Quinn Law Group's growth from a one-man shop in 2002 to a 19-person outfit in newly expanded office digs today is central to the tale.
"In the world of innovation and engineering, there's a lot of action here," says firm founder Christopher Quinn, noting that patent applications go hand in hand with innovation. "And I see no indication that that's going to change," he adds, noting that even as automotive companies shed factory workers, they keep building and staffing technical centers in metro Detroit.
Prestigious full-service law firms like 60-year-old Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn, of Detroit, with 228 attorneys and satellite offices in Ann Arbor and Lansing, are seeing the same trends and responding.
"We're working hard to grow our intellectual property staff," says Honigman partner and CEO David Foltyn. Honigman has six lawyers and seven support staff dedicated to IP law and has beefed up its presence in the technology and venture capital arena, opening an Ann Arbor office in 2007 and recruiting David Parsigian away from rival firm Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone to run it.
Todd Berg, editor of Michigan Lawyers Weekly in Farmington Hills, says changing with the business climate is a matter of survival for many of the state's law firms.
"The economy is driving people out of Michigan," Berg says. "Population is down, so personal injury lawsuits are down. Tort reform has had an impact, too. Medical malpractice suits are down 75% in the past 20 years."
Conversely, Berg says, "IP is doing great; it's doing the best financially of any sector." In his newspaper's most recent survey on the Economics of Law Practice in Michigan, with more than 1,000 responses in November 2006, intellectual property lawyers reported average incomes of $233,115 and billing rates of $266 an hour, among the tops of all legal specialties.
Quinn says that Michigan is such fertile ground for IP that out-of-town firms have moved in to do some poaching.
Chicago-based intellectual property firm Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, for example, says on its Web site that its 8-year-old Ann Arbor office has grown to 33 people, including 18 attorneys and a PhD patent agent.
Quinn, 42, has been stunned by the volume of patent-related work available in the region since he started his own firm. A University of Michigan engineering graduate who worked for Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., Quinn got his law degree from the University of Wisconsin and joined the Southfield IP law firm Brooks & Kushman.
After leaving B&K in 2002, "I intended to be by myself," Quinn recalls. But immediately he was swamped with work from GM and other clients, "and it's just grown like crazy ever since." Quinn now has 11 lawyers plus support staff on the payroll.
Many people look at the decline of Michigan's manufacturing base and assume that the state is an economic basket case.
"What they're missing," he says, "is that this is the think tank of the automotive engineering world."
Not only is the Detroit region home to auto giants GM, Ford and Chrysler along with tech centers for Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai, there are dozens of other research and engineering offices of companies based elsewhere.
Data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office show that patent activity in Michigan increased about 20% in recent years, with nearly 3,800 patents granted in 2006. Quinn says that number probably understates total activity, because it doesn't include things invented in Michigan for companies based elsewhere. When Quinn did a patent search based on Michigan as the inventor's place of residence, he found more than 6,000 patents in each of the past four years.
DeManche, a native Coloradan, got his undergraduate degree in engineering from Colorado State University and did an internship with ZF Lemforder, a German-owned auto supplier in Northville, before going to MSU's law school.
Despite his love of auto racing and Detroit, DeManche decided to take the Illinois bar exam because he was leery about betting his future on Michigan. Even when Quinn found him and recruited him, DeManche was troubled by all the negativity about Michigan's economy.
"I was a bit concerned," he says. "Would auto companies treat us like just another supplier -- expendable in the next round of cuts?"
But so far, he says, so good. Quinn hired him as a patent agent. After DeManche takes the Michigan bar exam next summer, he can be a full-fledged practicing attorney in the state. And keep saving money for that condo near the stadiums downtown.