VERDICT ALERT: Councill, Gunnemann, & Chally Secures $25.7 Million Jury Verdict as Lead Trial Counsel in Trade Secret Theft Lawsuit

A Councill, Gunnemann, and Chally team served as lead trial counsel in securing their client, EchoSpan, a jury verdict for $11.7 million in compensatory damages and $14 million in punitive damages in a trade-secret theft lawsuit in the federal district court for the Northern District of California. 

“This was a classic David verses Goliath dispute,” noted Councill, Gunnemann, & Chally partner, Jon Chally, who represented the Plaintiff, EchoSpan, at trial. “Medallia was represented by a cadre of attorneys at trial, who tried to argue that the competing product Medallia built was independently created. The jury disagreed.”  

Joining Jon Chally on the Plaintiff’s trial team were Josh Gunnemann and Jennifer Virostko of Councill, Gunnemann, & Chally, and Evangeline A.Z. Burbidge and Zachary Flood of Lewis & Llewellyn. 

At the trial, Medallia claimed it developed a software product that competed with EchoSpan based on its own innovation and without any intellectual property stolen from EchoSpan. During the six-day trial, EchoSpan presented evidence that Medallia’s employees secured EchoSpan’s confidential intellectual property through a trial account of EchoSpan’s web-based software and used that misappropriated property to develop its competing employee-review software product. In returning its verdict, the jury concluded that Medallia had engaged in willful misconduct, justifying the award of $14 million in exemplary damages in addition to the $11.7 million in awarded in compensatory damages.