Houston; Washington, D.C.
Paul is a trial lawyer and strategist with deep experience in complex litigation and all aspects of antitrust practice. His broad range of experience includes high stakes competitor patent litigation as well as complex collusion, monopolization, contract, and fraud litigation in state and federal courts in Texas and around the country.
Paul has represented some of the biggest names in the energy and tech industries, including Oracle, Reliant Energy, Transocean, Schlumberger, and Lyondell. In addition, he has represented internet startups, healthcare providers, home service providers, construction contractors, chemical companies, and traditional manufacturers in all types of antitrust matters including civil and criminal litigation, agency conduct investigations, merger review, and advising.
He spent the early part of his career honing his skills trying state court cases and working on large tort dockets that gave him the opportunity to take hundreds of depositions and appear before dozens of judges across Texas and elsewhere.
Before joining Orrick, Paul served as a tenured professor at two top-tier law schools and published law and economics driven academic articles on a variety of subjects in the Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and other top journals. Even during his time in the classroom teaching about the complex aspects of technology, economics and antitrust concepts in the cases he has handled, Paul never really left the courtroom. For example, while teaching full-time, Paul represented a startup online travel company in a successful antitrust suit brought against major international hotel chains in connection with branded keyword bidding restrictions. In that litigation, Paul and his co-counsel won a partial plaintiff’s summary judgment holding that the defendants’ alleged conduct was per se illegal.
Paul also supervised his law school’s Trial Advocacy program sharing the lessons learned from his extensive trial experience and encouraging law students to explore the art of effective and persuasive advocacy.
Paul’s unique teaching skills, perspective and experience provides him with significant advantages not only when teaching factfinders, but also when working both with and against expert witnesses. In addition to speaking their language and gaining their confidence, he can guide the expert toward the simplification and clarity of concept necessary to persuade the factfinder or undermine and complicate the opinions offered by his opponent.
Paul’s combined experiences of full-time private practice and academic service offer Orrick’s clients a unique blend of real-world experience and theoretical mastery—an incredibly valuable combination in an antitrust environment characterized by federal and state regulators aggressively testing new theories in regulatory enforcement actions and litigated cases.