Practice Areas

Information & Technology Litigation

Moving with agility and skill around a client’s legal landscape only comes when you really know the territory. Lawyers in our Information and Technology Litigation (ITL) group come from diverse backgrounds including systems analysis, Internet crime investigation and law enforcement, computer programming, and military defense contracting. Combining this experience with a long tradition of excellent trial advocacy, PHMY brings a lot to the table.

PHMY handles:

•Software sales and implementation disputes
•Protection of confidential trade secrets and business information
•Unfair competition between technology companies
•Employment issues including wrongful termination and severance disputes
•Securities related litigation including employee stock option disputes
•Disputes arising out of strategic partnerships and joint commercial ventures
•Covenants not to compete
•Supplier disputes involving alleged defective parts and component parts
•Product liability and industrial accidents
•Corporate formation and counseling on governance issues for startups
•Internal auditing, over-billing, commercial fraud and collections
•Federal trademark and software copyright applications and counseling

What we’re saying is, around the world or right here at home, if you have “tech” legal needs, we can help.

Check out some of our IT litigation highlights:

  • Tony Avey, the head of our ITL group, represented i2 Technologies in a commercial dispute against the international technology giant, Siemens SBS, in an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration governed by Swiss Law that took place in Brussels, Belgium.  At issue was the sale and implementation of i2 software during a joint development project between the parties. Prior to the conclusion of the arbitration, Siemens agreed to a confidential settlement amount.
     
  • Jeff Hawkins represented a Japanese software company in a case in which Plaintiffs were severely burned in an iron carbide plant explosion.  In essence, Plaintiffs claimed our client should have designed its software to be more “idiot-proof”, so that tragic accidents like this could not occur.  After some technical discovery and appropriate motions, we negotiated a favorable settlement for our client before the case went to trial.  Plaintiffs later obtained a verdict of over $3 million against the plant designer.

PHMY supports our local community.

Information Technology contributes $5.3 billion annually to our local economy, and there is a great need to expand the workforce here at home.