California

Firm overview

Described in Chambers and Partners as “the hottest IP boutique in the Bay Area,” Durie Tangri is a 40 lawyer litigation boutique known for punching far above its weight class. Since opening its doors in 2009, Durie Tangri has “matured, along with much of its client base, into a California institution,” according to Benchmark Litigation. The firm is known for its creative and rigorous approach to protecting some of the most valuable IP in the country on behalf of its clients, and for its victories in other areas of high‐stakes litigation in jurisdictions nationwide.

Durie Tangri believes practicing law is a craft, an art, and a science. Our lawyers take pride in craftsmanship at all levels of the firm, and recognize that effective advocacy involves understanding the power of narrative. The team chooses to practice law together because we share a deep commitment to our clients and to the firm’s underlying values.

Notable Victories: 2021 has proven to be a busy year at Durie Tangri. The firm secured two back‐to‐back jury trial wins, achieving a defense verdict for Activision Blizzard in a copyright infringement action in the Eastern District of Texas over Call of Duty Black Ops 4, and less than a month later won $178 million and a finding of willful infringement for client Plexxikon in a patent infringement action against Novartis in the Northern District of California over a melanoma therapy. The firm successfully defended Instagram against a copyright infringement class action in the Ninth Circuit, and settled a $1.3 billion class action challenging CalPERS’s 2015 and 2016 rate increases with respect to its long‐term care program (the settlement is pending final court approval). Durie Tangri also secured a victory for Genentech before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in connection with a key Genentech patent covering a new method of cancer treatment.

Recognition: The firm’s attorneys are recognized as top lawyers by a number of prestigious regional and national publications. In the past year alone, the firm’s lawyers were named among LawDragon 500’s Legends of the 500; Benchmark Litigation’s Litigation Stars, Local Litigation Star in California, Under 40 Hot List and Future Stars; The Daily Journal’s Top Intellectual Property Lawyers, Top White Collar Lawyers, and Top 100 Lawyers; Managing IP’s IP Star in California; ranked by Chambers & Partners USA and Global, and IAM Patent 1000.

Practice Areas:

• Patent: Durie Tangri represents companies in patent litigation across the country in cases ranging from biotechnology to e‐commerce, solar technology to firewalls. Our clients include leading companies like Genentech, Shopify, Zoom, and Plexxikon, as well as rising startups.
• Copyright: Durie Tangri has extensive experience in groundbreaking copyright cases. The firm has represented clients such as Google, Activision Blizzard, CoreLogic, Automattic, the University of Chicago, Microsoft, Public.Resource.Org and Reddit in copyright matters. The firm has litigated copyright cases at every level, including the United States Supreme Court, and has participated in many of the precedent‐setting cases in the past decade. The firm’s attorneys are frequent commentators on cutting edge copyright and Internet issues.
• Trademark & Trade Secret: Durie Tangri is experienced in all aspects of trademark and trade secret litigation. The firm has been involved in several high profile cases involving employee mobility, and has represented Google in five cases defending the legality of its use of Internet keywords to trigger advertising against attack by trademark owners.
• Professional Liability: Durie Tangri attorneys have represented many leading law firms in defense of professional liability claims. In a Federal Circuit appeal on behalf of Gutride Safier law firm, Durie Tangri secured a sweeping victory from an order imposing sanctions. The case was widely hailed as a “landmark case” and a warning to lawyers who bring cases on behalf of non‐practicing entities. The firm’s breadth of substantive disciplines and commitment to a “generalist” approach to litigation makes it well‐suited to step into virtually any professional liability claim, regardless of
• the underlying field of law.
• Contract & Commercial: Durie Tangri lawyers have handled a broad array of complex civil litigation, including disputes relating to contracts, trade secrets, employee mobility, corporate control, and false advertising.
• Class Action: Durie Tangri attorneys have extensive experience in defending class action cases, including some of the largest putative classes in the world. The firm has represented Google in a nationwide class action challenging Google’s unification of its various privacy policies, and in an international class action defending against claims of copyright infringement arising from Google’s program of scanning works in major library collections. In the latter, the firm prevailed on summary judgment, with the court finding that Google’s conduct constitutes a fair use of the underlying works, a ruling affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. Durie Tangri also won a defense verdict on behalf of the California State University following a three-week trial, in a class action challenging CSU’s response to the California budget crisis.
• White Collar Crime & Investigations: Durie Tangri’s White Collar Crime and Investigations practice group is led by experienced trial lawyers who have successfully defended businesses and individuals in criminal and quasi‐criminal proceedings in federal and state courts throughout the United States. The firm prides itself on its ability to terminate investigations without press or harm to the individuals facing scrutiny. Durie Tangri’s lawyers have defended clients facing investigation and prosecution by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, as well as many other state and federal agencies.
• Appellate: Durie Tangri lawyers regularly appear in state and federal appellate courts. The firm has argued 30 cases in the Federal Circuit and more than 50 cases in the courts of appeals overall. The department is led by Mark Lemley, one of the founding partners of Durie Tangri and the William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. Mark has argued 28 Federal appellate cases and has won his last nine Federal Circuit cases, eight as appellant.  He has also been successful before the California Supreme Court.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: We recognize that diversity is essential to the success of our firm and our clients. We thus prioritize recruiting, retaining, and promoting diverse attorneys and staff, and building an inclusive and welcoming workplace. Of our full-time partners, fifty percent fall under the ABA Model Diversity Survey definition of “minority” or are LGBTQ. In the past three years, we promoted four “homegrown” partners, three of whom were women, LGBTQ, or minority. We also recognize that that is not enough. Across our industry, ethnic and racial minorities and members of the LGBTQ community are not just historically underrepresented. They are underrepresented today. This must change, and we are determined to do our part to change it. 

Updated Sep 2021

Firm overview

McDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. With more than 20 locations on three continents, the team works seamlessly across practices, industries and geographies to deliver highly effective – and often unexpected – solutions that propel success. 

Key capabilities:

Litigation and Dispute Resolution: Our litigation and dispute resolution lawyers are dedicated to providing passionate client advocacy through superior trial skills and incisive industry knowledge. Our litigation lawyers collaborate with colleagues across the Firm, to bring our clients fully developed solutions that make meaningful progress toward their business goals, in and out of the courtroom.

White Collar: Our white-collar team has tried hundreds of cases in courts throughout the United States and internationally, and draws on the unmatched insights of our lawyers who previously served as senior federal prosecutors. We are able to assemble strong, lean teams of seasoned legal counsel, to spot—and mitigate—potential compliance risks, respond quickly to government investigations and provide world-class defense in qui tam actions, criminal charges and parallel proceedings.

Antitrust Litigation: We provide effective, coordinated counsel on US antitrust law, EC competition law, China’s Anti-Monopoly Law and other competition regimes worldwide to help our clients eliminate roadblocks and achieve business goals. Our top-ranked lawyers are deeply familiar with all major US and international regulatory frameworks and dispute-resolution forums. We assist clients with challenges resulting from increasing antitrust activity, cross-jurisdictional government investigations and private litigation.

Intellectual Property Litigation: For business leaders leveraging intellectual property to drive growth or defend market position, we are your secret weapon in the boardroom and the courtroom. We help you respond quickly to changing market dynamics with actionable recommendations designed to capitalize on opportunity and mitigate risk. We work to uncover value at every stage of the IP lifecycle and we marry our business savvy, technical acumen and personal passion to help you benefit from it.

Employment: Pairing deep resources with broad geographic coverage, we meet the rapidly evolving needs of employers in virtually every sector, delivering a complete legal offering covering the full spectrum of employment and labor issues. We help develop and implement effective employment policies, defend clients in government investigations and compliance audits, and bring first-chair trial skills when defending employers in courts around the world.

Our team engages in every aspect of civil, regulatory and commercial defence litigation, including:

• Accountant Defense
• Appellate Law
• Antitrust Litigation
• Class Action
• Commercial Litigation
• Employment Litigation
• ERISA Litigation
• Insurance Litigation & Counseling
• Intellectual Property Litigation
• International Arbitration
• Privacy Litigation & Governmental Investigations
• Product Defense
• Securities Litigation
• Trade Secrets Litigation
• Trust & Estates Controversy

Updated Sep 2021

Firm overview

Freshfields is a leading global law firm with over 275 years’ experience advising the world’s most prestigious corporations and financial institutions. We pride ourselves on being a top-tier litigation department with a unique combination of subject-matter knowledge, local presence and strategic foresight.

The Freshfields litigation team represents a diverse set of US and global clients, across numerous industries and sectors, who face billions of dollars in potential exposure. Our clients include many of the world’s most recognizable brands and our roster continues to grow as clients increasingly find themselves in need of sophisticated counsel.

Our team of attorneys brings efficient and innovative solutions to our clients’ most pressing legal challenges. As a critical component of the world’s premier international litigation practice, our US litigators routinely handle complex multijurisdictional and cross-border matters and are alert to the specific concerns and collateral consequences of disputes in non-US regions as well as with global regulators.

We have unrivalled experience defending businesses across a range of industries, and by leveraging our 600-strong global litigation team we excel in complex cases that span multiple jurisdictions within and outside the United States. Our team includes seven former senior litigators from the Department of Justice and United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, who together have decades of experience taking dozens of federal and state trials to verdict—an invaluable weapon in securing the best outcomes for our clients.

Practice areas & sector specializations:

• Anti-Corruption and FCPA
• Antitrust Litigation
• Bankruptcy Litigation
• Commercial Litigation
• Crisis Management
• Cybersecurity and Data Privacy
• Economic Sanctions
• International Arbitration
• Internal Investigations
• Regulatory Enforcement and Investigations
• Securities and Shareholder Litigation
• White Collar Criminal Defense

Updated August 2021

Firm overview

Founded in 2019 by former BigLaw attorneys with decades of experience tackling thorny, complex legal issues, DTO Law handles matters on behalf of a variety of clients ranging from startups to Fortune 50 companies. Filled with a burning obsession for superior results, DTO lawyers are strategically aggressive in the pursuit of their clients’ goals. Rather than focusing only on the matter in front of them, they focus on their clients’ larger business goals—what matters and what doesn’t—so they can tailor their litigation strategies to their client’s business objectives. 

 
DTO’s mantra is straightforward: great success is not born of half-measures. Rather, success requires unparalleled, unflinching, compulsive commitment to both the mission and the principle of excellence.

 
Companies facing the threat of a class action often turn to DTO to navigate those waters and secure the best result. DTO’s attorneys have handled over 125 threatened or filed class actions and are recognized by their peers as leaders in the field. DTO has had success in all phases of class actions: resolving threatened class actions, obtaining dismissals at the pleading stage, compelling a case to arbitration, defeating class certification, winning motions for summary judgment, and negotiating favorable settlements in tough cases.

 
Having represented plaintiffs and defendants in the intellectual property arena, DTO is adept at both protecting intellectual property and protecting businesses from accusations of infringement. Its substantive experience includes patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and domain name disputes. DTO litigators have handled over 100 IP disputes in federal court. 

 
In addition to its deep class action and intellectual property litigation experience, DTO has handled litigation relating to breaches of contracts, partnership and founder disputes, fraud claims, employment disputes, mass torts, and products liability claims. DTO’s extensive mediation experience serves it well in that department: it has handled over 300 mediations, and one of its attorneys is a certified mediator.

 
DTO also has extensive appellate experience. It has had great success defending clients’ successful trial court victories on appeal, including issues of first impression. Its litigation team includes four former federal clerks, and its lawyers have bar admissions to the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous circuits of the U.S. Court of Appeals.

 
On the deal making side, the firm’s lawyers help clients develop strategic plans compatible with overall business strategy. In its capacity as real estate counsel, DTO has assisted a variety of clients, including investors, property owners, tenants, developers, and lenders with the purchase, sale, development, and financing of real property transactions.

DTO also has deep experience managing challenging issues in the areas of technology, commercial solutions, and sourcing to achieve critical business objectives. The firm’s attorneys work hard to understand business needs and bring their business acumen to guide transactions and offer creative solutions.

The firm has significant experience handling complex business and commercial finance transactions. Trusted by large financial institutions, DTO’s attorneys keep abreast of changing business environments that affect their clients’ needs and tirelessly work to become trusted advisors.

In 2020, DTO was profiled by leading legal publication the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, which also named the firm a “Top Boutique” law firm in the state of California.

Awards and Recognition: DTO’s lawyers have been recognized time and again for the results they have achieved on behalf of their clients and their reputation in the legal industry. A sampling of the recognition its attorneys have received over the years includes:

• “2022 Best Lawyers” (The Best Lawyers in America)
• “2021 Visionaries” (L.A. Times B2B Publishing Business of Law Magazine)
• “2021 Outstanding Firm for Diversity & Inclusion (USA)” (Chambers and Partners)
• "Top Intellectual Property Lawyers” (Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal)
• "Top Women Lawyers” (Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal)
• “Super Lawyers” (Super Lawyers Magazine - Southern California)
• “Super Lawyers Rising Stars” (Super Lawyers Magazine - Southern and Northern California)
• “Minority Leader of Influence” (Los Angeles Business Journal)
• "Leaders in the Law” (Los Angeles Business Journal)
• "2020 Top Boutiques” (Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal)
• "2020 Law Firm MVP" (National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms - NAMWOLF)
• "Top Latino Lawyer” (Latino Leaders Magazine)

Diversity: DTO does not pay lip service to diversity. It embodies it.

The firm is 100% owned by women and people of color, and the firm is a member of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF). In 2020, DTO was honored by NAMWOLF as its “Law Firm MVP.” Each year, the award recognizes a law firm member for its outstanding achievement in advancing NAMWOLF’s mission of promoting diversity and inclusion by fostering the relationship between preeminent minority and women-owned law firms and corporations and public entities. Additionally, the firm and/or its lawyers are members and/or leaders of various organizations that promote diversity and inclusion in the legal field, such as the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), the Cuban American Bar Association (CABA), the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and Foundation, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), ChIPs, the South Asian Bar Association (SABA), and the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA). One of the founding partners serves as Vice Chair of NAMWOLF and another is on the Executive Council of LCLD.  All of its partners were LCLD Fellows. The firm’s attorneys also speak and publish regularly about diversity and inclusion-related topics.

Updated Oct 2021