Douglas Cawley practices intellectual property litigation and is a member of American College of Trial Lawyers; AIPLA; American, Federal Circuit, and Dallas Bar Associations. Over the past eight years, Cawley has secured more than $1 billion in patent infringement verdicts, including a $173M verdict for ParkerVision against Qualcomm; $368M verdict for VirnetX Holding Corp. against Apple; $200M verdict for i4i against Microsoft; $106M verdict for VirnetX against Microsoft; $21M verdict for Anascape Ltd. against Nintendo; and a $156M verdict for TGIP Inc. Cawley graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with honors, and the University of Texas with high honors.

The legal profession is constantly evolving and that evolution only seems to have accelerated in recent years. What's the biggest change you've seen in your profession during your career?

The emergence of female lawyers. When I began practicing only a small fraction of lawyers were women, and even fewer went to court. Today it's typical that at least half of the lawyers working on a case are women. I'm not wise enough to understand all the ways in which this has changed the profession, but it's the biggest—and I think most profound—change I've seen.

What is one thing about the profession that has remained unchanged over the years?

That collegiality is good for everybody: our clients; our adversaries; our courts; and the legal system. When I look around at lawyers who have been successfully trying cases for 45 years plus, they are usually the ones who have figured out how to be hard on the issues but easy on the people.

What is one piece of advice you would give someone entering into the profession that you wish you had as a young lawyer?

When I entered the profession it was all the rage to approach the practice of law as a business. Of course, that's important. But many of us lost sight of the fact that running a successful business is not a lawyer's most important role. Our most important role is serving our clients. If you're able to look back on your career with satisfaction it's probably not because of the big fees you brought in, but because of the people whose lives you affected in a positive way by your counsel, judgment, and advocacy.