Awards & Recognition

For the past two decades, The Legal 500 Series has provided the most comprehensive worldwide coverage currently available on legal services providers in more than 100 countries. McKool Smith's rankings include:

• Ranked nationally as a leading firm for Insurance: Advice to Policyholders. “Experience across a wide range of insurance issues, including asbestos-related matters, as well as other product liability, environmental, toxic tort cases, and D&O matters. The team also has significant regulatory expertise.”
• Ranked nationally as a leading firm for Intellectual Property: Patent Litigation. “A very professional and focused firm that has its clients’ commercial interests at heart.”
• Recommended lawyers: Sam Baxter, Douglas A. Cawley, Robin Cohen, Kenneth Frenchman, Keith McKenna, Mike McKool, Ted Stevenson and Willie Wood.

Benchmark Litigation is the only publication on the market to focus exclusively on litigation in the U.S. The guide’s results are the culmination of a six-month research period that allows researchers to conduct extensive interviews with litigators and their clients. McKool Smith's rankings include:

• Ranked nationally as a leading Intellectual Property and Insurance firm
• Ranked as a “Highly Recommended” litigation firm in Texas and "Recommended" in New York
• Ranked as a "Top 20 Trial Law Firm"
• 15 "Litigation Stars": Sam Baxter, Douglas A. Cawley, Robin Cohen, J. Michael Hennigan, Gayle Klein, Lew LeClair, Zachary Mazin, Mike McKool, Ashley Moore, Joshua Newcomer, Hugh Ray, Elizabeth Sherwin, Courtney Statfeld, Ted Stevenson, III and Adam Ziffer
• Named Robin Cohen 2019 "Insurance Lawyer of the Year"
• Named 2016 “IP Firm of the Year"

Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. It compiles lists of outstanding lawyers by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. McKool Smith's rankings include:

• McKool Smith lawyers ranked as individual leaders in their field: Sam Baxter, Kevin Burgess, Douglas A. Cawley, Scott Cole, Gary Cruciani, Kirk Dillman, Roderick Dorman, Ken Frenchman, J. Wiley George, J. Michael Hennigan, Gayle Klein, William LaFuze, Lewis LeClair, Robert Manley, Mike McKool, Mike Miguel, Ashley Moore, Steven J. Pollinger, Hugh Ray, David Sochia, Theodore Stevenson III, Michael Swartz, Jennifer Truelove and William Wood.

Chambers Global identifies leading firms in more than 190 countries through extensive research with thousands of lawyers and their clients. McKool Smith's 2017 rankings include:

• Ranked as a leading U.S. Intellectual Property litigation firm
• Individual rankings:
  • Mike McKool and J. Michael Hennigan ranked as leading U.S. trial lawyers
  • Sam Baxter, Doug Cawley, Mike McKool and Ted Stevenson ranked as a leading US patent litigators

McKool Smith received top national and regional rankings in the 2018 edition of IAM Patent 1000 – The World's Leading Patent Professionals.

• Recommended nationally for Plaintiff Litigation
• Ranked Gold Tier in Texas for Patent Litigation

Managing IP is the leading global resource for IP news and analysis and covers all aspects of IP law and practice, focusing on the business and practical issues of importance to IP owners. McKool Smith's 2018 rankings include:

• Awarded North America’s “Plaintiff IP Firm of the Year,” and “Patent Contentious Firm (South).”
• Highly recommended in Texas and California for intellectual property litigation.
• 8 principals named “IP Stars": Robert Auchter, Samuel Baxter, Douglas A. Cawley, William LaFuze, Mike McKool, Steven Pollinger, and Theodore Stevenson III
• Named one of the top patent litigation firms in the nation
  

Chambers USA ranks the nation’s leading firms and lawyers in an extensive range of practice areas. The research is in-depth and client-focused; the guide is read by industry-leading companies and organizations across the U.S. and worldwide. McKool Smith's 2019 rankings include:

• Ranked nationally as a leading firm for Intellectual Property Litigation. “McKool Smith’s courtroom track record in intellectual property cases is unrivaled.”
• Ranked nationally as a leading firm for Insurance. “McKool Smith’s award-winning insurance recovery practice consists of more than 30 trial lawyers who have more than 30 years of experience representing corporate policyholders in high-stakes coverage and liability disputes against their insurance providers..”
• Ranked as a leading Commercial Litigation firm in Texas and California. “They are doing an outstanding job - they have great command of the details, give good recommendations on strategy, and provide an excellent written work product.”
• Ranked as a leading Intellectual Property firm in Texas. “McKool Smith continues to blaze trails in the litigation arena.”
• Ranked as a leading Bankruptcy/Restructuring firm in Texas. “Compact team renowned for advising on bankruptcy litigation, with regular engagements on complex and high-value work.”
• Ranked as a leading Insurance: Dispute Resoltuion: Policyholder firm in New York. "Collectively, the firm’s lawyers have obtained more than $8 billion in insurance-related recoveries for clients"
• Ranked as a leading Securities: Institutional Plantiffs firm in New York.
• 20 of the firm's lawyers are ranked as individual leaders in their field(s): Samuel Baxter, Kevin Burgess, Douglas A. Cawley, Robin Cohen, Roderick Dorman, Kenneth H. Frenchman, J. Michael Hennigan, Gayle Klein, William LaFuze, Lewis LeClair, Kyle Lonergan, Keith McKenna, Mike McKool, Steven Pollinger, Hugh Ray, Robert Scheef, Theodore Stevenson III, Willie Wood and Adam Ziffer.

• Recognized as 2019 "Intellectual Property Trial Group of the Year"
• Recognized as 2018 "Trial Group of the Year"
• Recognized as a 2020 “Insurance Practice Group of the Year.”