Morgan Chu

LOS ANGELES - Morgan Chu is widely regarded as one of the best trial lawyers and one of the best IP lawyers in the country. Recently, he has had a string of major successes for his clients VLSI Technology and its parent, Fortress Investment Group.

In April, he co-led a team that obtained a $2.3 billion final judgment for VLSI in a suit against Intel involving two patents on technology the chip giant uses in some microprocessors. It is the largest patent judgment in history and the second-largest jury verdict in a patent case. Intel has appealed to the 9th Circuit. VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp., 6:21-cv-00057 (W.D. Tex., filed April 11, 2019).

Then in November, he co-led the Irell team that won an additional $948 million verdict for VLSI over different Intel chip technology. VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp., 1:19-cv-00977 (W.D. Tex., filed April 11, 2019).

And midway through that second trial, he learned that the 9th Circuit had rejected Intel's unusual antitrust counterattack on his clients. The chipmaker had accused Fortress and VLSI of monopolizing certain tech markets by "aggregating" numerous old and weak patents in a scheme to block competitors. Intel Corp. v Fortress Investment Group LLC, 21-16817 (9th C., decis. Nov. 8, 2022).

"[The court] found that Intel's allegations were insufficient," Chu said, who had argued the case for his clients barely a month earlier. One part of the reason for Chu's long history of success surely is how much he enjoys his work.

"I love what I do every day," he said. "I am lucky enough to learn something new every month, every week, sometimes every day."

He is happy to see technology expanding exponentially these days, noting that approximately 80% of the people in the world have more computing power in their pockets than NASA needed to send astronauts to the moon.

Self-driving tractors will soon advise farmers on their crops' needs. That and other high-tech advances in agriculture "ultimately will have a huge payoff for the world at large," Chu said.

Advances in medicine and genetics have created entirely new methods to treat cancer, including immunotherapy and allogeneic therapies that, in some cases, are far more effective than surgery, radiation or chemotherapy.

He and his team won a $1.2 billion verdict for a client in that field in late 2019, but the Federal Circuit reversed. This month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied for the second time a motion for it to hear the case. Juno Therapeutics Inc. v. Kite Pharma Inc., 21-1566 (U.S., order Jan. 9, 2022).

Despite the occasional disappointment, Chu said it continues to be exciting for him and his colleagues to be part of the teams that are developing new technologies and to help bring them to market.

"You can see why being a lawyer is so much fun," he said. "I get to learn new things, work with great young people, and it's always challenging."