Stability at A&O

A&O Shearman remains stable in Paris with an IP team of three partners and nine associates. Laëtitia Bénard and Charles Tuffreau are the two partners primarily responsible for patent litigation. However, both have also worked for tech companies in the past.

The firm recently underwent a major restructuring process due to the merger of Allen & Overy with Sherman & Sterling. In addition to Paris, the patent team is also well positioned in London and Germany, but also in Amsterdam.