top of page
Paul Herman headshot

Prior Professional Experience

  • SABIC Americas, LLC

  • Halliburton Energy Services

  • Matthews & Associates

  • NL Industries

  • ARCO

Licenses

  • Admitted to Practice in Texas

  • Registered to practice patent law before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Education

  • University of Tulsa, B.S. Chemical Engineering

  • University of Texas School of Law, Juris Doctorate

Practice Areas

  • All aspects of Intellectual Property: Patent, Copyright, Trademark, and Trade Secrets

  • Contracts of All Kinds

My Story

Paul is an intellectual property lawyer with extensive multi-national, multi-cultural corporation experience, creativity and a drive to help the team achieve all its goals.

 

While still in college, Paul joined ARCO, working at their Oilfield Products lab in Sand Springs, OK, just outside Tulsa. After his graduation, ARCO took him on full time, as a Demulsification Tech Service Engineer. With this job, Paul began to travel around North America to various oilfields, typically working on crisis after crisis. Paul was called in when the current demulsifier wasn’t working, and multiple wells if not an entire field were shut in. Every day counted. Get boots on the ground, talk to the customers, solve the problems, create a new product on the spot if needed, and move on to the next one. Sometimes the trips were for new sales opportunities, working with the local sales teams. Whether in the dusty fields of  West Texas, the end of the road north in Canada in the Athabasca Tar Sands, or on a rig off the coast of Louisiana, Paul covered it all. While still finding time in the lab to create new chemical components for their products.

 

After a couple years with ARCO, Paul moved to Houston and joined NL Industries. A similar job title, but with global commitments. These includes stops in such places as the jungles of West Africa, the Persian Gulf, and the coca fields of Columbia.

 

After a couple kidnapping attempts and a couple explosions, Paul decided he needed a new career path, and applied to the University of Texas School of Law. Upon arrival he found over 50 engineers like himself, all looking for Intellectual Property classes. Yet there were almost none. Paul took the lead (being the older person with lots of sales experience), first setting up the IP Law Society to get the masses organized. From that, petitions were generated and signed, and a chat with the appropriate dean, along some creative problem solving, led to several new classes specific to IP, taught by some of the top experts in Texas. By his first summer, Paul was negotiating with the State Bar IP Section to take over their newsletter and turn it into a full-fledged law journal. Completing that deal led to Paul being a second-year law student who was also the first EIC for the Texas IP Law Journal.

 

After law school, Paul joined the IP litigation boutique Mattews and Associates in Houston. But after only a year, the oilfield came calling, and Paul made the move to Halliburton in Dallas. Paul spent nearly two decades there, starting as an IP Counsel, and working his way up to Senior Counsel, Division Counsel, and office manager for the Dallas legal office. Paul worked with R&D and various product development groups in a broad range of tools and explosives. He regularly helped his clients determine their IP strategies, based on whatever drivers of the moment the clients needed to consider, and then how to best implement them, and then track the results to insure we were achieving what was sought. Paul also managed millions in outside spend annually with various law firms globally, helping select outside counsel, and always striving to improve the internal processes. Paul also negotiated contracts of various types, including confidentiality, licensing, joint development, software and contract employment. Paul undertook the usual duties as well, such as patent searching, infringement analysis, and dealing with potential infringements, including relevant negotiations with customers, competitors, national labs, universities, and JD partners. He also provided litigation and M&A support. As the lawyers of the IP team were the only lawyers at the 1500-person manufacturing center in Carrollton, they handled whatever legal matters needed addressed. Paul also created the first trademark and agreement databases within Halliburton, regularly provided training globally, and created a diversity clerkship program.

 

After that, Paul moved to SABIC Americas, LLC, as a Senior Counsel, back in Houston. SABIC is one of the largest commodity chemical companies in the world. Again, Paul took care of his R&D clients in various countries, making sure they had the training and the knowledge needed to make good decisions, while also addressing their contractual needs of various types, and again global training. Some projects were designed to be license out opportunities, some were for internal usage. Areas of practice included chemical process, electronics, and catalysts.

 

In his spare time Paul has three passions: his family, driving, and books. Married in 1986 to Denna, whom he met at NL, she has always been the steady rock that serves as his base. Paul has two grown children, off enjoying their own lives nowadays.

 

Whenever Paul gets the opportunity, he gets on track. Most commonly a road racing course, but also on occasion a drag strip, NASCAR oval, or the great salt flat at Bonneville. Paul has driven a vast array of vehicles over the years, including open wheel, NASCAR, Bandits, and endless high-performance brands, all at the limits. He has also attended multiple schools over the years, most notably Skip Barber. He has been on tracks on three continents, including the F1 track in Dubai. He has driven his own personal car to 195mph on Bonneville. Paul knows more than a bit about cars, aerodynamics, etc.

 

Rather counterintuitively, Paul also likes to read. As a teenager he became a fan of the works of Robert E. Howard. His simple enjoyment grew over the years, to the point that he now provides occasional copyright consulting services to IP owners in Hollywood, and sits on the Board of the Robert E. Howard Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation that provides scholarships to deserving students as well as promoting and preserving the works of REH. Paul also has been involved in publishing, with more than two dozen books put together and edited over the years, and a hand in at least two dozen more. He passed on a movie walk-on role with Jason Momoa a few years back, maybe next time. Paul personally helped secure the recovery, sorting, and scanning of the vast majority of REH’s original typescripts from the 1920s and 30s, nearly 13,000 pages, and subsequently arranged for their delivery to the Harry Ransom Center at UT. The appraisal was over $23M. A good day’s work.

 

Paul also keeps a steady stream of creative solutions coming off his 3D printers in his shop for his personal use.

 

The POINT is that Paul, as a lawyer, enjoys helping his clients achieve their goals, providing them with knowledge, experienced reasoning, and the services needed to make everything work. He thinks outside the box and can find creative solutions. He is comfortable with any culture. Paul works well as part of the team and understands the importance of communication.

Contact

I'm always looking for new and exciting opportunities. Let's connect.

972 742 8650

bottom of page