Irell & Manella LLP

A Southern California powerhouse for 80 years, Irell & Manella matches or exceeds its multinational peers in salary, prestige, and high-stakes cases, serving clients worldwide from just three locations in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, and Washington, DC.

A Glamorous Start

Irell harkens back to the glamour days of old Hollywood—1941, to be exact: the year in which Orson Welles released a little flick called Citizen Kane and two tax attorneys—Eugene Berger and Lawrence Irell—established what became one of the most prestigious law firms in Tinseltown. Arthur Manella joined the firm in 1944; within a year, Berger had passed away, and Manella had become a partner. The Tax practice started handling tax affairs for Hollywood stars, including Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster, Elizabeth Taylor, and Lou Costello, and the firm became a California fixture.

California Powerhouse

Irell has resisted the rapid expansion of many of its peers, but its reach has been mighty nevertheless. Among its strengths are its Intellectual Property and Complex Commercial Litigation practices. The firm’s high-profile clients include: Johnson & Johnson, Uber Technologies, Juno Therapeutics, City of Hope, Genentech, Gilead, PayPal, St. Jude Medical, Snapchat, TiVo, and Skechers, and almost a dozen universities.

Irell’s IP group has garnered top honors—including being named the IP Litigation Department of the Year by The American Lawyer and ranking among the Top 20 in Vault’s Intellectual Property Practice Area ranking. The firm’s IP practice is broken into five sub practices: appellate, intellectual property litigation, intellectual property transactions, patent office trials, and patent portfolio management. The firm provides IP counsel across numerous industries, including biotechnology, e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, software, telecommunications, and video games. Irell’s expansion beyond the Golden State with its new office in Washington, DC, strengthens the practice even further, with the USPTO and U.S. International Trade Commission just steps away.

Mind the Gap

Irell’s Gap Program encourages mentoring among its associates. Through the program, associates who are in their third year or above can invite lawyers who are at least two years below them out for a meal on the firm’s dime. Associates also receive an associate mentor when they join the firm. And associates can consult “litigation solicitors” for career guidance on high-level practice pointers. Mentoring isn’t only for junior associates at Irell, though. Fourth-year associates and above are matched with partner advisors, who can provide career advice and shadowing opportunities and also assist in finding new ways for the associate to develop their skills.

Irell represented TiVo in a series of patent wars against many of the largest media companies in the world for infringing TiVo’s “Time Warp” patent. TiVo collected more than $1.7 billion through a series of verdicts and settlements.

Irell obtained a jury verdict on behalf of City of Hope that was the largest damage award ever affirmed on appeal by California courts. More than $565 million was paid to City of Hope by Genentech for its failure to pay royalties relating to fundamental technology that created the biotechnology industry.

Irell was retained by Gilead Sciences to prepare the post-judgment briefing after its competitor Merck/Idenix was awarded the largest patent verdict in history ($2.5 billion) for infringement of a single patent. In post-trial briefing, the court found the patent invalid, overturning the verdict in its entirety. This was the first time that the presiding judge had ever reversed a major patent verdict after a jury trial.

Irell obtained more than $500 million in jury awards for USAA in separate patent infringement trials against large banks infringing USAA’s patents on the mobile check deposit technology. Patent litigation between banks was virtually nonexistent prior to USAA’s campaign.

• California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (CLAY) Award, 2022–2024—Daily Journal
• IP Practice Group of the Year, 2023—Law360
• Technology Practice Group of the Year, 2023—Law360
• Trials Practice Group of the Year, 2023—Law360