Skip to content
Every one of our attorneys is a Registered Patent Attorney.
Our patent attorneys have over 100 years of combined patent law experience.
Our patent attorneys have degrees in biology, biomedical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, genetics, neuroscience, and physics.
The following is a brief description of the practice and background of each of the Firm’s attorneys (all of whom are patent attorneys and are licensed to practice law in Louisiana, unless noted otherwise).

Charles C. Garvey, Jr. has over 45 years experience in intellectual property law. Chuck has developed a well-rounded practice including litigation, prosecution before the Patent and Trademark Office and client consultation on technology related issues. He has acted as lead counsel in several intellectual property law lawsuits, particularly patent suits. His office practice includes preparing technology transfer agreements and providing legal opinions on the state of the art, patentability and other intellectual property issues. Chuck obtained a J.D. and Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Gregory C. Smith has over 40 years experience in intellectual property law as an attorney and lecturer. Greg’s practice concentrates on patent and trademark litigation in state and federal courts, and patent and trademark prosecution before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Greg obtained his law degree from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law and a Bachelors degree in Chemistry and English from Louisiana State University. He has lectured in law at St. Mary’s Dominican College, where he also served on the Law School Advisory Board.  Greg is now Of Counsel to the firm.

Seth M. Nehrbass has been actively involved in the prosecution of patent applications since 1982, both as a patent examiner and as a patent attorney. While Seth’s technical background is in physics, he has prepared and prosecuted patent applications in a range of technologies including chemistry, mechanical engineering, electronics, medicine and medical devices. Seth also has experience in all phases of intellectual property litigation. He is fluent in French and Spanish and has a working knowledge of Portuguese, Italian and German. Seth obtained a Bachelor of Science degree (summa cum laude) from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and a law degree (cum laude) from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law where he was on Law Review and a member of Moot Court. He previously served as an adjunct professor in patent law at Tulane Law School.

Vanessa M. D’Souza is a 2008 graduate of Tulane Law School where she focused on intellectual property law. During law school, Vanessa was a member of the Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property and was elected to serve as Editor-in-Chief for Volume 10. She was also a member of the Tulane Inn of Court, Student Bar Association, and served as representative to the American Bar Association. Her work experience includes externships with judges from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, and Louisiana 24th Judicial District Court. In 2003, Vanessa received a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and a Business minor from Tulane University. Vanessa is licensed to practice law in Louisiana and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in patent cases.

Julia M. FitzPatrick became a patent attorney in 2007. She graduated with High Honors in 2006 from the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, and she received her undergraduate degree in Genetics (cum laude) from the University of Georgia in 2000. During law school, she was a member of Law Review and focused her legal studies on intellectual property law, receiving awards for the highest grade in her Intellectual Property Survey and Patent Law Courses. Julia also received the Extra Muros Prize for the best Note on international law for her published Note that evaluated intellectual property issues in Third World Countries. While in law school, Julia also interned with the Utah Disability Law Center and volunteered at Utah Legal Services. After receiving her law degree, Julia clerked for a Judge on the Utah Court of Appeals for about two and a half years before returning home to Louisiana. She additionally has experience with litigation as an attorney, a law clerk while in law school, and a paralegal prior to law school. Julia is licensed to practice law in Louisiana and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in patent cases. She remains licensed (though inactive) in Utah.

Julie Rabalais Chauvin was born and raised in New Orleans. She has a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia and a law degree cum laude from University of Florida Levin College of Law. She has worked as a judicial intern in the Eastern District of Louisiana and in the US Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida. She has also worked as a research assistant at Loyola University Law School. While in college, she was part of a team that collaborated with two orthopedic surgeons at the University of Virginia Health System to develop a modified hip implant. Before attending law school, she worked as a Research Specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina. Julie is licensed to practice law in Louisiana and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in patent cases.

Fabian M. Nehrbass graduated in 2008 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.S. in Biology, a minor in Chemistry, and a B.A. in Political Science. After college, Fabian spent two years teaching English in Granada, Spain. He obtained his J.D. from LSU Law School in 2013, magna cum laude. During law school, he served as a student attorney in the LSU Juvenile Defense Clinic, extern to Judge Eugene Davis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and extern to the Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Louisiana. He was also a member of the Louisiana Law Review and Order of the Coif. After law school, he worked at King, Krebs & Jurgens (now King & Jurgens), primarily involved in litigation. After working at King, Krebs & Jurgens, Fabian and his wife spent a year traveling around the world. Upon their return, Fabian joined our firm. Fabian is licensed to practice law in Louisiana and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office in patent cases.

More information about the Firm’s attorneys can be found by clicking on their names above.

To see the more than 1400 US patents we have gotten for clients since our firm began in July 1998, click here: GSN patents since 1998