Firm overview
With 120 trial lawyers across offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York, and Washington, D.C., McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America’s leading trial firms. The firm has secured 13 nine-figure jury verdicts and 15 eight-figure jury verdicts, obtaining more VerdictSearch and The National Law Journal “Top 100 Verdicts” than any other US law firm. These courtroom successes have earned McKool Smith critical acclaim and helped the firm become what The Wall Street Journal describes as “one of the biggest law firm success stories of the past decade.”
Its Patent Contentious practice comprises more than 60 attorneys representing plaintiffs and defendants against global tech giants including Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Samsung, Meta (Facebook), Tesla, Uber, Microsoft, and many others. Matters involve a broad range of technologies and industries including electronics, semiconductors, software, telecommunications, the internet, FDA-approved drugs and medical devices, chemical engineering and materials science, and media and entertainment.
The firm’s clients includes some of the world’s largest standard essential patent holders (e.g., Nokia and Ericsson), and it specializes in developing strategies to force unwilling licensees to agree to patent licenses on Fair Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. These strategies often including maximizing pressure on unwilling licensees via litigation in multiple jurisdictions and, when appropriate, through injunctions. It also defends standard essential patent holder clients against claims that their licensing practices are abusive and/or that their offered royalty rates are not FRAND.
In addition to regularly appearing in district courts across the country, the firm has a robust DC practice with extensive experience before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and the International Trade Commission.
