Floyd G. Short

Floyd Short litigates and tries cases on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants throughout the United States in complex commercial and financial litigation, patent infringement litigation, intellectual property disputes, and bankruptcy-related litigation.  He also represents individuals and corporations in white collar criminal matters. He has successfully tried over a dozen cases-most to a jury-and has handled cases in Alaska, California, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Washington.

For every one of his cases, Mr. Short learns his client's business and technology, and he takes special pride in his ability to explain complex issues and present his client's position to judge and jury in a clear and persuasive manner. He has developed the talent to communicate and connect with judges and juries through nearly 20 years of civil and criminal trial practice and through the "night job" of teaching as a part-time law professor.

Mr. Short has particular experience representing clients in cases and matters that involve multiple parallel proceedings, including civil lawsuits, criminal investigations or prosecutions, securities or other regulatory enforcement actions, bankruptcy proceedings, receiverships, and class actions.  Drawing on his experience in private practice and with the United States Department of Justice, Mr. Short uses his deep knowledge of the interplay between civil cases and other proceedings government investigations, prosecutions, and enforcement actions to navigate the complexities of parallel proceedings and pilot his clients to successful outcomes.

Before joining Susman Godfrey in 2006, Mr. Short served as a federal prosecutor and the Supervisor of the Complex Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington, where he specialized in cases involving securities and investment fraud, Internet and computer crime, intellectual property crime, and other white collar crime.

Mr. Short never lost a trial as a federal prosecutor. Three of his trials involved sophisticated Internet crime, encryption technology, and international computer intrusions, and two of those cases are described in published accounts, in The Lure: The True Story of How The Department of Justice Brought Down Two of the World's Most Dangerous Cyber Criminals, by Steve Schroeder, and the reported decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in U.S. v. Hay, 231 F.3d 630 (9th Cir. 2000).

Mr. Short's public and private sector experience has been especially valuable for clients facing problems associated with the global financial crisis. Because of his experience, Mr. Short was an original member of the Financial Fraud Task Force that Susman Godfrey created in September 2008.  

Mr. Short is active in bench-bar exchanges and was appointed by the federal judges of the Western District of Washington to serve a three-year term as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, from 2011-2013. From 2008-2010, he served as the CLE Committee Chair for the Federal Bar Association for the Western District of Washington.

Before joining Susman Godfrey and serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Mr. Short spent one year as a law clerk to the Honorable Betty B. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and three years at a major Seattle law firm, where he handled intellectual property litigation, First Amendment cases, and commercial litigation.

Williams College (B.A., magna cum laude, with Highest Honors in Political Science, 1985)
Yale Law School (J.D., 1990)

Judicial Clerk, Honorable Betty B. Fletcher, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 1990-1991

• Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, 2011-2013 (appointed by the federal judges of the Western District of Washington)
• Federal Bar Association CLE Committee Chair, 2008-2010
• NITA mock trial judge, 2006
• Part-time Lecturer, Computer Crime and Internet Privacy, University of Washington School of Law, 2001-2005
• Teaching Assistant, Professor Harold H. Koh, Yale Law School
• Editor, Yale Law Journal

• Washington State Bar Association
• U.S. District Courts for the Western and Eastern Districts of Washington
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Federal Bar Association, Western District of Washington
• American Bar Association
• King County Bar Association

Mr. Short's recent clients, cases, and successes include:

• representing Eagle Harbor Holdings LLC and MediusTech LLC in a patent infringement case against Ford Motor Company in federal court in Tacoma, Washington (2011-present);
• representing Petro Star Inc. in a breach of contract case against BP in federal court in Anchorage, Alaska (2011-present);
• defending ASRC Energy Services-Houston Contracting Co. Inc. in a federal Family and Medical Leave Act case in federal court in Anchorage, Alaska (2011-present);
• defending Dialysis Cost Containment, Inc., and Payor Reimbursement Negotiators, Inc., against DaVita, Inc., in a Lanham Act false advertising and unfair competition case in federal court in Dallas, Texas (2008-present);
• representing Avatar Financial Group in a fraudulent transfer case brought by the Trustee as an adversary proceeding in the largest bankruptcy case ever filed in the Western District of Washington, In re Michael R. Mastro, and obtaining a successful settlement for Avatar (2010-2011);
• representing the CEO of a technology company as a witness in connection with a federal grand jury investigation and criminal prosecution in Seattle, Washington (2010-2011);
• representing the CEO of a large organization as a witness in connection with a federal grand jury investigation in Seattle, Washington (2009);
• representing Univision Communications Inc. in federal and state court litigation in New York and Minnesota concerning the collapse of the Reserve Primary Fund money market fund in September 2008 (2008-2011);
• representing Timeline, Inc. in a database software patent infringement case in federal court in Seattle, Washington, against ProClarity Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, and successfully obtaining a confidential but substantial settlement for Timeline (2006-2007);
• representing the Metropolitan Mortgage and Summit Securities Creditors' Trusts as special counsel in federal court and private arbitration in the State of Washington against two major accounting firms for auditing malpractice, and successfully obtaining a confidential but substantial recovery for the Trusts (2006-2009); and
• representing Burst.com, Inc. against Apple Computer Inc. in federal court in San Francisco, California, in patent litigation involving audio-video compression, editing, and transmission, and successfully obtaining a confidential but substantial settlement for Burst (2006-2008).