Morrison & Foerster partner Michael Jacobs has been named to the National Law Journal's 2011 "Winning" list, an annual feature profiling lawyers with at least one significant trial win in the past 18 months and a track record of success over many years. The "winners" all employed unique strategies at trial, and share a knack for artfully swaying judges and juries. The publication only chose 14 litigators from scores of nominations; each one is, in the words of the National Law Journal, "a precise blend of skill and moxie."
Mr. Jacobs was singled out for his role as lead attorney in the landmark trial victory he secured for Novell, Inc. in its seven-year dispute with The SCO Group involving copyrights for the core UNIX computer operating system. Mr. Jacobs' win was great news all around: for Novell, because it avoided having to pay SCO between $115 million and $200 million in damages; and for the Linux operating system community, because it almost certainly marks the end of SCO’s efforts to extract licensing fees from Linux software developers such as IBM and Red Hat and Linux users in the Fortune 1000 business community.
This marks the fourth consecutive year a MoFo lawyer has been named to this prestigious list. David Doyle was named in 2010 for his win on behalf of Applied Biosystems, Arturo Gonzalez in 2009 for his victory on behalf of Hansen Medical Inc., and Jim Bennett in 2008 for his success on behalf of JDS Uniphase Corp.