With fewer than 50 attorneys and a single office, Houston-based Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing made an outsize impact on the nationwide litigation landscape in 2018.

In February 2018, the firm convinced the Texas Supreme Court to become the first state high court to recognize that communications between nonlawyer patent agents and inventor clients are protected by attorney-client privilege. According to AZA partner Jane Langdell Robinson, the Texaxs ruling could influence courts across the country. There are currently 24 other states that have the same privilege rule as Texas. 

And in November 2018, the firm successfully argued to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that a lower court's ruling for Google in a dispute over three spreadsheet patents asserted by AZA's client Data Engine Technologies should be reversed.  The appellate court ruled, in a precedential decision, that a Delaware court was incorrect when it tossed out the claims against Google for its use of the patented notebook-tab type improvements to spreadsheets that made them more user-friendly. Google argued the patents were invalid because they only covered abstract ideas, but the appellate court said the three patents provided "a highly intuitive, user-friendly interface with familiar notebook tabs for navigating the three-dimensional worksheet environment."

According to Ahmad Zavitsanos partner John Zavitsanos, AZA tried 15 jury trials and arbitrations last year and won the vast majority of them.

"I believe it is quite discouraging when a company or individual hires a law firm to try their case and what they receive in return is three years' worth of monthly statements and a CYA letter 'strongly recommending' settlement one month before trial," Zavitsano said when asked about his firm's most satisfying litigation successes in 2018. "We do not play that game. So, our most satisfying success last year was that we were in trial every single month."

The following responses were provided by Zavitsanos.

A prospective client in crisis calls and asks why your team should be retained—what is your answer?

We excel at handling client crises and we are often called in to replace or augment other lawyers because of that. All but a few of our lawyers have been to trial multiple times. How can a lawyer provide sound advice on what a case is worth if that lawyer either has never tried a case or has not tried a case in five years?  Our assessment of the value of a case is based strictly on what we believe a judge, jury or arbitrator is likely to do and not based on the subconscious fear of trying a case to verdict.  In this respect, we seldom seek continuances and will push for trial as soon as possible.  This can create dramatic costs savings for our clients.

It's a challenging litigation market, with increasing competition not only from other law firms but from alternative legal services providers. From a business perspective, what does it take for a litigation team to succeed in this environment?   

I think the answer to this one is very simple:  employ lawyers who are: (a) brilliant (b) fearless and (c) have front line trial experience.

An awards ceremony will be held on Sept. 18 at the Belo Mansion in Dallas. The Attorney of the Year award winner will be announced at the ceremony.

Click here for booking information. For information about sponsoring the event, contact Andre Sutton at 757-721-9020 or email [email protected].