When Greg Dovel and Jeff Eichmann left prestigious law firms to become contingency fee plaintiffs lawyers, some of their Harvard Law School classmates were left scratching their heads. Dovel and Eichmann sometimes doubted the move themselves. But no one was second-guessing their unconventional career path on Wednesday, when the duo and their colleagues at Dovel & Luner won a big verdict in a patent case against Google Inc.
Following a minitrial on damages, a Marshall, Texas, jury determined that Google should pay $85 million for infringing a single patent owned by SimpleAir Inc., a nonpracticing entity. Dovel and Eichmann helmed SimpleAir’s trial team, squaring off against Google’s lawyers at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. Google had argued that it should pay no more than $6 million.
