Susman Godfrey LLP

Susman Godfrey focuses on complex commercial litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants. Its firm history emphasizes trial work and the development of alternative fee arrangements, an approach associated with founder Steve Susman. The practice grew around assessing cases and sharing some of the economic risk of litigation with clients.

The firm's fee structures include contingency and reverse-contingency arrangements, combinations of hourly and contingent fees, and other performance-based approaches. Its published organizational model is also distinctive: partners, of counsel, and associates meet to discuss case acceptance and firm matters, with equal votes on many questions, including case acceptance and employment decisions.

For students, these features make Susman Godfrey different from a general full-service platform. Case selection, litigation strategy, and the economics of a representation are closely connected. The firm's materials also describe trial teams drawn from multiple offices, providing a view of a disputes-focused practice organized around individual cases rather than separate transactional departments.