Lisa S. Glasser  

Lisa S. Glasser serves as vice chair of the Irell & Manella LLP litigation group and as a member of its executive committee. She's been with the firm since 2003. Last year, she co-led the team that won a $218.45 million verdict in a patent infringement case against a bank.

Earlier in her career, Glasser clerked for the late Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after graduating magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law. There, she won an award for outstanding achievement in intellectual property and technology law. She graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of St. Thomas.

"Judge Hall was a brilliant judge and a trailblazer," Glasser said in an email interview. "In fact, she was the first woman to be hired as a clerk on the 9th Circuit, years before being appointed judge."

In the $218.45 million patent infringement win, Glasser and law partner Jason G. Sheasby persuaded a Texas jury following a one-week trial in May 2022 that PNC Bank N.A. infringed three patents related to technology used to deposit checks online. The patents belonged to Glasser's client, the United Services Automobile Association. USAA v. PNC Bank N.A., 2:20-cv-00319 (E.D. Texas, filed Sept. 30, 2020).

The case centered on the remote deposit feature USAA created to allow its members -- armed services personnel and their families -- to rapidly and inexpensively deposit checks from anywhere. In March 2023, Chief U.S. District Judge J. Rodney Gilstrap of Marshall, Texas, denied the defendant a new trial.

The same judge presided over Glasser's new win for USAA in February 2023. Gilstrap dismissed a suit in which digital identity verification tool maker Mitek Systems, Inc. sought a declaratory judgment that its software didn't infringe USAA's remote deposit technology patents. Mitek Systems, Inc. v. USAA, 2:20-cv-00115 (E.D. Texas, filed April 28, 2021).

Gilstrap looked closely at Glasser's previous USAA wins, in which she made significant gains for her client. "To date, we have helped USAA obtain four jury verdicts totaling over $500 million against infringing banks," she noted. The judicial scrutiny of that history led Gilstrap to question Mitek's purpose:

"As to Mitek's espoused fear that USAA is suddenly going to sue them and somehow deviate from their proven litigation strategy, no serious fisherman tries to catch the quarter-pound bream when the eleven-pound bass is in the same lake," the judge wrote. He added that, "derailing USAA's litigation strategy is the real motivation behind Mitek's declaratory judgment action."

Glasser continued her streak in April with a $303.15 million willful infringement verdict for Netlist over computer memory technology patents. Netlist Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al., 2:21-cv-00463 (E.D. Tex., filed Dec. 20, 2021).

"I'm very grateful for the opportunity to assist clients on a wide variety of different technologies," she said.

-- John Roemer