Rebecca L. Carson

Carson has over the past two years helped save Zoll Medical Corp. from paying more than $200 million in damages following a federal jury trial; persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to affirm an earlier inter partes review victory she had successfully argued as an associate before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board; and secured a sufficiently strong win on claim construction that the plaintiff agreed to stipulate to noninfringement and patent invalidity.

“I’d been a summer associate here while in law school at the University of Virginia,” she said. “I grew up in Iowa, and I knew I wanted to live on the West Coast for the good weather and the culture.”

She delivered a series of wins to Juniper Networks Inc. in a patent dispute over router technology patents filed by plaintiff Brixham Solutions Ltd. She started the case as an associate and ended it as a partner. “I was a little nervous,” she said of arguing before a Federal Circuit panel. “But the best part was we got a favorable decision just two days later.”

For Zoll, a maker of cardiac resuscitation devices, Carson was a core member of the trial team after Irell & Manella was retained for the damages phase following a liability trial handled by another firm. The aim was to mitigate a big damages award after Zoll had been found liable for infringement. The Irell team initially secured multiple appellate victories for Zoll on the verdict, including reversal of the jury’s finding that several asserted patent claims were not invalid as anticipated.

On remand, plaintiff Koninklijke Philips N.V. sought $217 million on its infringement claims; Zoll sought $3.3 million on its infringement counterclaims. The net verdict result last August was $7.1 million to Philips, just 3 percent of the amount it sought. Koninklijke Philips N.V. v. Zoll Medical Corp., 1:10-cv-11041 (D. Mass., filed June 18, 2010).

“I was in on the pretrial preparation and I examined four witnesses,” Carson said. “We were in a tough spot. Our goal was to cut through the compensatory issues and tell a simple story about how Zoll’s success was based on its own innovations. The case had been hanging over our clients’ heads since 2010. The Zoll executives were in the courtroom, and when the verdict came back we got hugs and a round of applause. It made all the long hours really worth it. It was the highlight of my career so far.”

Carson said her youthful appearance gets noticed. “I definitely get comments. People are surprised I’m a lawyer,” she said. “I was traveling for one trial with a big garment bag and a male TSA agent asked it was my wedding dress. I told him it was my badass lawyer suit.”

— John Roemer