News

Fish & Richardson Has Two Litigators Named "Trial Aces" by Law360

Fish & Richardson announced that two of the firm's principals - Juanita Brooks and Frank Scherkenbach - have been named to Law360's inaugural "Trial Aces" list of the 50 "greatest litigators in the country" who "are champions in the courtroom, leaders in their law firms, and heroes to their clients. They're the lawyers to call when losing is not an option."

Brooks and Scherkenbach were selected from 200 submissions, based on the number of high-stakes trials they've worked on, the role they played at trial, and the trial outcome. Most of the well-known law firms on the list had only one litigator selected, but Fish was one of only three firms to have three litigators on the list.

Brooks, who is based in Fish's Southern California office, was one of only six women litigators selected for the list. With a nationally recognized trial practice specializing in complex commercial and intellectual property litigation, she has handled more than 150 trials in her career, and her average yearly caseload includes nearly 30 active cases. Her specific areas of expertise include intellectual property, product liability, and qui tam litigation. Brooks has won numerous high stakes cases for Microsoft, Allergan, and Fresenius among many other big name clients. Brooks was named a prestigious "Litigator of the Year" by The American Lawyer in 2014 for her impressive work over the previous two years. Brooks is currently co-lead counsel for Fresenius in federal mass tort products liability litigation regarding its product Granuflo.

Scherkenbach, who is based in Fish's Boston office, specializes in complex high technology litigation, and has served as lead counsel on hundreds of patent infringement cases. He has tried approximately 40 patent cases to jury verdict in addition to handling many bench trials and ITC cases. Four of his jury trial wins have been selected by the National Law Journal as the "Top Verdicts of the Year" including a win for Power Integrations in 2014. Over the past two years, he helped win two precedential cases at the Federal Circuit, including a case for long-time clients Microsoft, Citrix, and Adobe that has been called one of the most important patent appellate decisions of 2015 since it opens up new avenues for defending against allegations of infringement on both infringement and validity grounds. Another appellate win for Volcano Corp. was heralded as one of the most important administrative law decisions in years.