[DanLivesHere]

I've only read the linked-to article once, but this doesn't seem nearly as bad as it sounds (minus the patent trolling aspect).

Here's how I think it happened -- and, for sake of clarity, I worked at a large-ish law firm, have a bunch of friends who worked in the huge ones, and even know a partner at the named firm.

1) Lawyer and his wife start (with others) a company. Company invents something (kind of) and lawyer, being a lawyer, files for a patent.

2) Someone else comes along and creates something kind of/sort of like what they did. They have a patent so they look at suing the other company.

3) Lawyer works at a law firm which represents the target company. The law firm has 1,300 lawyers and two dozen offices around the world. He tells his firm's general counsel about the issue, likely to set up "chinese walls" as to not run afoul of any ethical obligations. Note that he's kind of stuck otherwise -- his company is going to be adverse to the law firm's client, and he's stuck in the middle.

4) When the firm's client hears about this, they freak the eff out and demand that the attorney in question be fired. He's fired.