California

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

Bunsow De Mory is a nationally recognized litigation boutique that specializes in maximizing the value of IP through strategic litigation. The firm is based in Northern California and has seasoned litigators around the country, including in Texas and Washington, DC.

The firm represents IP owners in federal district courts, federal appellate courts, the ITC, and before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board against the largest companies and law firms in the world and consistently achieves best in class results for its clients.

The firm works on matters across a range of technologies and industries, including mobile communications, consumer electronics, semiconductors, the “internet of things,” automotive, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, fintech, and life sciences.

Bunsow De Mory attorneys are strategic, technically proficient, and trial tested, with decades of experience and success litigating patent cases in venues throughout the country. And even as the landscape for patent owners has become more difficult in recent years, the firm wins. In the last several years, current firm partners secured more than $400M in verdicts and settlements.

The firm’s strength is its well-tested ability to formulate strategies that drive results. Bunsow De Mory knows how to maximize its client’s chances of pretrial and trial successes through effective storytelling and strategic planning, which starts before they file a case or immediately upon being retained to work on a case.

Legal experts have recognized the firm’s excellence. In 2025, firm attorneys landed on “best of” lists issued by the following ranking organizations: Chambers USA for patent litigation; Managing IP as a Global Top 250 Woman in IP; IAM 300 as a Top Patent Strategist; Managing IP as a Top Tier Firm and IPSTARS; Benchmark Litigation as a Litigation Star; Law Dragon as a Top 500 Litigator in America and a Top 500 Global IP Attorney;  The Daily Journal as a Top IP Lawyer; and Patexia as Top 100 and Top 250 Best Performing and Active lawyers at the PTAB.

Firm overview

Barnes & Thornburg’s Intellectual Property practice is among the largest in the country, with nearly 130 IP attorneys and professionals and 75 registered patent attorneys and agents. Our clients know that their intellectual property — inventions, brands and trade secrets — are as valuable as their factories, laboratories and inventories. We believe that intellectual property must be cultivated and nourished to grow as an asset and without the right care, it will wither.

Our team works diligently to help clients succeed in overseeing and protecting their valuable IP with employees, customers, partners and competitors, and to avoid infringement of the IP rights of others. We position and leverage our client’s critical IP in industry and specialized markets, and defend patent, trademark and copyright integrity in the judicial system and in agency review and appeals.

We assist product development, marketing, sales and finance teams with comprehensive IP programs and protect products from copying by competitors. We advise on IP holdings valued into the billions of dollars of market share, representing Fortune 500 companies with thousands of IP assets, as well as startup companies defined by a single patent. Our attorneys are committed to client service, cohesive teamwork, responsiveness and useful advice.

From coast to coast, we counsel clients from a variety of industries, such as medical device, plastics and packaging, internet and computer technology, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, automotive and aviation. With decades of experience, we understand that the many types of IP assets drive core business strategy and brand development. Our cost-conscious solutions help clients derive as much value from their intellectual resources as from their human resources.

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.