Partner, Irell & Manella LLP
Mr. Chu is a partner of Irell & Manella LLP. He was named The Outstanding Intellectual Property Lawyer in the United States in the first Chambers Award for Excellence, 2006. Chambers has described Mr. Chu as “beyond doubt the most gifted trial lawyer in the USA,” who “delivers staggering results for clients.”
Mr. Chu was Co-Managing Partner of the firm for two terms from 1997 to 2003 and has been a member of its Executive Committee since 1985. He is presently Chair of the Litigation Group.
After law school, Mr. Chu clerked for the Honorable Charles M. Merrill of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, joined Irell & Manella as an associate in 1977, and became a partner in 1982.
Mr. Chu was lead trial counsel in some of the world’s largest-and in some cases precedent-setting-verdicts, judgments and settlements, resulting in actual payments totaling over $5 billion, including:
- City of Hope v. Genentech u002du002d The jury verdict was the largest damage award ever affirmed on appeal by California courts. More than $565 million was paid by the defendant.
- TiVo v. EchoStar, et al. — $1.6 billion in judgments and settlements including over $600 million paid by EchoStar after the jury verdict and post-trial proceedings; TiVo v. Motorola and TiVo v. Cisco — $490 million; TiVo v. AT&T — $215 million; TiVo v. Verizon — $250 million, plus future royalties.
- Stac Electronics v. Microsoft — $120 million jury verdict.
- Immersion v. Sony — After the jury verdict of $82 million, plaintiff was paid more than $150 million.
- Texas Instruments v. Samsung — Settlement over $1 billion from ITC and district court actions (co-lead counsel).
