Crowell & Moring

Firm overview:

Crowell & Moring has a successful track record of handling large, complex trade secrets cases across multiple disciplines, jurisdictions and venues. The firm has the capability to litigate the highest-profile civil and criminal disputes, and secured what is referenced as one of the largest contested verdicts in trade secrets history with a $919 million award for DuPont in 2011, although it was significantly reduced in 2015.

Further work highlights include defending BAE Systems in a trade secrets misappropriation action filed by Raytheon, and defending Siemens in a trade secrets suit involving positive train control (PTC) technology.

With broad expertise across various scientific and engineering fields, the team is well placed to advise clients on protecting trade secrets through audits, strategic portfolio analyses, and robust on-boarding and off-boarding programmes for employees.

Crowell’s team also produces a Trade Secrets Trends blog and engages directly with policymakers to address the rapidly expanding scale of trade secrets misappropriation and improve protections.

Team overview:

Washington, DC partner Mark Klapow has an enviable client roster that includes Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, Intel and Lenovo, among others. Peers note his regular appearance on big trade secrets cases, and he serves on the Trade Secrets Steering Committee of the Sedona Conference.

Also leading the trade secrets team are first-chair trial lawyer Astor Heaven (Washington, DC) and Valerie Goo (Los Angeles), who routinely litigates cases for technology companies. Heaven comes recommended by an industry counterpart for his trade secrets practice, and has extensive experience representing clients in commercial, trade secrets misappropriation, restrictive covenant and employee mobility disputes.

Key matters:

Clients:

Carta, CipherBlade, Cummins Engine, Mercantile Global, MillerCoors, StoneX, Stripe