Super Lawyers - Northern California 2011

position was that Lucent had encouraged Extreme to put a certain feature in its product, but later accused Extreme of infringement. As colleague Elson tells the story, McMahon hooked his finger into his mouth, like he was a fish on a line, to demonstrate how Extreme had been hooked, and then he dragged himself across the length of the jury box.

“He’s unscripted,” Elson says. “Other
lawyers, even first chairs at major
law firms, are relatively wooden in
comparison. Terry improvises, and he’s
very fluid in his presentation. He knows
the facts of the case inside and out, so
he’s not tied to a script.”
As McMahon puts it, “I’m not big on
memorization. If you’re an actor, you
have to learn the lines because the
screenwriters have done a beautiful job
creating a piece of art, but that’s not our
game. I see a lot of lawyers reading from
their PowerPoint and losing the judge or
jury. A lawyer will end up sounding stilted
or confused and end up missing what’s
going on in the room.”
McMahon is more like the director
who creates a compelling scene for
his audience—the judge and jury—but
then leaves room for improvisation.
Take a medical malpractice case that
McMahon handled early in his career.
Shortly after a woman gave birth, she
took a trip up to Lake Tahoe with her
husband and baby. She began to have
postpartum bleeding and was rushed
to an emergency room. It turned out
the original doctor had not completely
removed the placenta.

For over a decade, Kerr & Wagstaffe LLP has established itself as a premier law firm in San Francisco for handling a wide range of complex litigation and appeals. We excel at resolving high-stakes litigation, ranging from consumer, employment, intellectual property and wrongful death matters to First Amendment and other constitutional cases.

Just some of the firm’s successes last year:

Successfully defended on appeal a trial court victory for insurance policyholders Achieved dismissal of a multimillion dollar lawsuit brought by Chevron Corporation against an environmental law plaintiff’s lawyers Prosecuted ongoing life insurance benefits MDL case on behalf of veterans’ families Continued to represent the research organization that invented the technology underlying Wi-Fi in patent infringement cases against numerous computer hardware and mobile device manufacturers As appellate counsel, secured reversal of an unfavorable trial court judgment against a California municipality in a redevelopment dispute Successfully defended on appeal a directed verdict in favor of the founder of a technology company in a fraud and breach of fiduciary duty action Co-authored The Rutter Group’s Federal Practice Guide: Federal Civil Procedure Before Trial.