Michael W. De Vries

Michael W. De Vries is a nationally recognized intellectual property trial lawyer and partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, specializing in high-stakes patent infringement, trade secret litigation, and ITC Section 337 proceedings. His practice encompasses a broad range of technology sectors, including semiconductors, software, pharmaceutical, medical devices, telecommunications, heavy machinery, media, and internet technologies. Notably, he served as lead counsel for Samsung in a multi-patent case involving the semiconductor manufacturing industry and represented Greenthread, LLC in litigation concerning patent infringement. He has also been involved in cases related to mobile devices, messaging, wireless networking, and Wi-Fi technology, as seen in the Malikie Innovations Limited v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al. matter.

De Vries maintains a balanced practice, successfully representing both plaintiffs and defendants in complex intellectual property disputes. On the plaintiff side, he has secured over $2.5 billion in jury verdicts and settlements since 2018, including an $855 million jury verdict for Cognizant in a trade secret and copyright case, a $765 million verdict for Motorola Solutions in a trade secret dispute, and a $125 million patent verdict for EagleView Technologies. His plaintiff-side experience also includes securing a $400 million settlement for Cisco Systems, Inc. in patent infringement lawsuits against Arista Networks. On the defense side, De Vries notably achieved a complete defense jury verdict for Samsung in February 2024 against $4 billion in patent infringement claims, which would have been the largest patent verdict in U.S. history. He also obtained complete defense verdicts for Energy Labs Inc. and Apcon in patent infringement trials.

Michael De Vries joined Kirkland & Ellis in 2011 from Latham & Watkins. While his primary focus is on district court trials, cases he has handled, such as Greenthread, LLC v. OSRAM GmbH, have involved related Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) inter partes review (IPR) proceedings.

He earned his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 2000, where he also received the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology's Certificate in Law and Technology. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2000.