McAfee & Taft’s Intellectual Property Group, which has been perennially top ranked by the publishers of the prestigious Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, has further expanded with the recent addition of registered patent attorneys James F. Lea III and David G. Woodral. Both concentrate their practices exclusively on intellectual property law, with an emphasis on patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, and licensing.
“We are honored to have David and Jim join our intellectual property team,” said Mike LaBrie, chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. “They are fantastic attorneys who are well respected for their deep technology backgrounds, expertise and industry experience.”
As a patent lawyer, James Lea devotes a significant portion of his practice counseling and representing clients in foreign and domestic patent matters and has particular experience working with such technologies as drilling equipment, extrusion equipment, submersible pumps, medical implants, software and AI implemented applications, business methods, microchips, and sporting goods. He also serves as lead intellectual property counsel to numerous clients in managing, maximizing, and protecting their extensive global IP portfolios and avoiding claims of infringement.
Lea’s achievements have earned him inclusion in the prestigious Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Best Lawyers in America He was selected by Best Lawyers as the “Trademark Lawyer of the Year” for 2025 and “Patent Lawyer of the Year” for 2020 and 2024 in the Tulsa market.
Lea earned both his undergraduate degree and Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and worked as an engineer for Texaco Refining and Marketing prior to entering law school.
Now in his 23rd year of practice, David Woodral devotes his practice to helping businesses, inventors, and creators protect and enforce their intellectual property rights in the U.S. and internationally, as well as help them maximize those assets through licensing, commercialization, and other business transactions.
Woodral’s achievements have earned him inclusion in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and in The Best Lawyers in America, which also selected him as “Best Lawyers Patent Lawyer of the Year” in Tulsa for 2025.
The Oklahoma native earned his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Oklahoma and worked as a research assistant and software engineer prior to entering law school. He is a 2003 graduate of the Washington University School of Law.