To fully explain how Baker Hughes successfully went from being the defendant facing patent infringement claims to the plaintiff bringing antitrust claims in the same lawsuit, a trip back to 2015 — with pitstops at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and courts in the U.S. and Canada — is necessary.
The lengthy, lingering litigation brought by LiquidPower Specialty Products was preventing Baker Hughes from launching a new product, and beating back the patent infringement claims via inter partes review, while at the same time developing a strong antitrust case against the competitor, was key to reaching the December 2024 agreement to settle. Teresa Garcia-Reyes, Baker Hughes’ vice president of litigation, who oversees about 80 attorneys, said the stakes of the case were clear and high.
“We are an energy technology company, so we take IP cases and the effect that they have on the ability to market our products very seriously,” she said. “There was real money at stake here, and it had been going on for so long, that it was nice to drive this one to closure.”
She identified two main challenges in seeing the case against LiquidPower to a successful resolution: One was “all of the permutations of the case — from the USPTO, to the Canadian litigation, to the US litigation, both in its offensive and defensive form.” The other was tied to the “passage of time,” which she said allowed both sides to “get personally entrenched in their positions.”
“It can also force the parties to get into the rut of litigation … to just keep going forward with the case at all costs, without stepping back and saying ‘is there a way to resolve this in a manner that works for everyone?’” she said. “Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes any opportunity to try to resolve the case very difficult.”
In the end, success in the litigation came down to “all the hard work that the legal team did on the case leading up to its conclusion,” she said. “We would not have been able to get there had it not been for each and every one of those stepping stones.”
Pointing to the outcome of this case, Baker Hughes’ outside counsel, Yetter Coleman, nominated Garcia-Reyes for the 2025 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Business Litigation of the Year.
She is one of two finalists for the award that will be presented by the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Texas Lawbook on May 22 at the Four Seasons in Houston.
“Put simply, victory would not have been achievable had it not been for Teresa’s incredible collaboration with Yetter Coleman in converting the defense of a patent infringement suit into a plaintiff antitrust victory,” said Jeffrey A. Andrews of Yetter Coleman. “This achievement was predicated on a combination of strategic legal insight and perseverance in developing damning evidence in support of a challenging antitrust claim.”
Road to Baker Hughes
Born and raised in Houston, Garcia-Reyes attended the Duchesne Academy and grew up in a household with her mother, a professor at Texas Southern University, her father, an attorney, and a younger brother who is now an anesthesiologist in Kentucky.
The first time she gave serious thought to a career in the law, she said, was in high school.
“I think that’s the first time I realized what a lawyer really does,” she said. “It’s less about arguing and more about strategy, problem solving and moving the proverbial chess pieces around the board. And that is the part of the practice that I really enjoy.”
She said she “idolized” her father, who served as in-house counsel for several large oil and gas companies during the turbulent boom-bust cycle of the 1980s, and wanted to follow in his footsteps. But in order to do so, she had to sharpen a skill all lawyers possess: the power of persuasion.
Her father discouraged her from pursuing a career in the law, pushing her instead to go into finance. When she graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in management in 2001, she had an offer to work for Chase.
“Actually, I think he wanted me to be anything but a lawyer,” she said. “But, being the good daughter I was, I ignored his advice and went to law school anyway. And I’ve never regretted my decision — and secretly, I think my dad is happy I ignored his advice too, because he’s seen how fulfilling this career has been for me.”
She earned her law degree at Tulane University Law School in 2004. Her first job out of school was as an associate attorney at Mayer Brown, where she stayed for four years.
In 2008, she moved to Morgan Lewis, where she remained until she got a call from Mike Mcilwrath.
“He introduced himself as the head of litigation for GE Oil & Gas, explained that they were looking for a litigator who spoke Spanish and Portuguese — and while I only spoke Spanish and French, [he said] that was ‘close enough,’” Garcia-Reyes recalled.
Mcilwrath invited her to interview for the position of senior counsel in litigation. Garcia-Reyes, who knew better than to “tell a client ‘no,’” agreed to interview for the position.
She pointed to that call as a major event that impacted the course of her career, noting she had never considered becoming an in-house lawyer prior.
The interview went well.
“Everyone I met was super impressive — both in terms of credentials and the way they approached the management of disputes,” she said. “It was less about being reactive to a particular situation (which I was used to at the law firm), and more about how we proactively enable the business (our client) to be successful within the context of the law.”
“The day I got the call saying ‘You got the job’ was one of the best days of my life. It opened up a series of adventures and learning experiences that have made me the lawyer I am today.”
She joined Baker Hughes as senior counsel for litigation in October 2012 and in March 2021 was named vice president of litigation, succeeding Mcilwrath.
The move in-house, she said, is one she’s never regretted.
“Becoming in-house counsel made me more client focused (since you have a captive client in whom you are fully invested) and made me more confident (because I was now empowered to make decisions and recommendations to the business client directly),” she said. “It’s been the most fulfilling experience for me professionally.”
M. Georgia Magno, Baker Hughes’ chief legal officer, called her colleague “wicked smart,” praised her “command of the law, the applicable facts and the psychology of all parties involved” and said she “knows how to get the best result in a practical, yet ambitious way.”
“I am always impressed by the sophistication of her legal reasoning and her ability to chart a successful outcome through a combination of strategic planning, high-pressure negotiation, ‘can-do’ attitude, and sheer fearlessness,” Magno said of Garcia-Reyes. “She also excels at building lasting relationships with top internal C-suite clients, based on her brand of competence, trust and empowerment. Personally, I truly value her partnership and candid support to address all sorts of issues, from litigation to compliance, risk and leadership.”
As most humans can attest, Garcia-Reyes said there are, of course, “bad days” at the office, but she also said she “can’t imagine doing anything else in life.”
“We all have bad days at work, but I’d ballpark that figure at only about 20 percent of the time for me personally,” she said. “The other 80 percent of the time, I have the good fortune to work at an amazing company, with super intelligent people who challenge me on a daily basis to be a better lawyer and leader.”
“My team is amazing, and the problems we are tasked to solve are constantly new and increasingly complex.”
When she’s not working on litigation matters for Baker Hughes, Garcia-Reyes likes to spend her time volunteering with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which she’s done for 18 years as a member of the Breeders Greeters Committee. That committee is responsible for greeting all the students who are showing livestock, helping them navigate stall assignments, complete loading and unloading duties and checking animal health clearances.
“I love it because we actually get to interact with the kids that show their animals for scholarship money,” she said. “It’s hard work but it’s very rewarding and is at the core of what the Rodeo is all about.”
She is also a volunteer for fundraising activities at her daughters’ school, chairing a sporting clay tournament and the school gala.
“It was super challenging and forced me way out of my comfort zone,” she said of the experience. “We must have done a good job, though, because we had record years for both events!”
And making time for a good meal with good friends is also a priority for Garcia-Reyes, who started a dinner group three years ago called the “Mussel Mamas,” where she and a growing group of about 20 fellow mothers meet at various restaurants to sample mussels.
Partnership with Yetter Coleman
The litigation that earned Garcia-Reyes this nomination has a decade-long history, but her involvement, and her decision to hire Yetter Coleman as a partner in the fight, happened in December 2021, right around the time the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in an inter partes review proceeding stemming from what was then still a patent infringement case against Baker Hughes.
“We selected Yetter Coleman, and Jeff Andrews in particular, because of their domain expertise in IP related matters and their trial prowess in such matters,” she said.
But it was more than the firm’s experience and expertise that made Garcia-Reyes confident Yetter Coleman was the right fit to help take on the fight against a team of attorneys from Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
“More than anything I’m looking for someone who is going to partner with me on the matters, and approach the relationship as a partnership,” she said of what she considers when hiring outside counsel. “Because that is what it is: outside counsel is the expert when it comes to positioning the case for trial, but in-house counsel is the expert when it comes to what the business actually wants and needs from the litigation.”
“And it’s the marriage of those two areas that brings about a successful outcome in the case.”
A self-described “very hands-on” problem solver, Garcia-Reyes said she views the relationship between in-house and outside counsel as a true “partnership.”
“In this case, in my role as in-house counsel, I hold the ultimate accountability for the outcome of the matter so I have to be up to date and aligned with the strategy and approach,” she said. “I have to be able to advise not only the business on what the right legal move is, but also outside counsel on what the business wants to get out of the litigation. Those moves [and] interests aren’t always aligned, so the more involved I am, the better able I am to manage expectations on both sides.”
That description tracks with how Paul Yetter of Yetter Coleman described Garcia-Reyes: a “fearless litigator” who “always keeps in mind her client’s goals.”
“Sometimes that means going to trial,” he said. “Sometimes it means a good settlement. Her trial teams know she’s willing to stand firm when the company’s position is worthy and important. And she keeps her perspective, focusing on the big issues and avoiding needless fights about the small ones.”
Andrews, of Yetter Coleman, who also worked on the Baker Hughes litigation with Garcia-Reyes, said her understanding of balancing responsibilities between in-house and outside counsel is something that makes her stand out from her peers.
“She keeps her eye on the overall goal of the dispute and is extremely good at weeding out the noise surrounding litigation,” he said. “She is never afraid to make a tough decision, has fantastic litigation instincts and is an invaluable member of the litigation team.”
And it’s not just lawyers at Yetter Coleman who feel that way. Christopher P. Moore, with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, has seen firsthand what Garcia-Reyes is capable of and called her a “litigator’s litigator” when explaining what makes her an effective leader and lawyer.
“She has an extraordinary ability to quickly identify the critical issues on which a case will turn, distilling complex disputes down to their most essential elements,” he said. “From the outset of a matter through its resolution, she keeps both internal and external teams focused on these key issues, ensuring that every action taken is aligned with the overall strategy.”
Moore, who has worked with numerous in-house lawyers in his career, said that typically, those attorneys either excel in legal strategy or business integration, but Garcia-Reyes is the rare litigator who possesses the combination of those strengths.
“And none do it better than she does,” he said.
From Patent Infringement Defendant to Antitrust Plaintiff
When LiquidPower filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Baker Hughes in 2015, it stopped the company’s efforts to market a new product intended to reduce drag, or friction, between crude oil and the pipeline that’s transporting it. Baker Hughes’ product, called FLO ULTIMA, was specifically designed to help reduce drag in a specific type of heavy crude oil commonly found in California and Canada.
But with the looming patent infringement suit, potential customers — including pipeline giants Enbridge and TransCanada — weren’t willing to risk purchasing the product that could land them in litigation, too. Faced with this problem, in 2017, Baker Hughes decided to institute inter partes reviews of the asserted patents in an attempt to prove them invalid and convinced U.S. District Judge Nancy F. Atlas in May 2017 to stay the infringement case while that proceeded.
In October 2017, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board issued the first of four rulings that LiquidPower’s patents were invalid, but in the interim, LiquidPower brought a related patent infringement suit in Canada, which Andrews described as an action intended “to scare away Baker Hughes’ potential customers.”
LiquidPower appealed the PTAB ruling against it, and while those proceedings were still ongoing, in 2022, Baker Hughes got the district court judge to lift the stay of its antitrust counterclaims, which it lodged back in August 2016.
Judge Atlas recused herself from the case in April 2019 and it was reassigned to U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen.
When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the finding that LiquidPower’s patents were invalid in April 2023, the company dismissed its patent infringement claims and the court realigned the parties, clearing the way for Baker Hughes to begin pressing its antitrust counterclaims.
The trial court issued an order granting a joint motion to realign the parties, with Baker Hughes as the plaintiff, in October 2023.
Baker Hughes beefed up its claims against LiquidPower, too, adding allegations of anticompetitive behavior and accusing LiquidPower of obtaining its patents by committing a fraud on the USPTO in order to protect a monopoly.
After defeating LiquidPower’s summary judgment bid that would have severely narrowed Baker Hughes’ claims, the judge scheduled a 15-day trial to take place in February 2025. By November 2024, the parties had completed expert discovery and fully briefed motions to exclude one another’s experts.
“Teresa’s perseverance in sticking with a challenging case paid off at the end of the year as trial preparations were beginning — in December, Baker Hughes and LiquidPower reached a settlement on baker Hughes’ antitrust claims,” Andrews said. “The terms of the settlement remain confidential, but the access of Teresa’s efforts is apparent even from the publicly available information.”
Two key turning points in the case, Garcia-Reyes said, were the conversion of the patent case “from a defensive posture to an offensive posture” and the second involved the company’s “approach to resolution.”
“The business leader who led the effort, while very senior, had not been involved in the case for its duration — he was fairly new to the matter at the time,” she said. “So, he approached the matter with no emotional baggage, so to speak. I think he was able to find commonality with the counterparty’s business person and work out a solution that worked for both sides. But he would not have been able to do that without the legal team framing the case in such a way as to give him leverage to get something done here.”
It’s likely that Garcia-Reyes’ work teaching an internal course on negotiation to her colleagues also played a role in the successful resolution of this case.
“One of the modules that we cover is the difference between positions and interests in a dispute,” she said. “So, thinking about disputes in that context, I think the sweetest victories for me have always been when the positions in the case were so divergent that we never thought the case would resolve, but yet we found a way to align the parties’ interests to get to a successful outcome. And it’s incredibly satisfying once you find a way to do so.”
Fun Facts: Teresa Garcia-Reyes
- Favorite book: I love “10% Happier” by Dan Harris. I think it has a great message for those of us that who are Type A overachievers in highly competitive industries. I first read it about 10 years ago, and it’s one of those books with a message that I keep coming back to time and time again.
- Favorite movie or TV show: I like to keep it light on the TV shows, basically anything from the “Real Housewives” franchise. My day job (and real life in general) can be really intense and stressful, and the silliness and superficiality of reality TV provides a nice escape. As far as movies, I’m a big Star Wars fan. “Episode IV: A New Hope” is probably my favorite of all time. I even wanted to name my little brother Luke when he was born. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to convince my children to watch it (they are more Disney Princess lovers than Jedi-wannabes).
- Favorite musician or band: Currently, I love Kacey Musgraves. I think she has a beautiful voice and the lyrics she writes (particularly those from her latest album, Deeper Well) just really speak to me, particularly when I’m having a challenging day.
- Favorite restaurant and favorite food at that restaurant: Anywhere with seafood — particularly sushi, mussels and oysters! For sushi, I love Uchi. You can never go wrong there. For oysters, Credence or State of Grace. For mussels, Toulouse!
- Hero in life: It sounds silly, but my kids. I have two girls — ages 9 and 6 — and they are amazing. They are confident, spunky, and resilient — everything I wasn’t when I was a child and that I have had to work really, really hard to try to achieve as an adult. (And on some days it’s even questionable whether I’ve achieved the same level of confidence, spunkiness, and resiliency that they naturally exhibit!) They also see the world in such a positive way. When I have bad days or am feeling bad about the world and people generally, I try to look at things through their eyes and it is refreshing and energizing. I guess there is a reason why there are so many oft-quoted phrases about the wonder of the world through a child’s eyes.