Patrick John Flinn

As an intellectual property litigator, Patrick J. Flinn created ingenious legal arguments and often relied on astute, yet amusing, analogies to simplify complex matters, sometimes including the patents themselves. He could not, alas, reason his way out of brain cancer. Nonetheless, he met the challenge of his illness with the fortitude and clever wit that he brought to all aspects of his life. He departed this life on 9 August 2020 with the same equanimity that he showed toward irascible witnesses, and his sometimes-catastrophizing spouse or occasionally recalcitrant children.

Born in Pittsburgh to Mary Ellen and Paul Flinn in 1956, Pat or “Paddo” joined four older siblings who grew up in a farmhouse in Murrysville, PA. Ten years old and perceiving difficulty getting a word in with his bickering siblings, he stunned them into silence by once storming off from dinner announcing that he was “a slave living in a communist dictatorship.” His youthful activities ranged from Civil Air Patrol (where he learned, among other things, to sew on patches) to theater performances. His admission essay to Stanford asked, “if he were to write a speech, what would it be about and to whom would he speak?” He figured he would want to speak about what he was most knowledgeable about to people who would be the most interested in it, thus he would write about himself to himself. however

During his college years, he toiled behind the scenes in student government, helped run a radio station, fenced, and assisted in the sleep lab, earning credits toward his psychology major. After earning an A.B. at Stanford in 1978, he worked in the addiction unit at the local Veterans Administration where he grew to be a fan of pro-football after watching hours of the sport with the patients. Also at that time he decided against applying to graduate school in Psychology because all those credit-earning hours in the sleep lab did not prepare him to take the “subject area” GRE test. Instead, he opted to take the LSAT, as he heard it was an aptitude test and he thought me might have aptitude.

Georgetown University awarded him the J.D. in 1982 and he embarked on his legal career at Morrison and Foerster in San Francisco. A year after starting in general litigation, he joined a case for the National Audubon Society to “Save Mono Lake,” roosting place of the seagull population, in the Eastern Sierras. After winning suits to restore water flow to the lake and contributing to other environmental efforts affecting the lake, he received the 2016 “Defender of the Trust” award from the Mono Lake Committee. All the while, his litigation practice grew. As one of the 1986 founding partners at the Palo Alto MoFo office, he began to concentrate on intellectual property disputes. Largely averse to science classes in college, he managed “physics for poets” and an entry level computer science class, which proved portentous for his later career. He came to embrace learning about new technologies and defending patents in areas of telecommunications, cryptography, optics, fluid mechanics, and software.

And, while Silicon Valley offered interesting cases, after ten years of bi-coastal commuting (owing to his spouse’s position at Emory University in Atlanta), he joined Alston & Bird in 1995, where he helped to establish their Intellectual Property Practice. The firm’s managing partner characterized him as “A brilliant attorney [as well as] a consummate gentleman whose integrity, bottomless reserves of patience, and willingness always to help with anything made him a shining light in [the] firm.” He tried many cases in the International Trade Commission and U.S. district courts and coordinated multinational patent litigation efforts. He also offered a strong voice for equality efforts within the firm, serving as the diversity partner for his practice group. Throughout his years as a partner, he worked to build the confidence of associates, training them to trust their instincts and to write arguments that were not only right, but simple. Beyond mentoring associates within his firm, he authored the Handbook of Intellectual Property Claims and Remedies (2000/2013), which he introduces in his inimitable way with phrases in French and references to computer games, and other publications.

His career endeavors won him the 2013 “Outstanding IP Litigator of the Year” award from Managing IP and recognition elsewhere in the legal community. He devoted much time and energy to pro bono work, including serving for a year as the president of the board of directors of the Georgia Legal Services Program. He also helmed the Georgetown University Law School alumni board 2004-06.

While the law was Patrick’s profession, he always believed that it should be approached with creativity, and even whimsy. Examples include presentations to summer associates illustrating how law firms make money: once he handcuffed himself to a briefcase and pretended he could not find the key; another time he displayed a machine that “consumes” associates and spits out money. For several years, he produced mini films (often rifts on popular shows like The Bachelor or Survivor) to announce the movie to which he would be taking the summer associates.

His creativity in legal arguments might reflect his extensive knowledge of science fiction, World War II history, facts (the more obscure, the better) gleaned from travels to Europe, Asia, and Australia, musicals, or family anecdotes. He loved to bicycle, choosing it as his main means of commuting whenever possible, to cook special Sunday meals for his family, to play Dune while drinking red wine, and to engage in the lives of his children. He embraced his Irish heritage, sharing it with his children through music and travel, and introducing to them as young adults to the pleasures of a dram of Yellow Spot whiskey.

His Atlanta-based family, spouse Karen Hegtvedt, and children Ross Hegtvedt and Marlis Flinn, lovingly raise to him a parting glass. They are joined by his siblings, Juliana Flinn (Edward Hale) of Little Rock, Maggie Flinn of Hawaii, Donald (Lynda) of San Luis Obispo, and Tony Flinn of Spokane as well as his nephews, nieces, and great nephews and nieces, in-laws, and fictive kin.

A memorial service for him will be held in January. To continue Patrick’s good work in the legal community, the family asks that donations in his memory be made to the Georgia Legal Services Program.
https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/1404661?code=State+Bar+Campaign+for+GLSP