Durie Tangri LLP

Durie Tangri is known for its work litigating intellectual property cases. Just this June, name partner Daralyn J. Durie won a defense verdict in a copyright trial in Texas for videogame company Activision. Then 28 days later, she brought in a $178 million jury verdict in a patent infringement case against Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. In between, she settled long-running patent disputes over genetic sequencing technology for 10X Genomics.

But the firm’s attorneys also handle complex civil litigation, antitrust class actions and white-collar criminal cases. Michael J. Proctor, who joined the firm in 2018, successfully defended a former Pacific Gas & Electric executive in state and federal criminal prosecutions of the utility over Northern California wildfires.

Durie is currently co-lead counsel for a proposed class of buyers of HIV drugs who accuse pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences of conspiring with its competitors to develop single-dose tablets combining several medications so to require the use of Gilead’s drugs after their patents expired. Staley v. Gilead Sciences Inc., 3:19-cv-02573 (N.D. Cal., filed May 14, 2019)

In another large class action, Durie, Proctor, name partner Ragesh Tangri and younger partner Adam Brausa worked together to defend CalPERS against allegations the state pension system had intentionally misled 100,000 policyholders about 85 percent rate increases for its long-term care insurance. A settlement worth up to $2.7 billion won preliminary court approval in July. Sanchez v. California Public Employees Retirement System, BC517444 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 6, 2013)

About that case, Proctor said he believes his criminal trial experience dovetails nicely with Durie’s IP trial experience. “We don’t see our firm as having silos of experts,” he said. “We see ourselves as having a bunch of really terrific trial lawyers that like to collaborate.”

Collaboration is a concept the partners mention frequently discussing their firm. Brausa says the firm culture emphasizes the attorneys working together. “I think everybody is proud of having developed that sense of cohesion among our attorneys and staff alike,” he said.

He had been a partner only a relatively short time when an important patent infringement matter was referred to him. He represents online marketplace Shopify against nonpracticing entity Express Mobile, which has been asserting several patents against many companies in more than 100 cases since 2015. In a key victory in November, he won a partial summary judgment knocking out two of five patents asserted against Shopify. Trial is set for January. Shopify Inc. v. Express Mobile Inc., 1:19-cv-00439 (D. Del, filed March 1, 2019)

When the case came to him, no one in the firm told him he was too junior to handle it. “Everyone at the firm said, ‘We’re here to help in whatever way we can, just let us know,’” he said.

“We want everyone to succeed, we want everyone to be a standalone first-chair trial attorney, and we’re willing to do the things necessary to develop that,” Brausa said about the firm’s culture.

— Don DeBenedictis