Texas

Firm overview

We’re proud to work with some of the world’s most dynamic organizations and the leaders who drive them. We know that on any given day you’re tackling competition, corporate development, asset protection, talent management—some days all of the above. While there’s a bevy of smart folks out there to help you address them on a case-by-case basis, there are few who have the breadth and depth of focused knowledge to help you attend to them all and stay ahead of what’s next.

That’s McDermott.

When you hire us, you don’t just get the experience of an individual. You get a purpose-built, tightly woven network of legal thought leaders who marry their passion for business with a deep, focused understanding of the law.

And your team isn’t just the lawyers working on your business day one. It’s also their colleagues around the world who guide and advise around the edges—the ones who add diverse, nuanced perspectives to elevate strategy and surface highly effective—but often unexpected—solutions when a “simple” transaction becomes a bet-the-company deal or a basic arbitration turns into multi-year litigation.

We don’t just promote this approach—we thrive on it. We know that it’s our ability to tap into the particular knowledge of our individual lawyers and then to harness their collective experience that makes us uniquely qualified to help our clients move faster and propel their success.

You can see it the results we deliver and you’ll feel it when you meet with us to talk about your needs. You’ll know that we’re more than “just” lawyers. We’re scientists, accountants, analysts, policy makers, money managers and family members who love the law. We bring all of those experiences to bear for your business and the people you serve.

Most importantly, we’re committed to helping you make real progress against your goals—to turning those big ideas into actionable plans—and to making it as easy and enjoyable as possible.

Firm overview

Alston & Bird LLP has grown to become a leading international firm while remaining steeped in a culture with client service and teamwork as the cornerstones of all that we do. We develop, assemble, and nurture the strongest and broadest array of legal talent and expertise necessary to meet our clients’ needs in an ever-changing and fast-paced environment.

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.

Firm overview

Weil offers a comprehensive, national IP practice, comprising Patent Litigation, Technology and IP Transactions, IP/Media (which encompasses trademark, copyright, music licensing, privacy, and false advertising matters), and our cross-disciplinary IP Counseling Practice.

Weil’s national Patent Litigation practice offers strong platforms in Silicon Valley, New York, and Washington, DC, with more than 30 practitioners nationally. We have earned a reputation as a go-to firm for high stakes patent litigation in all of the major venues, including in federal district courts, at the United States International Trade Commission, on appeal at the Federal Circuit, or before the Patent Office. Our patent litigators regularly handle matters where the rulings are game-changing and where the law, facts, and technology are complex. In many instances, these cases often have far-reaching impacts across entire industries. Importantly, many of our attorneys have degrees in chemistry, biology, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and physics. These technical and scientific backgrounds allow us to identify critical issues and quickly understand the technology at the forefront of a case. With the majority of our team licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent Office, our team has unique strategic advantages in being able to navigate the interplay of district court cases and IPR/post-grant proceedings. Indeed, our lawyers are leaders in inter partes review and covered business method review proceedings, having handled more than 300 of them since 2012.

Our Technology and IP Transactions group comprises 33 lawyers in New York, Silicon Valley and London who spend 100% of their time on technology and intellectual property transactions—a distinguishing feature of Weil—bringing deep expertise to client matters. We represent our clients in all stages of development, from start-ups to Fortune 50, across a broad range of industries. We are well known for our cutting-edge work across all forms of stand-alone technology and intellectual property transactions such as patent acquisitions, licensing agreements, joint ventures, strategic alliances, research and development collaborations, internet/e-commerce arrangements and other types of cross-border technology transactions.

Our IP/Media practice, which boasts nearly two dozen lawyers with IP expertise and courtroom experience, has a leading reputation for success dealing with and litigating cutting-edge IP issues. Leading social media platforms, digital music streaming companies, major media and entertainment companies, global e-commerce platforms and international financial services companies regularly turn to Weil’s IP/Media practice to manage: cutting-edge secondary liability issues; DMCA safe harbors and compliance requirements; music licensing; trademark and copyright licensing requirements; trademark strategy, enforcement and litigation; IP matters arising in the transactional context; false advertising claims; development of terms of service, fair use and assessment of infringement risks (both direct and secondary); and strategies associated with the clients’ service offerings and product development initiatives. Weil also has the nation’s pre-eminent service-side music copyright practice, and has litigated more than a dozen royalty rate-setting proceedings—far more than any other law firm. We work closely with our broad base of clients to coordinate these issues on a global basis, and over the last several decades, our lawyers have participated in many of the most significant trademark and copyright cases.

Weil’s clients benefit from our deep bench of leading practitioners with the full spectrum of IP capabilities. Clients of the group include: AbbVie; AIG; Alibaba; BASF; BBC Studios; Bio-Rad; Brookfield; CareDx; CBS; Comcast; eBay; Eli Lilly; Getty Images; General Electric; GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc.; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; HP, Inc.; Illumina; Intel; Johnson & Johnson; Kroger; Lenovo Group; Meta Platforms; Nuance Communications; Oracle; Pacific Biosciences; Palo Alto Networks; Pandora Media; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; S&P Global; Samsung; Sanofi; SiriusXM; and Tesla; among others.