Welcome to 2026, with hopes that this coming year will be one of success and contentment for the entirety of this readership. I can think of no better way to kick off the year than to share a written interview I conducted with someone who was a major contributor to one of the IP success stories of 2025, namely the robust market for patent litigation talent in the face of what seems like unprecedented changes in big-ticket patent litigation practice. Our interviewee is a legal recruiter, whose agency placed no less than eight patent litigators (out of a total of 15 placements) in 2025 alone, at firms with elite patent litigation practices like Gibson Dunn, Quinn Emanuel, and Orrick. With a Biglaw background in patent litigation under his belt, it is no wonder that our interviewee’s approach is resonating with both candidates and target firms.
Let’s meet our interviewee, who was gracious enough to agree to this interview at one of the busiest times of the year for legal recruiters. Khurram Naik is a partner at Freshwater Counsel, a boutique recruiting agency focused on placing elite patent litigators at the partner, counsel, and associate levels. Before founding the agency, he practiced patent litigation at Goodwin. In addition to his recruiting practice, Khurram also serves as the host of Khurram’s Quorum, a podcast with in-depth conversations with federal judges, first-chair trial lawyers, and chief legal officers on their career challenges and successes. Khurram also shares insights on LinkedIn, where I personally find his posts about his experiences as a recruiter both informative and genuine.
Now to the interview. As usual, I have added some brief commentary to Khurram’s answer below but have otherwise presented his answer to my first question as he provided it.
Gaston Kroub: With the recent upheaval at the PTO, what timeless factors still drive demand for elite patent litigators?
Khurram Naik: Patents keep issuing, products keep launching, and companies must keep defending market share. Whether in standards or biologics, these disputes remain high-stakes and often bet-the-company, which means demand for elite patent litigators never truly softens.
In life sciences, new drugs and biologics move through development, regulatory approval, and commercialization on a continuous cycle, and each stage creates predictable points of dispute. Hatch-Waxman litigation, biosimilar cases, and follow-on patent challenges aren’t distractions from core businesses, they’re central.
A single patent decision can determine whether a company secures market exclusivity or loses it overnight. Humira, the top-selling pharmaceutical in the world, generated AbbVie $20 billion in revenue in a year at its peak. Following biosimilar entry, Humira’s revenues dropped more than half the following year. When the stakes are billions of dollars, companies don’t downsize their litigation strategy, they double down.
GK: It probably won’t be a surprise for this readership that industries where patents have historically carried outsized value, like pharmaceuticals, are amongst the biggest beneficiaries of the changes to the IPR regime that has so dominated patent practice for over a decade. Nor should it be a surprise that demand for high-level life sciences patent litigators remains at a high level, particularly because those cases can be less budget-sensitive than other types of patents cases, given their importance. We have also already seen the impact of the changes in the IPR regime on patent lawyers whose practices focused on that type of work, at least of whom have already started to pivot towards a focus on other types of adversarial patent proceedings.
Outside of pharma and IPR work, what will be interesting to monitor as we head into 2026 and beyond is whether demand for patent litigators with real experience and knowledge in the area of litigation funding will expand or contract, especially considering the headwinds that at least some sectors of the litigation funding market have been dealing with. At the same time, many IP departments at leading technology companies are dealing with a flood of funded cases filed against them, which may lead to more defense-minded firms looking to add talent with true knowledge of how litigation funding works in the patent litigation context. Either way, Khurram and his colleagues should continue to see demand for their services…
We will continue with Khurram’s answers to questions 2 and 3 next time, which will center on both how his experience in Biglaw helps him in his current role, as well as his thoughts on where there is demand for top-tier patent litigators in the current market. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to Khurram if you think 2026 might be the year for a move, or if your firm needs additional talent…
Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.
Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique, and Markman Advisors LLC, a leading consultancy on patent issues for the investment community. Gaston’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.
The post 3 Questions For A Patent Litigator Turned Legal Recruiter (Part I) appeared first on Above the Law.