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Heim, Payne & Chorush: The Houston Boutique Behind a $37.5 Million Verdict Against the World’s Largest WLAN Device Maker

Origin and Background

Heim, Payne & Chorush, LLP is located at 609 Main Street, Suite 3200, Houston, TX 77002, confirmed through the firm’s own site. Founding partner Michael Heim has decades of experience representing companies in patent litigation before federal district courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and has twice been named Houston’s “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers in America for patent and intellectual property infringement trials, most recently in the 2026 edition. Partner Russell Chorush holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cornell University (1994), an M.S. in Chemistry from Cornell (1992), and a B.S. in Chemistry with honors from the University of Texas (1989), and is admitted before the Federal Circuit, the USPTO, and both the Eastern and Southern Districts of Texas.

Practice Concentration

The firm is a specialist litigation boutique handling patent infringement lawsuits in district courts, inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, appeals before the Federal Circuit, and related antitrust litigation, representing both plaintiffs and defendants. The firm’s site states every attorney holds one or more technical degrees in electrical engineering, computer engineering, chemical engineering, materials engineering, physics, or chemistry, and that many attorneys are registered to practice before the USPTO and previously clerked at the Federal Circuit or the Eastern District of Texas. Partner Leslie Payne leads several of the firm’s significant enforcement matters, including litigation against Tesla over autonomous vehicle technology. See this Houston Intellectual Property directory for how this technical-litigation boutique compares to other Harris County IP practices.

Notable Work / Track Record

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit preserved an earlier jury award of $37.5 million the firm won against the world’s largest provider of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) devices, according to the firm’s own site. The firm also helped a group of clients win court approval for a settlement requiring Pfizer Inc. to pay $93 million for delaying generic drug entry, and helped Texas-based Atlas Global Technologies Inc. secure a federal appeals court ruling fully affirming a 2023 patent-infringement verdict. These are firm-reported case outcomes; a specific patent or antitrust matter’s result depends on its own facts.

Client Voice

Awesome Attorneys did not identify a public consumer-review presence for the firm, consistent with a litigation boutique serving corporate clients — energy and technology firms alongside smaller entrepreneurs — rather than individual consumers. A client testimonial excerpted on the firm’s own site describes the team as displaying “a high level of confidence, steadiness, and personable reliability,” a self-published quote rather than an independently verified third-party review.

Beyond the Courtroom

Awesome Attorneys did not identify a formalized pro bono program or individual nonprofit board service documented for the firm’s partners. The firm’s public materials emphasize technical credentialing and litigation results over separate civic engagement.

Recognition for This Houston Intellectual Property Firm

A dozen Heim, Payne & Chorush attorneys were named in the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, including Michael Heim as Houston’s Patent Litigation Lawyer of the Year, with partners Leslie Payne, Russell Chorush, Allan Bullwinkel, Eric Enger, and Wills Collier also recognized. The firm and its attorneys are additionally ranked in Chambers USA, Texas Super Lawyers, Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators, and IAM Patent 1000 — Chorush has held Top 1000 status in IAM Patent 1000 continuously since 2020. Because patent attorneys are credentialed through USPTO registration rather than Texas Board of Legal Specialization certification, Awesome Attorneys notes this distinction rather than applying “specialist” language based on a state board credential that does not exist for this specialty.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Patent infringement litigation, the firm’s core practice, proceeds almost entirely under federal law — the Patent Act, administered through federal district courts, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and the Federal Circuit — rather than Texas state statutes. The Eastern and Southern Districts of Texas, where several of the firm’s attorneys are admitted, have historically handled a substantial share of the nation’s patent infringement filings. Antitrust claims connected to patent settlements, another area the firm handles, can proceed under both the federal Sherman Act and the Texas Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act. None of this is legal advice; a specific patent or antitrust matter should be evaluated by a licensed and USPTO-registered attorney based on the actual facts involved.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Heim, Payne & Chorush’s clearest differentiator is a lean, technically credentialed trial team that has delivered nine-figure-adjacent outcomes — a preserved $37.5 million verdict, a $93 million Pfizer settlement — while remaining small enough to be described as a boutique. The honest trade-off is that this is a litigation-only practice built for high-stakes patent and antitrust disputes rather than routine trademark filings or day-to-day IP counseling, and Awesome Attorneys did not identify consumer reviews or a broader transactional practice that would suit a small business’s routine trademark needs. For a technology or energy company facing significant patent litigation, or an inventor whose case has escalated to a real dispute, Heim, Payne & Chorush’s trial record and technical bench are a reasonable basis for a shortlist.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile was researched from Heim, Payne & Chorush’s official website (hpcllp.com), including its About and attorney biography pages, PRNewswire releases on the firm’s Best Lawyers recognition and case results, and the IAM Patent 1000 guide’s firm profile.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal directory and editorial publication. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Heim, Payne & Chorush, LLP prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to attorneys and firms, including this one, but sponsorship has no bearing on the editorial content, inclusion, or findings of this profile.