Last year was packed with big wins for McKool Smith's intellectual property litigators. 

Following a federal district judge's ruling that overturned a $75 million patent damages award that McKool Smith secured for client Ericsson against TCL Communication in December 2017, the court made the rare move of granting a motion to reconsider that the firm filed on behalf of Ericsson. In May 2018, Judge Roy Payne of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas added $25 million in enhanced damages due to TCL's willful infringement and awarded Ericsson more than $10 million in prejudgment interest, resulting in a final judgment for more than $110 million in damages.

And in August, McKool Smith secured a $145 million patent infringement verdict for WiLAN against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, with a jury finding that Apple infringed WiLAN's voice over LTE  wireless communication technology used in many Apple products, including the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus.

 "Defeating Apple in its hometown is no easy task, so we are all proud of the result," said Ted Stevenson, a principal in the Dallas office of McKool Smith. "Apple moved for a new damages trial, which the court granted, so we're ramping up for the damages trial."

The following responses were provided by Stevenson.

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

We are trial lawyers, and we pride ourselves on being the most committed and prepared lawyers in the courtroom. We've tried a large number of intellectual property cases, we have experienced nearly every issue that can come up in trial, and we know how to respond. As a result, our clients typically turn to us for their most important disputes, when losing is simply not an option. Clients also frequently ask us to "parachute in" and try cases for them when summary judgment has been denied and they have lost confidence in their litigation teams, who promised they would win the case on the papers. When you hire McKool Smith, it communicates to opposing counsel and the broader market that you're serious about the dispute and you're willing to go the distance with lawyers who know how to win a jury verdict.

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?    

It's critical that you're 100% focused on your client and their business interests. While getting the best result in the courtroom is important, it is not the only objective. The litigation strategy must also be aligned with the client's broader overall business strategy. Sometimes it does not make sense to file a case or take a case to trial. In that vein, we are always looking for ways to meet our client's business objectives through agreement. When your adversary knows that it is up against experienced, top-shelf trial lawyers, it becomes much easier to reach favorable agreements resolving disputes. Because of our reputation as trial lawyers, many clients assume we just think about how to win the trial – to the contrary, we also constantly think of ways to offer more value by resolving disputes through agreement, which also strengthens our role as a business advisor to our clients.

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].