Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

Firm overview:

Since its beginnings in New York City in 1875, 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 secret, non-competition and restrictive covenant disputes.

The team’s experience also covers advising organisations on “no-poaching” investigations and litigations; litigating actions to enforce confidentiality agreements and restrictive covenants in the M&A context; and counselling clients on employment compliance audits and reducing future liability.

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.

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 damages retrial resulted in a compensatory damages award to TriZetto of $70 million, boosting the overall award to $370 million.

The Paul, Weiss team includes litigation partners Kannon Shanmugam, Jaren Janghorbani and Crystal Parker.

Clients:

Atos Syntel, BASF, CircusTrix Holdings, Citigroup, Comtech Telecommunications, Genentech, IBM, SAP, XPO Logistics