Susman Godfrey

For nearly forty years, Susman Godfrey has focused its nationally recognized practice on just one thing: high-stakes commercial litigation. We are one of the nation’s leading trial law firms, with offices in Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York. We have a unique perspective, the will to win, and an uncommon structure.  These make our firm a place of extraordinary opportunity for young lawyers, and the regular choice of counsel to handle the biggest and most important cases.

A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE

Susman Godfrey represents an equal number of plaintiffs and defendants. Ours is not a cookie-cutter practice turning out the same case from the same side of the bar time after time. We thrive on variety, flexibility, and creativity. Clients appreciate the insights that our broad experience brings. “I think that’s how they keep their tools sharp,” says one.

Many companies who defend cases in which Susman Godfrey represents the plaintiff are so impressed by our work in and out of the courtroom that they hire us themselves next time around.

We know from experience what motivates both plaintiffs and defendants. This unique perspective informs not just our trial tactics, but also our approach to settlement negotiations and mediation presentations. We are successful in court because we understand our opponent’s case as well as our own.

THE WILL TO WIN

At Susman Godfrey, we want to win because we are stand-up trial attorneys, not discovery litigators. We approach each case as if it is headed for trial. Everything that we do is designed to prepare our attorneys to persuade a judge, arbitrator or jury. We are often brought in on the eve of trial to “rescue” troubled cases or to take the reins when the case requires trial lawyers with a proven record of courtroom success. When you are represented by Susman Godfrey, the opposing party will know that you are willing to take the case all the way to a verdict if necessary.  This, of course, can lead to a very favorable settlement.  People do not like to bet against Susman Godfrey.

We also want to win because we share the risk with our clients. We prefer to work on a contingency-fee basis so that our time and efforts pay off only when we win. Our interests are fully aligned with our clients: we want to achieve the best possible outcome at the lowest possible cost.

Finally, we want to win because each of our attorneys shares a commitment to your success. Each attorney at the firm — associates as well as partners — examines every proposed contingent fee or other alternative fee case, and has an equal vote on whether or not our firm accepts it. The resulting profit or loss affects the compensation of every attorney at the firm. This model has been a tremendous success for both our attorneys and our clients. Less than 20 percent of our work is done on a traditional hourly fee basis.  Our associates are among the highest-paid in the country — because they have enormous responsibility and help us win cases. When you win, our attorneys win.

AN UNCOMMON STRUCTURE

At Susman Godfrey, our clients hire us to achieve the best possible result in the courtroom at the least possible cost. Because we learned to run our practice on a contingency fee model, we have developed a very efficient approach to commercial litigation. We proved that big cases do not require big hours. And, because we staff and run all cases using the same model, even those clients who insist on hiring us by the hour benefit from our approach.

There is no costly pyramid structure at Susman Godfrey. As a business, we are lean, mean and un-leveraged: for decades we have had more partners than associates, the opposite of virtually every other national firm. We win cases through the brain-power, creativity and efficiency of our lawyers, not by deploying armies of them on every case.

Our legendary trial successes have taught us what is important in discovery and at trial, and what is not. We prefer to limit document discovery and depositions to the essential. We send one lawyer to most depositions and hearings. After almost four decades of trials, we know what we need, and what would just be a waste of our and our clients’ time and money.

It’s a very different approach to high-stakes business litigation, and it works.  We are regularly ranked at the top of American trial firms.  We plan to stay there.