Michael J Summersgill

Practice Areas

Michael Summersgill is a first-chair trial lawyer who focuses on high-stakes technology litigation including patent, trade secret and general commercial litigation. He has represented major clients—such as Intel, NVIDIA, Natera, Vertex, Akamai and Quest Diagnostics, among many others—in multiple jurisdictions across the country. He has a long track record of winning cases under the most challenging circumstances and in the toughest jurisdictions—earning recognition, among others, from The National Law Journal as a “Winning Litigator.”

In one recent example, he won a summary judgement motion obtaining a complete win for client Biora Therapeutics in a case where a similarly situated defendant–sued by the same plaintiff, on the same two patents, based on the use of the same third-party blood collection tubes–lost a $372 million judgment. In other recent examples, he: led AGCO/Precision Planting to a trial win over competitor John Deere in the District of Delaware; led Quest to a favorable resolution on the eve of trial after winning a key summary judgment motion in the Central District of California; and led Intel to a favorable resolution after a successful first day of trial in the Western District of Texas.

Michael has successfully tried multiple cases to verdict in the federal district courts and before the International Trade Commission (ITC). He has successfully argued many IPR petitions to the Patent Trial and Appeals Board. He has argued multiple appeals including to the Federal Circuit, the First Circuit, the Ninth Circuit and the Delaware Supreme Court. As an Assistant District Attorney for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on loan from the firm for six months, he tried 20 criminal cases to verdict.

He has received multiple awards recognizing his work, including being profiled by The National Law Journal as a “Winning Litigator,” and by Chambers USA, Legal 500, Best Lawyers, Managing IP, IAM Patent 100 and other legal organizations. Litigation Daily (of The American Lawyer) also recognized him and the WilmerHale team he led as Litigator of the Week Runners-Up for their trial win for client AGCO Corporation and Precision Planting LLC in the District of Delaware.

Personal

JD, cum laude, Harvard Law School, 1996; BA, summa cum laude, Political Science, Middlebury College, 1992