Ace Factor

Ace Factor represents plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes, high-value commercial disputes. Ace plays a key role on his trial teams and has helped his clients win multi-million-dollar jury verdicts and settlements. Ace has taken and defended depositions across the United States, has argued at numerous hearings, including on dispositive motions, and has examined and cross-examined witnesses in trials and arbitrations. Representative matters include:

• Linde Engineering North America v. Crestwood Midstream Partners (Harris County State Court). Represented Linde Engineering North America in a construction dispute relating to a natural gas plant in North Dakota. After a 5-week jury trial in which Ace played a stand-up role, Linde won a $42 million jury verdict and judgment, in addition to more than $22 million in pretrial recoveries, and defeated more than $40 million in counterclaims.

• University of Pittsburgh v. Cochlear (W.D. Texas). Ace is litigating patent infringement claims on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh in a case pending in Hon. Alan Albright’s Waco Federal Court. The University accuses Cochlear of infringing its patent by selling implantable medical devices. The case will go to trial in 2023.

• Maurepas/SemGroup v. QPSE/Quanta (Tulsa, Oklahoma). Represented two energy industry midstream companies in two Oklahoma lawsuits against an EPC contractor for multiple pipelines. The contractor sued for $20 million in withheld retainage and, to prevent a counterclaim, sued the parent/guarantor and not the operating company. We had the operating company sue the contractor for $65 million due to delays, engineering and construction errors, and contract breaches, and persuaded the Court to consolidate the lawsuits based on what the Court called our “analysis and well written response brief.” We defeated the contractor’s motion to dismiss, engaged in extensive discovery, and resolved the dispute on a basis the contractor insisted be kept confidential.

• Finke v. Sirius Solutions (Harris County State Court). Ace represents Sirius Solutions in a contract dispute with a former partner. The case is set for trial in 2023.

• Price v. Sirius Solutions (Harris County State Court). Defended Sirius Solutions in Harris County state court in a contract action. The case settled on confidential, favorable terms.

• Confidential AAA Arbitration. Defended a prime contractor in a construction dispute with a subcontractor. After we successfully defeated the plaintiff’s summary judgment motion, the case confidentially settled one day before the final hearing.

• Confidential AAA Arbitration. Defended a consulting firm and its CEO in a dispute with a former partner. Ace played a key role in obtaining a defense award on six of the seven claims after a week-long arbitration hearing.

Ace also maintains an active pro bono practice. Representative pro bono matters include:

• Crystal Mason v. Texas (Texas Second Court of Appeals, Fort Worth). Ace managed the Susman Godfrey team representing States United Democracy Center and a bipartisan group of thirteen former state and federal prosecutors in filing an amicus brief urging the Second Court of Appeals to spare a Texas woman, Crystal Mason, from a conviction and prison time for “illegally voting.” The amicus brief asks the court to set aside Ms. Mason’s conviction because it was based on an incorrect application of the illegal voting statute’s knowledge requirement. States United Democracy Center Press Release

• Ronnie Long v. Erik Hooks (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit). Initially as a student with the Duke Law Wrongful Convictions Clinic and later in private practice, Ace successfully assisted Ronnie Long, a North Carolina man wrongfully convicted of rape in 1976, in obtaining a reversal of his conviction from the En Banc Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and an exoneration. Read more: Wrongful Convictions Clinic client Ronnie Long is free and charges have been dismissed.

• Haverkamp v. Jumper et al. (S.D. Texas). Ace is the court-appointed lead counsel representing an inmate seeking medical treatment for gender dysphoria. The case is set for trial in 2023.

Ace joined Susman Godfrey in 2019 after clerking for Judge Jacques L. Wiener, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for Chief Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before clerking, Ace graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from Duke Law School. At Duke, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Duke Law Journal, a finalist in the Dean’s Cup moot court competition, president of the Jewish Students Association, and received the “True Advocate” faculty award for his work with the Wrongful Convictions Clinic. Before law school, Ace taught high-school math in New Orleans, Louisiana. He received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a double-major in Classics and Government.

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