James (Jim) Quarles is a partner in the firm’s Intellectual Property Litigation Practice. He joined the firm in 1975 and is a former member of the Executive Committee and former managing partner of Hale and Dorr's Washington DC office. He left the firm in 2017 to join Robert S. Mueller III and Aaron M. Zebley in the Special Counsel’s Office of the US Department of Justice. 

Mr. Quarles is a seasoned litigator whose government experience, in addition to his recent service in the Special Counsel’s Office, includes serving as an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force from 1973 to 1975. He has extensive trial and appellate experience in complex civil matters, particularly in the intellectual property area. At the firm, he focuses on high-profile investigations and litigation.

Mr. Quarles has argued before the US Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the Federal, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth and District of Columbia Circuits.

Professional Activities

Mr. Quarles is a member of the American Law Institute, and the American, District of Columbia, Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations.

Experience

  • Successfully tried, and sustained on appeal, a 17-day bench trial resulting in a ruling that six patents were unenforceable as a result of inequitable conduct by the patentee and in an award of $2,740,000 in attorneys’ fees.
  • Took over representation of a Swiss manufacturer after trial and prevailed in having a jury verdict of $26,000,000 in infringement damages subject to trebling set aside.
  • Successfully invalidated the patent to single stroke entry of information on personal data apparatus.
  • Successfully represented on appeal a holder of multiple patents to interactive TV guides in reversing adverse decisions by a district court and the International Trade Commission (ITC).
  • Successfully represented a semiconductor manufacturer as a respondent in successive Section 337 proceedings before the ITC.
  • Successfully represented a manufacturer of GPS chips in an action brought by and against a competing GPS chip company, resulting in no violation as a respondent and a finding of a violation based on infringement of 6 patents as a complainant.
  • Participated in the successful representation of a chipmaker in litigation before the ITC and district courts in the Central and Southern Districts of California.
  • Represents a financial institution in an action defending a business method patent.

Recognition

  • Recommended in the 2016 edition of The Legal 500 United States for intellectual property: patent litigation: ITC
  • Selected as a 2013–2016 IP Star by Managing IP, a guidebook that identifies leading IP lawyers in the United States 
  • Named a 2013–2016 leading practitioner in patent law by IAM Patent 1000: The World's Leading Patent Practitioners 
  • Selected by his peers as a leading attorney in Washington DC in the 2013-2017 editions of Super Lawyers
  • Selected as one of Lawdragon Magazine's "500 Leading Lawyers in America" in 2013

Insights & News

Credentials

  • Education

    • JD, Harvard Law School, 1972

      cum laude
    • BS, Denison University, 1968

      cum laude
  • Admissions

    • District of Columbia

    • Maryland

    • Massachusetts

    • Virginia

    • US Supreme Court

  • Clerkships

    • The Hon. Frank A. Kaufman, US District Court for the District of Maryland, 1972 - 1973

Credentials

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