Susman Godfrey

Since its founding in 1980, Susman Godfrey has established itself as a premier litigation firm. Susman Godfrey has more than 200 partners and associates across four offices—its original Houston location, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle. The firm handles huge cases across the country for both plaintiffs and defendants.

Susman Godfrey counsels blue-chip clients, such as Chevron, General Electric, KKR, NBCUniversal, and Walmart, and has won historic plaintiffs’ verdicts in class actions and in individual cases. For example, it won a historic $787.5 million settlement awarded to Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation case against Fox News in 2023.

Contingency Pioneers

In 1980, Steve Susman formed a Houston firm following his success in the Corrugated Containers case, which produced the largest antitrust verdict in history at the time. Susman was joined by Lee Godfrey in 1982. These two attorneys shared a vision of charging fees for trying commercial cases on a contingency basis. The firm has reaped the benefits of the high-risk/high-return model by carefully selecting its cases and winning some of the largest jury verdicts in the United States. The firm’s contingency-fee model has since been expanded to include a broad spectrum of risk-sharing fee arrangements, from reverse contingent fees for defendants to flat fees and hybrid arrangements consisting of both a contingent component and either a fixed or hourly rate.

Lean Mean Litigation Machine

With leanly staffed teams, Susman handles complex disputes similar to those accepted by much larger firms. It deploys its resources efficiently—covering most depositions and hearings with a single attorney. Therefore, the firm seeks candidates with stellar grades from top schools. Most Susman Godfrey attorneys were members of their schools’ law reviews, and nearly all clerked for federal judges (including 10 for justices on the U.S. Supreme Court).

Stand-Up and Then Relax

Associates at most firms wonder what they can do to gain stand-up experience; at Susman Godfrey, stand-up opportunities start on day one and are part of associates’ day-to-day lives. Associates regularly handle trial examinations, hearings, depositions, and client meetings. The firm celebrates its victories with extravagant dinner celebrations. To maintain a close-knit atmosphere, the firm hosts an annual attorney retreat, as well as mini retreats to give its lawyers much-needed time to de-stress and bond over activities such as skiing, scuba diving, hiking, and rafting.

• In 2026, Susman Godfrey secured a $175 million jury verdict for HouseCanary against Amrock Inc (now known as Rocket Close LLC) after a San Antonio jury found that Amrock misappropriated HouseCanary’s valuable trade secrets and defrauded the company through false promises. This is the second jury verdict in favor of HouseCanary on claims that the company’s proprietary home valuation analytics and data were stolen by Amrock.
• In 2025, Susman Godfrey secured a landmark settlement requiring Anthropic to pay $1.5 billion to rightsholders whose books were downloaded by Anthropic from the notorious pirated databases “Library Genesis” and “Pirate Library Mirror.” Anthropic will pay approximately $3,000 per class work.
• In 2025, Susman Godfrey  won a $425 million jury verdict for a class of millions of plaintiffs who allege that Google collects users’ Internet and application activity even when users turn Google’s “Web & App Activity” button off.
• In 2023, Susman Godfrey client Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News reached a $787.5 million settlement to resolve Dominion’s massive defamation suit against Fox just before jury trial was to commence in Delaware Superior Court.

• Trials Practice Group of the Year and Intellectual Property Practice Group of the Year, 2026—Law360
• Best Firm of the Year, 2025—The American Lawyer
• Law Firm of the Year, 2025—The Texas Lawbook
• 24 Susman Godfrey lawyers recognized (more lawyers honored than any other litigation firm) in the Lawdragon 500, 2025—Lawdragon
• Seven partners named to the 40 and Under Hot List, 2025—Benchmark Litigation