Michael C. Smith is a partner in Scheef & Stone LLP in his hometown of Marshall, Texas, and focuses on complex patent and commercial litigation in Texas federal courts. He is a former chair of the Eastern District’s Local Rules Committee, the Texas Bar Journal Board of Editors, and the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas, and currently serves as vice chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section. He is also the editor of O’Connor’s Federal Rules * Civil Trials and maintains the EDTexweblog.com and TexIPLawBlog.com online blogs analyzing and tracking developments in the EDTX as well as IP cases in all Texas federal courts.