He’s unscripted,”
says Vera Elson
with McDermott
Will & Emery.
“Terry improvises,
and he’s very
fluid in his
presentation. He
knows the facts
of the case inside
and out.
McMahon, 61, is renowned for
mesmerizing jurors—to the extent he
once brought a placenta into a courtroom
(more on that later). Colleagues say the
lack of pretension is genuine. If McMahon
doesn’t cast the rarefied air one might
expect from one of the nation’s top
intellectual property attorneys, keep in
mind that this is an IP lawyer who made
spending money in high school by working
in a slaughterhouse.
“He does not come from a privileged
background,” says Vera Elson, a partner
at McDermott who has tried numerous
cases with him. “He worked his way up,
hauling meat off a truck. That gives him
an edge because he doesn’t forget how
the common person thinks. Some lawyers
get caught up in the technology details,
especially in IP cases, and the jury thinks
they’re talking over their heads—because
the lawyers are. Terry keeps it simple: why
they should believe we’re in the right.”
HE GREW UP AN IRISH-CATHOLIC FAMILY
in the hills of Altadena, a community just
north of Pasadena, a mix of low-income,
blue-collar workers and brainy Caltech
professors. His father, David McMahon,
was a character actor who worked on many
movies and television shows, including
Perry Mason and The Lone Ranger, and
McMahon recalls as a kid meeting an array
of stars, the likes of Raymond Burr and
Bette Davis.
