announcing ... J. Matthew Buchanan - of counsel to Dunlap Codding & Rogers

You know the old saying… save the best for last. 

It is my utmost pleasure to be able to finally and “officially” announce that J. Matthew Buchanan has joined Dunlap Codding & Rogers, P.C. 

I know that others (including Matt, Steve, Dennis and Kevin, among many other well wishers) have already beat me to the punch, but since December 1 was Matt’s first official day “on board” – I wanted to wait to make the announcement over here at PHOSITA. 

Many of you know of my collaboration with Matt and Steve Nipper over at Rethink(IP) – but what you may not know is that the three of us began collaborating with one another on different legal matters, practice tips and general career issues at about the same time. 

We all knew that we wanted to continue practicing law – it is truly what we love to do – but at the same time we believed that we could begin to explore the nature of intellectual property law and how legal services are provided to clients. Hence the birth of Rethink(IP) – a place where we can rant and post about the practice of intellectual property law. 

As you can imagine, many of the things we discuss “off blog” are where we are most interested and one of the truly great things to come out of Rethink(IP) was the ability to discuss our individual practices with someone outside our firms – without fear of competition or self-interested advice being given.

One of the things that struck me almost immediately is that we all have the same philosophy and desire to serve our clients.  Matt especially — Matt is the kind of lawyer that we all want to be – loyal to a fault, insightful, pragmatic and wickedly inquistive and knowledgeable. 

I always had in the back of my mind that Matt was one of “those people” I wanted to associate with — little did I know that I would get the opportunity much sooner than I had ever expected.  When Matt mentioned to me this past summer that he was interested in exploring other career opportunities, I knew that there was an opportunity for us to begin putting some of the things we both believe in – service, commitment and excellence – into practice. 

So, after thousands of conversations – Matt agreed to come on board with us at DCR.  I doubt Matt ever expected to be “of counsel” to a firm started in Oklahoma in the 1950s – but as we have grown to include an office in Washington D.C. and our clientele spans the globe, it is only fitting that our newest and tech-saviest firm member is keenly aware of international patent developments and legislation. 

Matt is also spearheading our insourcing and outreach efforts – an experiment surrounding the concept of leveraging the lower overhead of “one off” midwestern cities to a client’s advantage.

Overall, DCR is extremely excited and hopeful about Matt joining our firm.   I think DCR is a perfect fit for Matt, and I likewise believe that Matt will be someone who helps further position DCR at the forefront of intellectual property law firms.

And as Matt has said over and over the past couple of months, “… any place you can eat five types of smoked animals on one plate, can’t be all that bad!”