A Winston & Strawn trial team led by Partners Dan Webb and Matthew Carter was featured in The Am Law Litigation Daily's Litigator of the Week column on October 28, 2022.
After a three-week trial, a federal jury in Detroit awarded their client Versata Software Inc. more than $100 million in damages in a breach of contract and trade secret misappropriation showdown with Ford Motor Co. involving automotive configuration software. After a day-and-a-half of deliberations, eight jurors unanimously found this week that Ford breached the parties' subscription agreement by reverse engineering Versata's software for its own use and sided with Versata on multiple trade secret claims. Jurors also denied Ford's breach of contract counterclaim.
The Winston team that worked on the matter included Partner Brian Nisbet; Associates Sarah Krajewski, John Drosick, Sam Zuidema, Monica Kociolek, Kelly Mannion Ellis, Pat Simonaitis, and Tyree Petty-Williams; Paralegals Martha Calvo and Schantel Deal-Ross; and Practice Coordinator Sandra Bell. Steven Mitby of Mitby Pacholder Johnson and Jaye Quadrozzi of Young, Garcia, & Quadrozzi served as co-counsel.