Kirkland & Ellis deployed an animated tutorial during a five-hour hearing to convince a Florida federal judge to knock out two of Atlas IP LLC's three patent infringement claims on summary judgment fewer than three weeks before trial. The firm's motion for reconsideration for Medtronic Inc., now a Medtronic PLC subsidiary, convinced U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga to disqualify Atlas' last claim one week before trial.

Judges often are inclined to let a jury decide when a case is that close to trial, said Kirkland New York partner Jeanne “Jeannie” Heffernan, who first-chaired the case. “There may be a number of points you want to appeal, but you focus on your best argument, your strongest argument,” she said.

Atlas sought $217.6 million on claims that Medtronic's pacemakers, defibrillators and insulin pumps infringed a wireless-networking patent it had acquired. Kirkland went all-in at the pretrial stage because it was clear that Medtronic's products bore no relation to the patent in the case, Heffernan said. “The way [the Kirkland lawyers] handled the litigation in this instance was very professional and very good,” said George Summerfield, also counsel for Atlas at Chicago's Stradheim & Grear.