Our runners up for Litigator of the Week include Hogan Lovells  (newly-elevated) counsel Tom Schmidt and associate Mitchell Reich for their work on two different cases.

Schmidt and partner Neal Katyal won a major patent appeal for Google in the Federal Circuit. Katyal, who had a looming Supreme Court argument, backed Schmidt (then an associate) to handle Google's mandamus appeal—and the client agreed. Their faith was well-placed. Schmidt convinced the appellate court that Google could not be subjected to suit in the Eastern District of Texas based on computer servers it owns there. The decision stands to set the legal framework governing venue in many patent cases going forward.

As for Reich, he's the newest member of an exclusive club—associates who have argued before the Supreme Court. Representing a bankrupt Colorado bank in a tax refund dispute, Reich led the effort to find the case and wrote the successful cert petition. After a lively oral argument, he succeeded in persuading the court to issue a 9-0 opinion striking down the so-called "Bob Richards" rule, a federal common law provision that deals with assigning ownership of tax refunds.