Rebecca L. Carson

Specialty / focus areas. Rebecca L. Carson is a partner in Irell & Manella LLP's Newport Beach office, where she has spent her entire career since joining the firm in 2007 (elected partner in 2016). Her practice centers on high-stakes patent infringement and complex technology litigation, spanning computer memory/semiconductors, cloud-based data storage, software and computer networking, Wi-Fi and computer security, mobile banking technology, OLED displays, and medical devices (defibrillators). She has substantial trial experience in federal district court (heavily in the Eastern District of Texas) and before the ITC, plus appellate work in the Federal Circuit.

Side preference. Although her two tracked appearances in the authoritative case list are both plaintiff-side matters at Irell (one as lead counsel, one as counsel), her documented practice runs both sides. Firm-verified results include plaintiff wins for Netlist, StreamScale, USAA, Immersion, and Pictiva, alongside complete defense victories for Juniper Networks and ZOLL Medical. She frequently represents operating companies asserting patents (Netlist, USAA) and defends operating companies against NPE/PAE assertions (Finjan v. Juniper; MTel v. Juniper).

Notable cases / outcomes. Verified results from firm materials and Law360/Law.com coverage include: a $445 million willful-infringement verdict for Netlist against Micron (E.D. Tex., May 2024 — her largest verdict as lead/co-lead, per The Recorder), a $303 million Netlist verdict against Samsung (2023), a $240 million StreamScale verdict against Cloudera (W.D. Tex.), two USAA v. PNC Bank trials totaling $222 million, and a $191 million Pictiva verdict against Samsung (Nov. 2025). On the defense side, she helped secure Juniper's complete win in Finjan v. Juniper (unanimous non-infringement, ~$6 million fee award, Federal Circuit summary affirmance) and was part of the team that cut ZOLL's exposure from a $217 million damages claim to a $7.1 million net verdict in Philips v. ZOLL, where she argued before both the PTAB and the Federal Circuit. In MTel v. Juniper (Wi-Fi patents), she argued before the MDL Panel and at claim construction, leading to dismissal of all asserted patents.

PTAB / IPR experience. Carson appears regularly in IPR proceedings, serving as pro hac vice/backup counsel for Juniper in multiple IPRs (e.g., IPR2017-00640, IPR2019-00026, and IPR2014-00425/00431), and she handled PTAB arguments in the Immersion/Apple and ZOLL matters.

Bar / education. California bar (2007); admitted to the C.D. Cal., N.D. Cal., and S.D. Cal. district courts and the Ninth and Federal Circuits. J.D., University of Virginia School of Law (2007); B.A., University of San Diego (2004), summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.