Durie Tangri

San Francisco litigation-specific shop Durie Tangri has been experiencing breakneck-speed growth in both the bench count and stature levels since its foundation. "That's just a superb group," assesses a peer, who goes on to elaborate, "and they have managed to do it their way, staying small and focused. They do a lot of really interesting work, none of it 'cookie-cutter,' including some trade secrets work and founder disputes for some of the 'buzziest' local entities." While still noted for maintaining a lean structure, the firm has bulked up recently, adding younger partners Sonal Mehta, a former Weil Gotshal & Manges attorney who joined the firm in July 2015, and Ben Au, who joined the firm in January 2016. Both are involved in trade secret matters, with Mehta also attending to patent and antitrust work and Au tending to a niche in quasi-white-collar matters. Peers in the intellectual property group (including some, notably, who are from outside of California) rave on Mehta's behalf; one asserts, "In her age group, she is the future of patent litigation. And I believe she's only about 36 years old! She graduated college at 19, law school at 22, and since then has just been doing a bang-up job."

Name partner and revered trial lawyer Daralyn Durie is acknowledged by peers in the community as "one of the best of the best." Although Durie counts large local mainstays such as Genentech among the clients that count on her for a high-touch, hands-on approach, it is also noted that Durie and her firm have become the attorneys of choice for several of the Bay Area's many start-ups. While regarded as an "IP rockstar," Durie's practice extends beyond said practice; she has represented defendants in nationwide and international class actions, scoring major jury victories in the process. Mark Lemley successfully argued that "pay-for-delay" pharmaceutical patent settlements may be challenged under California antitrust law. The California Supreme Court's March 2015 ruling renews drug buyers' claims that Bayer's payments to generic manufacturers of $400 million to delay launch of another version of Cipro is illegal. The ruling overturns decisions two lower court decisions.

The firm is not wanting for recent victories. In May 2017, the Federal Circuit affirmed dismissal with prejudice of patent infringement claims brought against client Commonwealth Edison, an Illinois' electricity utility company, alleging infringement of a wireless communications patent. In July 2016, the firm won summary judgment on behalf of CoreLogic, a technology provider for Multiple Listing Service services, in a class-action suit filed by a group of photographers who provide services to real estate agents and brokers claiming that CoreLogic's technology removes "copyright management information" from photographs originally taken by professional photographers uploaded to multiple listing services, and alleged that most of the millions of real estate listing photographs posted since 2011 were eligible for statutory damages. As lead counsel for Palo Alto Networks, Durie Tangri successfully defended against a trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement case targeted at the client's next-generation firewall products. The plaintiff agreed to walk away from original patent infringement claims in exchange for an agreement not to pursue attorneys' fees. Soon after the settlement, the plaintiff then petitioned the district court to vacate the settlement, claiming that he had been pressured by his attorney. The district court denied his petition, stating that there was no viable ground given to vacate the settlement. Plaintiff appealed to the Federal Circuit, and the district court's decision was affirmed in May 2017.