Two Susman Godfrey Partners Named to Law360’s Annual Rising Stars List 2018

Matthew Berry Named “Intellectual Property Rising Star”, Rob Safi Named “Energy Rising Star”

Matthew Berry and Rob Safi, partners in Susman Godfrey’s Seattle office and Houston office, respectively, have been named Law360 “Rising Stars” for 2018. Berry and Safi are two of just 168 attorneys nationwide who were named to this prestigious list of attorneys under the age of 40 for which Law360 received over 1,200 applications.

Matthew Berry – INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The IP category focuses on copyright, patent and trade secrets work, where Seattle partner Matthew Berry has established a successful career and become a sought-after IP trial lawyer.

Most recently, in Green Mountain Glass v. Ardagh, Berry helped secure a $50.3 million verdict for his client, Green Mountain Glass in a Delaware patent infringement action that has now grown to approximately $62 million after pre-judgment interest.  Law360 featured this win in their “How They Won It” series, where Berry and his partners delved deeper into the strategy behind his team’s success.  Berry was also a crucial member of the team representing Uber in this year’s battle over self-driving technology between Uber and Google’s Waymo. Waymo was seeking damages of almost $2 billion in the highly publicized case. Most recently Berry is facing off against Samsung, Verizon, and Cisco in his representation of inventors in high stakes patent infringement cases.

Rob Safi – ENERGY

Houston partner Rob Safi achieves exceptional results for plaintiffs and defendants before judges, juries, and arbitrators. Safi’s diverse energy practice runs across the industry, from upstream oil and gas and midstream to power and renewables.  In the past several years, Safi has proved to have a knack for highly complex cases that typically involve overlapping multi-party contractual relationships, scores of wells, hundreds of leases, and teams of experts.

Safi’s most recent success was in Spring Creek Exploration & Production Co. v. Hess Bakken Investments II, where he led the defense of a subsidiary of repeat Susman Godfrey client and Fortune 100 Company, Hess Corporation, against $400+ million claims for alleged breaches of an area of mutual interest agreement concerning oil and gas interests in North Dakota.  Safi made several critical contributions to what Law360 described as a “tangled case,” culminating in victory in the Tenth Circuit following Safi’s oral argument.

Continued Recognitions

This is not the first time Berry and Safi have been recognized for their accomplishments.  Both lawyers were recognized on Benchmark Litigation’s 2018 “40 and Under Hot List.” Berry was also featured in Law360’s Plaintiffs Bar Perspective where he shared some of his experiences as a trial lawyer  He has also been recognized as a Washington “Super Lawyer” from 2013-2018 by Law & Politics magazine.  Safi was named an Attorney “On the Rise” this year by Texas Lawyer and has been selected as a “Rising Star” in Texas the last nine years in a row (Law & Politics Magazine, Thomson Reuters).

To see the full list of Law360’s 2018 Rising Stars click here.

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