News 04.27.23

‘Not a Single Penny’: Segal McCambridge Beats Back $5.5M Claim Against Client, published in Texas Lawyer

An article published in the Texas Lawyer on 4/24 outlines a federal trade secret misappropriation trial in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas-Houston in which Segal McCambridge achieved victory for its client, Impact Networking. Impact Networking and our legal team believed that the plaintiff’s claims lacked merit from the very beginning and never backed down. The jury agreed with us.

The defendants, represented by Segal McCambridge, prevailed, and zero money damages were awarded against them. Mitchell Morinec of the firm’s Chicago office and co-counsel on the case states, "Here, the plaintiff asked the jury for at least $5.5 million in damages and invoked the potential for significant attorney’s fees and punitive damages on top of that. The jury awarded the plaintiff nothing, not a single penny, and found in defendants’ favor on almost every single one of plaintiff’s claims."

Even after a verdict as decisive as this, the plaintiff continues to assert it is the prevailing party in order to avoid paying legal fees.

“In Hewitt v. Helms (1987), the Supreme Court of the United States determined that a plaintiff who received a favorable ruling but obtained no actual relief was not a ‘prevailing party’ for purposes of being awarded post-judgment costs or fees,” Morinec stated.

Lead counsel for the defendants is Joseph Kish, Mitchell Morinec and Paul Motz are co-counsel.

To read the story in full, click here (subscriber-based).