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.

COVID-19 Update

Irell moved to working remotely on March 17, 2020. The firm was well-prepared to pivot almost all functions to a remote model due to prior investments in technology and security infrastructure. The firm continued to thrive in 2020 and remains very busy. We are actively recruiting laterals, clerks and summer associates. We conducted our full 10-week summer program remotely in 2020 and 2021. Our incoming class of associates will still start in the fall of 2021. Irell will participate in virtual OCI for the upcoming recruiting season.

• Irell secured a $2.3 billion judgment for VLSI Technology in a suit against Intel involving two patents on technology used in Intel’s microprocessors.
• Irell obtained a $300 million jury award for PanOptis in a suit against Apple involving patents essential to LTE technology used in iPhones and cellular-enabled iPads and watches.
• Irell delivered a complete defense victory for Fortress Investment Group, Fortress Credit Company and VLSI in antitrust litigation against Intel, persuading the court to dismiss with prejudice the complaint, which alleged Fortress and its co-defendants engaged in an anti-competitive patent aggregation scheme.
• Irell won a 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court decision for NantKwest, which rejected the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s position that applicants who appeal to a district court must pay the agency’s legal bills, no matter who wins.

• IP Litigation Department of the Year, 2021 – The American Lawyer
• National Boutique/Specialty Litigation Department of the Year, 2021 – The American Lawyer
• IP Practice Group of the Year, 2021 – Law360
• Top Verdicts of the Year, 2021 – Daily Journal
• Trials Practice Group of the Year, 2020 – Law360