Elisha Barron

Elisha Barron, a Susman Godfrey partner, litigates high-stakes cases across the country. She has secured billions in judgments and settlements for her clients, as well as significant defense judgments. Elisha represents plaintiffs and defendants through every stage of litigation, including appeals, in complex commercial cases, including intellectual property, antitrust, False Claims Act litigation, and general commercial litigation.

Elisha is widely recognized for her litigation talent. Lawdragon named her among the nation’s top 500 Leading Litigators in 2024 and 2025, and a top 500 Plaintiff Financial Lawyers in the same years. Benchmark Litigation named her a Future Star 2023 to 2025 and included her on its 40 and Under Hot List from 2022 to 2024. National Law Journal named Elisha a Plaintiffs Lawyer Trailblazer and she has been called One to Watch in Commercial Litigation by Best Lawyers every year since 2021. In 2019, New York Law Journal named Elisha among its Rising Stars. In 2024, Elisha was named as one of Lawdragon’s inaugural “Top 100 Leading AI and Tech Advisors in America” and has been on the list every year since.

RECENT WINS

• Van Leeuwen Ice Cream LLC v. Rebel Creamery LLC (EDNY) Won a decisive victory for Van Leeuwen Ice Cream in a closely watched trade dress infringement case, requiring competitor Rebel Creamery to pay $23.8 million and permanently redesign its packaging. As lead counsel, Elisha delivered opening and closing statements, cross-examined Rebel’s CEO, presented two Van Leeuwen founders and , and presented and cross-examined key survey experts in the four-day trial. Read more in Inc., Reuters, Law360, Law.com and here.
• Fairstead v. Blodgett (Del. Ch.) Secured a summary judgment win from Delaware Chancery Court on behalf of Will Blodgett, an affordable housing investor, in a breach-of-contract action to reclaim equity worth tens of millions that had been improperly seized by his former employer, Fairstead. The victory follows a defeat of all of Fairstead’s counterclaims for damages in a related arbitration, and leaves everything resolved except how much Fairstead owes Blodgett in damages.
• International Rail Partners v. American Rail Partners (Del. Ch.) Won a defense victory on behalf of a short line railroad after a three-day trial in Delaware Chancery Court involving a private equity firm’s auction of that short line railroad. The Court rejected plaintiff’s claims for breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing as against the short-line railroad, found breach as against the private equity firm represented by a different firm, and rejected plaintiff’s $55 million damages model as speculative.
• BMLP v. China Construction America (NY Commercial Div.) Won a $1.6 billion trial judgment for client BML Properties Ltd. in New York’s Commercial Division on fraud and breach of contract claims arising from the construction of the Baha Mar resort. The judgment was affirmed in full on appeal by the First Department in April 2025. Read more.
• Chandler Wilkinson LLC v. Microsoft Corporation (C.D. Cal.) Secured a confidential settlement for plaintiff Chandler Wilkinson in a trade secret and patent litigation relating to click-fraud technology against Microsoft prior to Microsoft filing a responsive pleading.

NOTABLE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY/AI REPRESENTATION

• New York Times Co. v. Microsoft Corp. et al. (SDNY) Represents The New York Times in ground-breaking copyright infringement litigation against AI companies that have used copyrighted works to train large-language models. Read more.
• Gemini Data v. Google  (N.D. Cal.) Represents plaintiff Gemini Data in trademark lawsuit against Google claiming that Google committed willful trademark infringement by launching its flagship generative AI tools under the same “Gemini” mark, despite prior registration refusals from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, causing confusion.
• Nvidia Class Action (N.D. Cal.) Serve as counsel to a putative class of book authors bringing copyright infringement claims against Nvidia pending before Judge Jon Steven Tigar. Class plaintiffs are best-selling authors who allege their books were illegally pirated and used to develop Nvidia’s Large Language Models.
• Databricks Class Action (N.D. Cal.) Serve as counsel to a putative classes of book authors bringing copyright infringement claims against Databricks and Mosaic ML pending before Judge Charles Breyer in the Northern District of California. Class plaintiffs are best-selling authors who allege their books were illegally pirated and used to develop Databrick’s and Mosaic’s Large Language Models.

OTHER WINS

• Joel Rich and Mary Rich v. Fox News Network LLC et al. (SDNY) Represented Joel and Mary Rich, the parents of a murdered son, Seth Rich, in a groundbreaking lawsuit against Fox News and individual defendants for intentional infliction of emotional distress claims and related torts. The Second Circuit reversed the district court’s dismissal of the Riches’ claims, including an intentional infliction of emotional distress claim, paving the way for a confidential settlement.
• U.S. ex rel. Kester et al. v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. (SDNY) Secured a $450 million settlement—one of the largest ever in the United States by a single whistleblower—in a landmark False Claims Act lawsuit against the Swiss drug manufacturer Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Elisha deposed pharmacists and nurses across the country, securing key testimony which helped secure the award. Read more.
• Confidential Technology and Construction Arbitration. Delivered opening statements and cross-examined key witnesses to win a multi-million-dollar award (a complete victory) in a confidential technology and construction industry arbitration involving obligations under a written agreement.
• In re Animation Workers Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal.) Secured nearly $170 million in settlements before fees and expenses for a class of Hollywood animators and visual effects employees who accused several major movie studios of entering into an agreement not to “poach” each other’s employees. The case contributed to Susman Godfrey being named ‘Class Action Group of the Year’ by Law360.

Elisha also devotes time to pro bono matters. For example, she represented the City of Baltimore pro bono in a challenge to a new Health of Human Services Rule allowing health care providers to deny health care services for religious or “other” reasons. City of Baltimore v. HHS, 19-cv-1672 (D. Md.). The rule was later vacated.

BACKGROUND

Before joining Susman Godfrey, Elisha clerked for Judge Shira Scheindlin on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Judge José Cabranes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She graduated from Yale University with a degree in History of Science and Medicine, and received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

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