McKool Smith principal Douglas A. Cawley has been inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the country’s most esteemed legal associations. Mr. Cawley was inducted on March 5, 2016 during the organization’s 2016 Spring Meeting in Maui, Hawaii.
Founded in 1950, the American College of Trial Lawyers is an invitation-only fellowship of exceptional trial lawyers with diverse backgrounds from the United States and Canada. The College thoroughly investigates each nominee for admission and selects only those who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism and collegiality. Lawyers must have a minimum of fifteen years trial experience before they can be considered for Fellowship in the College, which is limited to the top one percent of the total lawyer population of any state or province.
Mr. Cawley has more than 40 years of trial experience, and has handled major intellectual property matters throughout the United States and across the globe. His record in patent plaintiffs’ litigation includes a total of six “Top 100 Verdicts” (as reported by The National Law Journal and VerdictSearch). Over the past eight years alone, Mr. Cawley has secured more than $1 billion in patent infringement verdicts. These victories include a $173 million verdict on behalf of ParkerVision against Qualcomm; a $368 million verdict for VirnetX against Apple; a $106 million verdict for VirnetX against Microsoft; a $200 million verdict for i4i against Microsoft; a $21 million verdict for Anascape against Nintendo; and, a $156 million verdict for TGIP, Inc., among others.
Last year, Mr. Cawley was profiled in Law360’s special feature on “Trial Aces,” which recognized the Top 50 trial lawyers in the United States. In describing his effectiveness as a trial lawyer, Law360 noted that Mr. Cawley’s “list of victories is replete with multimillion-dollar verdicts won against some of the deepest pockets in the corporate world,” and that “you can chalk [his] more than $1 billion in patent victories up to his way of wooing juries.” The article also discusses how Mr. Cawley's “honesty in the courtroom has earned him a positive reputation with judges.” In 2014, he was named the Dallas "Patent Lawyer of the Year" by Best Lawyers and "Outstanding IP Litigator - Texas" by Managing IP.
With more than 180 trial lawyers across offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C., McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America’s leading trial firms. Since 2006, the firm has secured nine nine-figure jury verdicts, and ten eight-figure jury verdicts. The firm has also won more VerdictSearch and The National Law Journal "Top 100 Verdicts" over the last eight years than any other law firm in the country. Courtroom successes like these have earned McKool Smith critical acclaim and helped the firm become what The Wall Street Journal describes as “one of the biggest law firm success stories of the past decade.” McKool Smith represents clients in complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy, and white collar defense matters.