Leonard Davis

Leonard E. Davis (born 1948) is an American lawyer and former judge. He served as Chief Justice of the Twelfth Court of Appeals of Texas, from 2000–2002, and was nominated by George W. Bush on January 23, 2002 to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas until his retirement May 15, 2015.

Background Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Davis received a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1970, and his Master of Arts degree from Texas Christian University in 1974. Davis was also in the Texas Army National Guard from 1970 to 1973, and worked as a computer programmer and systems analyst for the Texas Electric Service Company prior to entering law school in 1974. He graduated cum laude and first in his class from Baylor Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1976, where he was editor-in-chief of the Baylor Law Review and a member of Baylor's interscholastic moot court and mock trial teams. At Baylor Law, he also received American Jurisprudence Awards for Excellence in Contracts and Federal Courts.

Davis was in private practice as a civil trial attorney in Tyler, Texas, for 23 years, from 1977 to 2000, and was Chief Justice of the Twelfth Court of Appeals of the State of Texas from 2000 to 2002. He was primarily assigned patent lawsuits in the U.S. district court.

Davis has served on the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council and the Federal Circuit Advisory Committee on Case Management. He was also Co-Chair of the Federal Judges Committee of the Federal Circuit Bar Association. and more than 250 Markman hearings (or claim construction hearings).

Among the significant patent decisions Davis ruled on during his tenure on the bench included the case of i4i v. Microsoft , which resulted in a $290 million willful infringement jury verdict against Microsoft, and which was further upheld on appeal by both the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

From 2015 and on, Davis serves as of counsel at the law firm Fish & Richardson.