Mike McKool, co-Founder and Chairman of McKool Smith, has been named the 2012 “Trial Lawyer of the Year” by the Dallas Bar Association (DBA).
Mr. McKool will receive the award during the DBA's annual Bench Bar Conference in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, on September 27-29, 2012. The prestigious award is presented annually to a DBA member who best exemplifies the principles of the legal profession and who has achieved extraordinary success in the courtroom. To access the DBA press release announcing Mr. McKool's recognition, please click here.
“Mike McKool is an excellent trial lawyer,” said Paul K. Stafford, President of the Dallas Bar Association. “[He is] an example of all that is good in our profession—inquisitive by nature, committed to excellence, effective, and ethical in and out of the courtroom.”
Mr. McKool has earned a national reputation for rigorous case preparation and superlative trial skills. During his legal career of more than 30 years, he has secured billions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients. Since founding McKool Smith in 1991, his leadership and courtroom achievements have helped the firm grow from an eleven attorney litigation boutique in Dallas to a national litigation powerhouse with 175 trial lawyers. He is consistently recognized as one of the top litigators in the country by leading legal publications, including The Legal 500, Lawdragon, and Chambers USA, where he is ranked as a leading national trial lawyer and “Band 1” in commercial litigation and intellectual property litigation. He is also ranked as a “Band 1” patent litigator in the United States by Chambers Global. Mr. McKool is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a member of the Advisory Council of the Federal Circuit, and serves on the Advisory Board for the “Patent Case Management Judicial Guide,” used by federal district judges.
With more than 170 trial lawyers across offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC, McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America’s leading trial firms. The firm has won more National Law Journal and VerdictSearch “Top 100 Verdicts” over the last five years than any other law firm. McKool Smith represents leading clients across a broad range of practice areas, including complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy, and white collar defense.