Paul Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
Firm overview:
Paul, Weiss is a full-service global firm with offices in the US, Canada, China, Japan and Europe. It began, however, in New York City in 1875, going global more than 50 years ago.
Paul, Weiss has grown to become a highly respected firm with its feet firmly in both transactional and litigation camps.
Among US trade secrets peers, it is known for “doing a lot of the high stakes cases”; one peer says the firm is “very aggressive and puts you through your paces.”
Lawyers from the firm’s Employment Law, Workplace Investigations & Trade Secrets Litigation group have represented a roster of high-profile clients in a series of business-critical trade secrets, non-competition and restrictive covenant disputes.
Paul, Weiss’ activities in this area include winning an injunction at trial for IBM, affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit, prohibiting a former senior executive privy to some of IBM’s most competitively sensitive trade secrets, from accepting a competing leadership position at Microsoft in breach of his non-competition agreement.
Paul, Weiss also represented Genentech in connection with allegations of theft of trade secrets, unfair trade practice and unjust enrichment brought by an ophthalmologist who claimed to have helped Genentech develop the eye disease drug Lucentis. The plaintiff sought $1.16 billion in damages before a federal district jury in Pennsylvania rejected the claims in their entirety.
Team overview:
Paul, Weiss’ trade secret practitioners sit within the firm’s Employment Law, Workplace Investigations & Trade Secrets Litigation practice group, chaired by partner Liza Velazquez.
The group prosecutes and defends non-competition, non-solicitation and trade secrets disputes for prominent clients, with individual lawyers recognised nationally in the US for their work. Additionally it enforces confidentiality agreements and restrictive covenants in the merger and acquisition context, as well as in employer-employee contracts.
In September, 2024, litigation partner Liza Velazquez participated in a panel, “Managing the Key Stage of the Case: Secrets to Seeking or Defending Against TROs and Preliminary Injunctions,” as part of the Practising Law Institute’s Noncompetes and Restrictive Covenants 2024 programme.
Key matters:
- The TriZetto Group, et al v Syntel Sterling Best Shores Mauritius, et al, US Supreme Court
Paul, Weiss represents integrated technology services provider Atos Syntel in a long-running trade secrets litigation with Cognizant Technology and its subsidiary, healthcare IT service provider TriZetto Group.
Syntel and TriZetto had a contractual agreement that Syntel terminated after TriZetto was acquired by Syntel competitor Cognizant in 2014. Syntel sued both companies in 2015 in the Southern District of New York alleging that TriZetto breached its contractual duties, including, among other things, failing to pay rebates required under the contract, and misappropriating confidential information.
In response, TriZetto and Cognizant made a series of counterclaims, including theft of trade secrets under the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), and infringement of copyrights covering aspects of their software.
Paul, Weiss took over the case from prior counsel on the eve of trial, in which the jury awarded TriZetto $855 million in large part due to the impact of the preclusion order; the combined compensatory and punitive damages were reduced to $570 million in post-trial briefing.
On appeal, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a $285 million compensatory damages award against Syntel, and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings.
The Paul, Weiss team includes litigation partners Kannon Shanmugam, who argued the appeal, and Jaren Janghorbani and Crystal Parker.
Clients:
Atos Syntel, BASF, CircusTrix Holdings, Citigroup, Comtech Telecommunications, Genentech, IBM, SAP, XPO Logistics
