SAN FRANCISCO — By now, it’s a familiar story. But it’s one Apple lawyer Harold McElhinny likes to relive when he has a jury’s attention.

As in the companies’ last trial, the Morrison & Foerster partner began his opening statement Tuesday by asking jurors to remember where they were on Jan. 9, 2007, the day Apple debuted the iPhone­—the day he says “changed the nature of the telephone.”