Desmarais LLP is a premier intellectual property litigation firm with approximately 75 attorneys across its New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. offices. The firm has successfully tried and won several of the industry’s most high-profile patent cases in recent years, representing some of the world’s largest companies.
The firm works on complex, often technology-focused disputes, handling every step of the litigation process. The breadth of Desmarais LLP’s work spans a wide range of subjects and technologies, and the firm has obtained successful trial results for clients – both plaintiffs and defendants – in dozens of patent infringement cases and other intellectual property areas.
Litigation
Desmarais LLP handles all patent litigation stages and has significant trial experience in every major forum for technology and life sciences in the United States and elsewhere. The firm has successfully tried cases before judges and juries throughout the U.S., before administrative bodies (including the International Trade Commission and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board), and in front of arbitration panels. Desmarais LLP’s patent infringement successes include winning trials across a host of district courts, preserving both offensive and defensive victories on appeal, obtaining reversals of adverse results, and steering the development of substantive law in clients’ interests in a variety of subject matter areas.
The firm’s patent litigation experience spans numerous industries covering technologies including biotech innovations, chemicals, consumer electronics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, software, telecommunications, and transportation. The firm’s High-Tech Practice, International Trade Commission Practice, Life Sciences and Medical Device Practice, and Post-Grant Practice also litigate in areas beyond patent disputes, including antitrust, contracts, counterfeiting, fraud, trade dress, trademarks, trade secrets, and unfair competition.
Additionally, the firm’s Pro Bono Practice is committed to serving the community, partnering with organizations such as the SDNY Pro Se Clerk’s Office, the Veterans Consortium, Immigration Equality, and Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Each year, Desmarais LLP recognizes attorneys and paralegals who make substantial contributions as part of its Pro Bono Challenge.
Innovative Fee Structures
Desmarais LLP is an industry trailblazer in alternative fee arrangements (AFAs). The firm has abandoned the traditional (and frequently inefficient) billable-hour model in favor of fee arrangements more closely tailored to clients’ interests. This flexible and innovative approach sets it apart from other top-tier firms that litigate similarly large, complex cases.
For clients who prefer predictability, the firm provides flat-fee arrangements negotiated at the outset of the matter, and for those seeking a shared-risk approach, the firm is open to contingent fee arrangements and hybrid structures tailored to the client and the case. Additionally, the firm offers flat-fee billing for expenses. This gives clients clearer budgeting for the duration of the matter (though monthly fees can vary based on the stage of the litigation).
Benefits and Compensation
Desmarais LLP is a leader in benefits and compensation – paying associates salaries that top the New York scale and year-end bonuses for high performers that significantly exceed the market rate. The firm covers 100% of health insurance premiums for all employees and their dependents, meaning attorneys and staff having no monthly costs, except when they receive medical services (e.g., copays). The firm also contributes 4% annually to employees’ 401(k)s – not as a match but as an automatic contribution, even if employees are not paying into their retirement accounts. In addition to short-term disability for birth mothers, Desmarais LLP also provides 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all lawyers and staff, regardless of gender or whether they are adoptive parents.
Diversity
Desmarais LLP is committed to maintaining a workplace that respects all cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, and identities. The firm believes its attorneys’ and staff’s diverse set of experiences play a valuable role in helping achieve creative and effective solutions when dealing with clients’ most challenging cases. The firm’s Diversity Committee promotes an inclusive work environment and focuses on recruiting and retaining lawyers from diverse backgrounds. Desmarais LLP also regularly sponsors student organizations dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion at law schools and sponsors the annual ChIPs Global Summit dedicated to the advancement of women in technology, law, and policy.
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.
Sidley is an elite global law firm. Harnessing 158 years of legal heritage, we provide strong representation on behalf of clients in more than 70 countries. Our lawyers apply a Built to WinSM client service model to their legal strategies, ensuring the best possible outcomes in complex transactional, restructuring, regulatory, and litigation matters. With 21 offices strategically situated in key commercial and financial hubs across the world, our perspective and our reach are truly global. Our 2,300 lawyers, fluent in more than 80 languages, possess the cultural awareness and cross-border legal acumen needed to bring clarity to a dynamic business landscape.
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Appellate: Sidley is widely recognized as one of the premier appellate firms in the country, and as a trailblazer — regularly addressing intricate, precedent-setting issues in federal and state law in the Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, as well as state appellate and supreme courts across the nation. Since the inception of the practice in 1985, the team, including more than 20 former Supreme Court clerks, has briefed over 220 cases on the merits and argued more than 150 cases before the Court.
Bankruptcy: Sidley’s global Restructuring group is regularly involved in the largest restructurings throughout the world. The team represents companies facing in-court or out-of-court restructurings, official and ad hoc committees of creditors, agent lenders, and participants in distressed M&A processes. Sidley prides itself on the group’s ability to use innovative, bespoke approaches to obtain the best results in complex situations.
Commercial: Clients repeatedly turn to Sidley’s Commercial Litigation team when their most important disputes must be tried. Sidley’s track record of successes is unparalleled in high-stakes, mission-critical cases against well-regarded opponents, no matter the forum. The team’s full-service litigation capabilities are relied upon by leading global companies with household names.
Competition/Antitrust: As a part of the firm’s global antitrust offering, Sidley has a strong and well-respected litigation practice. Sidley lawyers represent clients in their most complex cases, including matters involving antitrust enforcement, merger clearances, claims of collusion, and other alleged antitrust violations. The team has represented domestic and international corporations, trade associations, government entities, professional societies, and individuals in the full range of civil and criminal trials.
Insurance: Sidley’s Insurance Disputes practice advises on significant insurance litigation nationwide across a variety of areas, including regulatory compliance, insurance class actions, reinsurance disputes, ERISA litigation, general commercial litigation, securities and shareholder litigation, and Supreme Court and appellate courts, among other areas.
Intellectual Property: Sidley boasts one of the most distinguished and highly regarded Intellectual Property litigation practices in the U.S., with approximately 80 lawyers and a deep bench of trial lawyers. Handling matters for innovation-driven clients ranging from global Fortune 500 companies to groundbreaking startups, the team develops winning strategies for high-stakes IP litigation involving patents, trade secret and unfair competition, false advertising, copyright infringement, and trademarks.
International Arbitration: Sidley’s Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy practice exemplifies a superior depth of knowledge of the law, regulatory challenges, and culture of the jurisdictions in which the team practices. Operating from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, the team works as a tightly integrated team of practitioners with different cultural and legal backgrounds and broad language capabilities.
Labor and Employment: Sidley is at the forefront of representing employers in major high-profile class and collective action litigation against many of the biggest and most aggressive plaintiffs’ firms in the country. The team is known for winning bet-the-company cases and deftly handling high-value discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, executive disputes, whistle-blower claims, restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation, and investigations involving matters of the utmost importance to companies.
Product Liability and Recall: Sidley’s Product Liability and Mass Torts practice has played key roles in many of the most significant product liability litigations. The team has decades of experience handling claims associated with products, the facilities that manufacture them, and the companies that sell them. We defend clients in state and federal courts and are typically lead counsel in multidistrict litigations and state coordinated proceedings.
Securities: Sidley’s Securities and Shareholder Litigation team stands out for the strength of its work, winning complex securities matters at the trial level and on appeal across a variety of sectors. The team’s deep bench and extensive experience allows Sidley to represent a wide range of clients. This includes major corporations and private companies, boards of directors and board committees, senior executives, financial advisers, investment banks, and auditors.
White Collar Crime: Sidley lawyers have handled investigations in more than 130 countries, collaborating seamlessly across borders and practice groups to offer a cohesive approach to white collar crime and corporate investigations matters. The firm can mobilize teams quickly to swiftly deploy the critical legal support needed to manage sensitive, high-profile investigations and litigation.
Haley Guiliano started as the patent practice spin-off from Ropes & Gray LLP. The Haley Guiliano team has extensive experience with representing clients of all sizes and across a multitude of industries around the globe in connection with intellectual property matters. All of our attorneys and patent agents have technical and scientific backgrounds, many of whom have graduate degrees. We are used to counseling and representing clients on high stakes complex matters – relying on both our legal analysis expertise and technological know-how.
We tailor our relationship for every one of our clients, recognizing that a cookie-cutter approach to IP representations is not adequate. We make it a point to understand our client’s business, its needs, and its goals. This underpins the work that we perform in the course of our representation.
Haley Guiliano is selective in hiring talented candidates with exceptional legal and technical/scientific backgrounds. We invest in our legal team and support staff. This includes providing each person with opportunities to work on a wide scope of projects in addition to specializing in a respective practice area. Haley Guiliano has developed an environment that fosters professional development and collegiality.
As a client, this means your matters will be handled by a team of Haley Guiliano professionals with a broad range of experience, who are able to learn about your business and your needs. This institutional knowledge will be a continuous mainstay during the course of our representation.