Susman Godfrey leaders called 2020 “spectacularly profitable.” A firm executive said the partners made an “obscene amount of money” in 2021. In 2022, the Houston-based litigation powerhouse had “far and away our best year ever — a record year in revenues and profits.”
How would lawyers at Susman Godfrey follow those high expectations?
“We had a pretty good year in 2023,” Susman Godfrey co-managing partner Vineet Bhatia told The Texas Lawbook.
Simply put, Susman Godfrey’s 2023 was the single best year for any law firm’s Texas operations.
Texas Lawbook 50 data research shows that the 110 lawyers for Susman Godfrey in Texas generated an estimated $420 million in revenues in 2023 — up from $190 million in 2022. Firmwide, its 207 attorneys brought in $744 million in revenues — a 99 percent jump from the $374 million a year earlier.
Susman Godfrey’s revenue per lawyer hit $3.6 million in 2023 — the most ever for a Texas law firm and up from $1.9 million in 2022, which was the second highest behind Kirkland & Ellis $2.05 million.
Profits per equity partner at Susman Godfrey hit $6.99 million last year, which was $3 million higher than in 2022.
Associates at the firm received year-end bonuses ranging from $140,000 to $360,000.
Bhatia said the firm took 25 cases to trial or arbitration. In more than 90 percent of the cases the firm resolved in 2023, the client hired Susman Godfrey lawyers on a contingency fee or a hybrid alternative fee agreement.
“It was an alignment of the stars,” Bhatia said. “A number of settlements came in. We had a lot of cases that had been delayed going to trial by Covid. And trial date settings push defendants to settle.”
“We had a lot of happy partners,” he said.
The biggest and highest profile victory came in April 2023 when Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787.5 million settlement agreement in its defamation case against Fox News. Susman Godfrey partner Justin Nelson of Houston was one of the lead lawyers for Dominion, along with New York partner Stephen Shackelford and Los Angeles partner Davida Brook.
That litigation is not over, as Susman Godfrey is still representing Dominion in defamation lawsuits against NewsMax, One American News (OAN), MyPillow executive Mike Lindell, Rudy Giuliani and Dallas lawyer Sidney Powell, who represented former President Donald Trump.
The firm also reportedly earned nine-digit fees in its representation of the Brach Family Foundation, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit, in its breach of contract and cost of insurance lawsuit against AXA Equitable Life Insurance. The litigation settled in October 2023 for $307.5 million.
“We are on to the next year, which is off to an incredible start,” Bhatia said. “Our patent and intellectual property litigation practice is incredibly active in the Eastern and Western districts of Texas.”
He pointed to the $287 million East Texas jury verdict that Susman lawyers, including Alexandra G. White, Andres C. Healy and Eliza Rosa Finley, won in February in a breach of contract case for their client Koninklijke KPN N.V. against Samsung. Samsung is challenging the verdict.
“The biggest challenge is to beat what you did last year. But so far, 2024 is looking strong,” Bhatia said.