Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Michael De Vries is a nationally recognized IP trial lawyer with substantial success representing plaintiffs in high-stakes intellectual property trials. He has served as lead counsel in numerous patent and other intellectual property-related matters. Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business has described him as “phenomenal at managing a case, but also phenomenal in a court,” as well as “experienced counsel for the handling of misuse of trade secrets allegations.”

Since 2018, Mike has secured over $2.5 billion in plaintiff jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients in IP litigations, including over $1.8 billion in five straight plaintiff jury verdicts in favor of his clients since September 2019: a $855 million jury verdict in October 2020 on behalf of Cognizant against a competitor in a trade secret and copyright case; a $765 million jury verdict in February 2020 on behalf of Motorola Solutions in a trade secret case against a competitor, Hytera; a $125 million jury verdict in September 2019 on behalf of EagleView Technologies in a patent case against a competitor; a $40 million jury verdict in March 2022 on behalf of Comet Technologies in a trade secret case against a competitor; and a $30 million jury verdict in June 2021 on behalf of LivePerson in a trade secret case against a competitor. These verdicts received extensive media coverage including The New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg Law, and Mike was awarded The Am Law Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week” feature multiple times for these victories in the last two years. In March 2022, The American Lawyer featured Mike’s years-long jury trial win streak in an article entitled “All They Do Is Win, Win, Win: Dissecting a Trial Hot Streak.”

Named Law360’s “Trial MVP of the Year” in both 2020 and 2021 for his lead trial counsel work on IP litigation matters, Mike is a member of the Kirkland practices recognized as Law360 2020 “Practice Groups of the Year” for Intellectual Property and Trials. The Daily Journal named Mike to its 2010, 2014 and 2018–2023 lists of “Top Intellectual Property Lawyers” and its 2020–2022 lists of “Top Trade Secrets Lawyers,” and recognized Mike and his team in "The 2019 CLAY Awards: Intellectual Property" for their successful representation of Cisco in its long-running IP battle: Cisco Systems Inc. v. Arista Networks Inc. Mike was also named one of the Daily Journal’s “Top 75 IP Litigators in California” in 2010, 2014 and 2018–2021, and was featured among the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2020 “Most Influential People in Los Angeles” and a “Top Litigator in Los Angeles” in 2018, 2020 and 2021. Additionally, he was a recipient of the 2020 “California Trailblazers” award from The Recorder. The 2012 and 2015–2022 editions of The Legal 500 U.S. recommend Mike for his work on the Firm’s Tier 1 Patent Litigation team, noting that Mike is “a key figure” in the Firm’s patent practice, and in the 2020–2022 editions, Mike is featured as a “Leading Lawyer.”