Geoffrey Harrison

Practice Areas

Antitrust, Business Disputes, Complex Commercial Litigation, Energy

Career

A “rockstar” and “powerhouse litigator.” “Relentless in the courtroom.” That’s what Chambers USA called Harrison in its 2021 and 2020 Guides to America’s Best Lawyers. Lawdragon calls him “One of the great trial lawyers of his generation” and lists him among the 500 Leading Lawyers in America. Business Today has praised his, “interpersonal skills, writing ability, and sharp courtroom aptitude.”

For more information on Harrison's career, click here: https://www.susmangodfrey.com/attorneys/geoffrey-l-harrison/

Professional Memberships

American Bar Association

Federal Bar Association

Texas Bar Foundation, Life Fellow

Work Highlights

WINS FROM THE 2020s

March 2025 — Won a three day trial in Delaware Chancery Court involving a private equity firm’s auction of a short line railroad. The Court rejected the disgruntled losing bidder plaintiff’s claims for breach of contract and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing as against our client—the Court found breach as against our codefendants represented by a different law firm—and also rejected plaintiff’s $55 million damages model as speculative.

February 2025 — Settled for pennies on the dollar a timberland investment company plaintiff’s $31 million claims for breach of contract, indemnity, and unjust enrichment in connection with the alleged loss of carbon credits in the sale of timberland. We settled after securing an excellent motion to dismiss ruling and developing evidence that plaintiff dramatically overstated its alleged damages.

January 2025 — Collected $350 million for Apache Corporation after defeating multiple surety companies’ attempt to avoid paying on letters of credit and surety bonds they issued in connection with decommissioning offshore oil facilities. After 1 ½ years of active litigation and Apache-favorable rulings, the Court sanctioned the sureties and ordered them to pay millions in litigation fees and costs. The sureties settled the dispute by paying Apache an additional $140 million—for a total of $490 million (98.3% of damages sought)—and Apache agreed not to oppose their request to vacate the sanctions order.

January 2025 — Won $22.6 million in an arbitration for an upstream oil and gas company against an insurance company that issued (but refused to honor) a buyer’s side representations and warranties insurance policy in connection with the acquisition of oil and gas assets. After a five-day merits hearing, the 3-0 arbitration panel awarded our client 100% of the damages sought plus $2 million in attorneys’ fees.

December 2024 — Won a multi-hundred million dollar bench trial in Texas state court for Equistar Chemicals. Equistar hired Performance Contractors, Inc. as the general construction contractor on a new polyethylene plant. After a series of delays and productivity issues, PCI sued Equistar for alleged breach of contract and fraud, and sought over $175 million. Equistar counterclaimed for PCI’s breach of contract, fraud and conversion, and sought over $100 million. After a seven week trial, the court ruled for Equistar and held it was entitled to recover millions in damages from PCI.

September 2024 — Won a “take nothing” final judgment in favor of KBR, Inc. and against plaintiff Trinseo Europe GmbH in a purported $360 million trade secret misappropriation case. After a three week trial in federal court, the jury found that most of Trinseo’s alleged polycarbonate manufacturing trade secrets were not secrets and were not misappropriated, and the jury rejected all of Trinseo’s allegations of willful and malicious misappropriation. After post-trial briefing, the court sided with KBR, rejected Trinseo’s attempt to recover damages, and ordered that Trinseo “take nothing from any defendant.”

June 2024 — Settled a multi-hundred million dollar arbitration dispute involving the control and operation of several affiliated privately-held food distribution companies. The parties’ claims and counterclaims included contentious allegations of self-dealing, theft, mismanagement, federal tax law, breach of partnership agreement, breach of fiduciary duty, denied access to books and records, fraudulent concealment, and other misconduct. The parties settled shortly before the merits hearing, with my clients winning full ownership and control of the companies at issue—and of several other jointly-owned companies as well—for a deeply discounted amount far below the other side’s expert’s valuation.

July 2023 — Won a Texas state court injunction hearing and defeated the attempt of four of the world’s largest insurance companies to prevent Apache Corporation from drawing on $498 million worth of letters of credit and surety bonds in connection with decommissioning offshore oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. The insurance companies alleged impaired collateral, altered bond risk, and breach of contract. The court ruled for Apache and denied the injunction after a three day, full evidentiary hearing with openings, live witnesses, closings, and lots of briefing.

July 2023 — Won a 3-0 decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirming a $4.8 million summary judgment for national leasing company Winthrop Resources Corporation against healthcare company Prospect ECHN, Inc. Prospect had sued to recover millions in lease payments it had made, sought to avoid paying millions more, and sought to recharacterize the lease agreement into a secured transaction. We counterclaimed for breach of contract. The Minnesota District Court conducted a pandemic-era Zoom hearing on cross-motions for summary judgment and, in September 2021, ruled for Winthrop across the board and awarded Winthrop every penny of the $4,824,490.49 in damages we sought plus $582,000 in attorney’s fees and costs. The court noted that “Mr. Harrison’s presentation at the motions hearing was effective and very important to Winthrop’s success” and called me a “talented litigator.”

January 2023 — Settled a $100-plus million patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics on the morning of jury selection in the Western District of Texas. Our client Proxense, LLC’s technology enables biometric authentication on mobile-pay applications like Samsung Pay. We secured favorable Markman rulings, defeated Samsung’s summary judgment motions (including those masquerading as motions in limine), and secured a partial plaintiff-side summary judgment ruling as well. The terms of the settlement are confidential.

September 2022 — Represented energy industry midstream companies in two Oklahoma lawsuits against an EPC contractor for multiple pipelines. The contractor sued for $20 million in withheld retainage and, to prevent a counterclaim, sued the parent/guarantor and not the operating company. We had the operating company sue the contractor for $65 million due to delays, engineering and construction errors, and contract breaches, and persuaded the Court to consolidate the lawsuits based on what the Court called our “analysis and well written response brief.” We defeated the contractor’s motion to dismiss, engaged in extensive discovery, and resolved the dispute on a basis the contractor insisted be kept confidential.

June 2022 — Won a Texas state court trial for a litigation funder private equity firm against a law firm and counsel who disputed the validity and scope of a contract. The court granted the exact declaratory judgment we requested, found that our funder client prevailed on the main issues in the case, and awarded nearly $1 million in attorneys’ fees and expenses plus over $200,000 more on appeal. The win confirmed the validity of our client’s lien on the gross amount of certain attorneys’ fees in connection with over 1,000 Engle and other tobacco cases in Florida courts, and protected our client’s expected receipt of tens of millions of dollars linked to the outcome of the underlying tobacco cases.

December 2021 — Represented a global energy industry company in a confidential executive compensation arbitration and obtained a finding that the executive’s actions “constituted gross misconduct” that the executive “could not have reasonably believed was in the best interests of the company.”

January 2021 — Served as special litigation counsel for debtor Arena Energy, LP and sought a TRO requiring would-be bidders W&T Offshore and 31 Group to return or destroy all confidential information they improperly obtained from Arena’s virtual data room. Immediately after the TRO hearing, W&T and 31 Group capitulated and signed a settlement agreement granting Arena the relief we sought. At a subsequent evidentiary hearing, the bankruptcy court declared W&T’s conduct “abhorrent to the Court.”

August 2020 — Defended several oil and gas limited partnerships and certain of their owners against two limited partner plaintiffs’ Texas state court lawsuit for breaches of a partnership agreement, breaches of fiduciary duty, and demand for over $100 million in damages. We took over from another law firm, quashed plaintiffs’ discovery requests, and persuaded the court to compel arbitration of all claims. We filed our own arbitration demand, asserted affirmative claims for declaratory and monetary relief, and defeated the limited partners’ contract-based motion for advancement of attorney’s fees. After significant motion practice, the limited partners abandoned all claims and walked away with zero dollars.

To learn more about Harrisons wins in the 2010s, 2000s, and 1990s, read his bio here: https://www.susmangodfrey.com/attorneys/geoffrey-l-harrison/