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Steven M. Strauss is a partner in the Cooley Godward Kronish Litigation department with extensive civil trial experience. He joined the Firm in 2005 and is resident in the San Diego office.
Mr. Strauss' practice encompasses business, intellectual property and real estate litigation matters including representation of business entities, corporate officers and directors, municipalities, owners, developers, investors, and high net worth individuals. Mr. Strauss specializes in complex business litigation, including intellectual property, real estate, partnership and hospitality disputes. He has obtained trial verdicts and settlements in excess of $5 billion.
Before joining the Firm, Mr. Strauss was a Partner at Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch where he was head of its litigation department.
Mr. Strauss received his undergraduate education in literature and political science, magna cum laude, from Claremont McKenna College in 1978, and law degree from University of California, Los Angeles in 1981, where he was a member and associate editor of the UCLA Law Review. He is admitted to practice in the California and Federal courts as well as other jurisdictions.
Mr. Strauss is a current member of the California Trial Lawyers' Association, San Diego Trial Lawyers Association, San Diego Bar Association and the American Business Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Strauss is a Master of the Welsh Chapter of the American Inns of Court. He is past President of the Board of Trustees of the La Jolla Playhouse and a member of the International Council of the Salk Institute .
Mr. Strauss has received numerous accolades and recognition for his leadership. Most recently he was named one of the 75 Leading IP Litigators in California by the Daily Journal. He was also recognized in Benchmark Litigation's 2010 legal guide and listed in Best Lawyers in America 2008 in the categories of Commercial Litigation, Construction Law and Real Estate Law. Mr. Strauss was named to the 2009, 2008 and 2007 Southern California Super Lawyers - San Diego list in the category of Business Litigation. He was also named by his peers and colleagues to the "2007 Top San Diego County Attorneys" list in the category of Real Estate Litigation and in 2006, he was named to the "2006 Top San Diego County Attorneys" list in the category of Corporate Litigation, as published by the San Diego Daily Transcript. In 2006, he was named one of the 500 leading litigation lawyers in America by Lawdragon and was also named to the Lawdragon 3000 Leading Lawyers in America. In 1994, 1995 and 2003, Mr. Strauss received Outstanding Trial Lawyer awards from The San Diego Trial Lawyers Association.
Representative Matters include:
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Prevailed in three unique consumer class action lawsuits in the Southern District of California alleging anticompetitive behavior against Qualcomm Incorporated. The Court granted Qualcomm's motions to dismiss in each of the three actions citing the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring antitrust claims because their alleged injuries were too remote to be traced to the allegedly anticompetitive conduct. The court held the other claims in the complaint did not give them any right to compensation from Qualcomm under California's unfair competition law.
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Prevailed for Exar Corporation in a long-running, contentious product liability case involving power converters. Ericsson initiated the suit against Vicor Corporation alleging defective power converters, for which Exar supplied an integrated circuit to Vicor. Ericsson alleged the failure caused its global networks to fail and claimed damages exceeding $1 billion--all of which Vicor sought to pass through to Exar. At the trial court, the court granted Exar's motion to enforce a prior discovery order and enabled Exar to negotiate a complicated "sliding scale" settlement agreement with Ericsson, which the trial court found to be in good faith. Vicor subsequently settled with Ericsson for $50 million dollars, and appealed the trial court's judgment on the good faith settlement. The court was upheld on appeal.
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Represented Qualcomm as lead trial counsel in a patent license dispute with Nokia Corp., in the Delaware Chancery Court. Qualcomm alleged that Nokia's continued use of Qualcomm's patents after April 9, 2007 constituted an election by Nokia to extend its license under the parties' existing agreement at the same royalty rate. Nokia countersued alleging that Qualcomm should be enjoined from seeking injunctions based upon its FRAND declaration, which gave Nokia an implied license and that Qualcomm's royalty rate was not FRAND. These were issues of first impression. The case settled favorably for Qualcomm at the start of trial and resulted in a 15 year multibillion dollar license agreement between Qualcomm and Nokia.
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Represented Qualcomm and was lead trial lawyer with Stephen Neal (Chairman-Partner of Cooley) in the Qualcomm/Broadcom enforcement action tried in the ITC in April 2008 and is believed to be the largest enforcement action ever tried. Qualcomm had been found to infringe Broadcom's 983 (power saving) patent in the underlying action. Qualcomm developed a work-around and Broadcom claimed the work-around still infringed the patent, which was the subject of the Enforcement Action. Target date for Initial Determination is November 2008.
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Representing Manchester Financial Group on the development of the Navy Broadway Complex, aka Pacific Gateway, a 3 million square feet, $1.3 billion redevelopment of a 14.7 acre, four-city block waterfront site on the Western end of Downtown San Diego.
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Representing Sunroad Centrum Partners on its development of a 12 story office tower near Montgomery Field that allegedly encroaches upon FAA airspace.
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Obtained a defense judgment in favor of Qualcomm in the Hanig class action lawsuit which sought more than $150 million in damages.
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Successfully represented and defended the City of San Diego resulting in the renegotiation of the San Diego Chargers lease.
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Won $40.1 million award for breach of partnership agreement and fiduciary duty - one of the largest jury awards ever in the State of Arizona.
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Obtained a trial verdict of $7.57 million against a major hotel chain for breach of contract, negligence and fraud arising from a failed hotel development.
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Obtained a win for NVIDIA Corporation after a four-day arbitration hearing regarding a real estate contract dispute related to the cancelled construction of the company's planned $1 billion headquarters in Santa Clara, CA. According to the ruling, NVIDIA Corporation avoided a $20 million termination payment to the developer and was deemed the prevailing party with the right to recover its attorneys fees and costs. For Trial Record 1987 – 2008, click here.
Education- University of California, Los Angeles School of Law
JD, 1981 - Claremont McKenna College
BS Political Science, 1978, magna cum laude
Court Admissions
- All California State Courts
- California Supreme Court
- Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California
- U.S. District Court, District of Arizona
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
- U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin
Admissions
Memberships
- American Business Trial Lawyers Association
- American Inns of Court
- California Trail Lawyers Association
- San Diego County Bar Association
- San Diego Lawyers Assocation
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