Robert M. Manley

Robert Manley is a trial lawyer who represents clients in high-stakes, complex commercial, intellectual property, trade secrets, investment, fiduciary duty, probate, and insurance recovery matters. Robert is recognized by his peers, clients, and the legal media as a pre-eminent trial lawyer and routinely tries complex cases in courts across the country.

Market Feedback:
Along with many accolades and recognition, Robert is highly ranked by Chambers USA. Here’s what the market says about Robert:

• "There is no one I’d rather have out there fighting for us." – Client
• "He has the ability to see a legal dispute and convert it into something that real people can understand and package it for a jury, which is a skill. He also has the ability to manage a large team." - Chambers reported client feedback
• "Robert is an outstanding lawyer. He is methodical, detail-oriented and confident in the courtroom." – Chambers reported client feedback

Representative Clients

Robert’s clients have included The State of Texas, Halliburton Energy Services, Maxus Energy, TIAA, Fidelity Investments, American Airlines, CenturyLink, Ericsson, City of San Francisco, Ca., City of Oakland Ca., Zachry Construction, 7-Eleven, Nationstar d/b/a Mr. Cooper, ORIX Capital Markets, Hayman Capital, BearingPoint, Pilgrim's Pride, NXP Semiconductors f/k/a Freescale, MediaTek, Inc., Trinity Industries, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., InFocus, SAExploration, Applied Biosystems, Safeway/Albertsons, Igloo, AptarGroup, Inc., BNSF Railway Company, Celanese, and many others.

Representative Trials

Robert recently helped lead the team that secured a massive $1.4 Billion settlement on behalf of the State of Texas against Meta Platforms/Facebook. [Photo] The record-breaking settlement was announced on July 30, 2024 and is the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single State. [Press Release]

One of Robert’s other recent cases made the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Robert represented a family in a significant will contest.  As lead trial lawyer for the plaintiffs, Robert lead an all-star legal team comprised of top lawyers from seven different firms.  For trial, the court sent out over 700 jury summons, the parties spent two days picking a jury at the local assembly center, and two weeks into the jury trial as Robert was poised to begin his cross-examination of the main defendant, the matter resolved on a confidential basis.  [That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.--Robert] The matter was reported to be one of the, if not the, largest will contest matters ever to go to a jury trial.

Robert secured a complete defense jury verdict for his clients CenturyLink and several of its officers in a three-week securities fraud jury trial in Houston, Texas. Jo Ann Schermerhorn et al v. CenturyLink f/k/a/ CenturyTel, Inc. et al.  CenturyLink, its former Chief Financial Officer, and its past General Counsel were accused of fraud and securities fraud.  Robert secured a complete defense verdict exonerating his clients from all allegations of wrongdoing.  

Robert secured a substantial plaintiffs’ jury verdict—including punitive damages--for Canyon Ridge Resorts against an investment bank in a fraud and breach of fiduciary duty trial.  Canyon Ridge Resorts, LLC et al v. Sterne, Agee and Leach, Inc. et al. Robert and his team tried the matter for seven weeks in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and secured a complete plaintiffs’ verdict, punitive damages, and final judgment.  The verdict is recognized as a VerdictSearch “Top 100 Verdict” and helped secure McKool Smith’s inclusion in Law360’s listing of the “Most Feared Plaintiff Firms.”

Robert secured a take-nothing defense jury verdict for his client Halliburton Energy Services in a patent infringement/theft of trade secrets matter following a two-week trade secret and patent infringement jury trial in Houston, Texas.  Legacy Separators, LLC v. Halliburton Energy Services, LLC et al.  The trial followed seven years of litigation that has been reported to be nation’s trade secret case with the greatest number of filings reported to date. 

Robert secured a complete plaintiffs’ verdict for his client TIAA-CREF in a significant insurance coverage jury trial in Wilmington, Delaware.  TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC et al v. Illinois National Insurance Company et al.   The jury verdict forced several insurers to honor the insurance policies they sold TIAA covering substantial losses it suffered resulting from a failed computer ERP implementation.  The jury also awarded TIAA-CREF attorney fees at trial, finding that the nearly $10 million in legal defense costs incurred by the entity were reasonable and recoverable. The final judgment was appealed to, and upheld by, the Delaware Supreme Court.

Robert secured a complete Plaintiff’s verdict for his client Enterprise Financial Group in a two-week jury trial in Dallas Texas. Enterprise Financial Group, Inc. v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc. The matter involved a failed joint venture between the parties for the creation and administration of a GAP insurance program in the new and used automobile sales industry and cross allegations of breach of contract.  Following a two-week trial, the jury returned a complete Plaintiffs’ verdict for Robert’s client and a take nothing verdict on Santander’s counterclaims.  

During Covid, Robert tried a patent infringement and theft of trade secrets case in Dallas, Texas for an inventor client, Dr. Ford Albritton, against Acclarent.  Dr. Ford Albritton v. Acclarent, Inc. The trial required social distancing, facemasks and shields, remote TV monitoring for the legal teams, the witness sitting in the jury box while the jury were spaced out in the courtroom pews [pun intended].  The parties settled their dispute on a confidential basis just as Robert was concluding presenting the damages case and expert witness [Again, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  Robert]

Unconventional Dispute Resolution Case Studies:

Robert is equally known for his creative approach to resolving clients’ cases outside the courtroom. Robert has pioneered several unconventional dispute resolution approaches (“UDR”).  He has used these unconventional approaches to get clients’ cases resolved when they need to be, and can be resolved short of trial.

• "Hire a judge ... and a jury." Robert represented a group of investors in a complex commercial mortgage backed securities litigation case against a group of financial institutions. The biggest challenge was the anticipated four to five-year wait before the court could actually hear the jury trial of the matter. Through Robert’s imaginative negotiations, the parties agreed by contract to: a) retain a retired judge to hear all pre-trial matters and preside over a “jury trial,” b) borrow a courtroom from the District Court, and c) to recruit and retain local citizens to act as jurors. The parties then proceeded to litigate the matter in normal fashion, including submitting pretrial motions, conducting voir dire, and proceeding to “trial” with the “hired judge” and the “hired jurors.”  In the end, Robert’s clients made a significant recovery in a fraction of the time that otherwise would have been required to try the matter.
• "Saving face." Robert represented a multinational corporation that was sued for allegedly causing the demise of one of its clients as a result of alleged failures in the nationwide ERP software implementation. Robert favorably resolved the matter after requesting and making a diplomatic, unilateral presentation to the opposing party—who itself had fiduciary duties to its stakeholders— regarding its failure to maintain the alleged failed software system. The matter was resolved shortly after Robert’s presentation at the opposing party’s request without any public or express allegations of spoliation.
• “Tell it to the judge.” Robert represented a Fortune 500 company in a contentious intellectual property dispute that was expected to last for years. Ultimately, the potential damages became the focal point of the case, and were to be decided by the Court. However, litigation was scheduled to drag on for another 2 years before the Court could try the case. So Robert convinced the opposing party and the Court to conduct a joint “summary trial” in the Court’s chambers and asked the Court to render an “non-binding indication” of what it anticipated the damages might be at the actual trial of the matter if based upon the evidence produced in the summary trial proceeding. After the summary jury trial and after receiving the Court’s “non-binding indication,” the matter resolved through negotiated settlement favorable to Robert’s client.
• “Now that I’m here, where am I?” Robert’s teams routinely prepare early case assessments (ECA) for their clients—thereby the clients know very early in the litigation process the merits of positions, the likely course litigation will take, and are provided an early opportunity to explore a business resolution to the dispute. This practice of preparing ECAs has led to several successful settlements for Robert’s clients without extensive litigation or trial. Several of Robert’s client hire his teams to perform ECAs and jury tests in matters where they have other existing representation.
• “We can do this the easy way, or …” When initiating a lawsuit, Robert often drafts and serves the defendant with a lengthy complaint, annotated to, and quoting from, case documents while publicly filing a “bare bones” complaint with the court. This allows the parties to evaluate some of the substance of the pending lawsuit without unnecessarily making public allegations, frequently leading to an early resolution.

Paying it Forward

Robert devotes a great deal of time to teaching and lecturing on trial advocacy and other trial related topics.  Robert has had the privilege of presenting for such groups as The Southern Poverty Law Center, Association of Corporate Counsel, Texas General Counsel Forum, The Center for American and International Law, Harvard Law School Student Association, The Texas Center for the Judiciary, The Texas Bar Association, the Dallas Bar Association, The Northern District of Texas, Countless Programs across the Country for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. Robert has been retained by countless law firms to conduct in-house trial advocacy programs for their trial lawyers.