They’ve Got Next: The 40 Under 40 - Patrick Arenz of Robins Kaplan

Please describe two of your most substantial, recent wins in practice.
I secured a pair of recent wins for celebrity chef Chloe Coscarelli. After founding the “by Chloe” restaurants, her partner seized her 50% ownership in the company for zero dollars, and then resold that interest for over $30 million to investors. In May 2020, I won an arbitration that reinstated her as an owner. I also won a federal court order preventing the company from selling the eponymous trademark without her consent earlier this year.

I won a verdict in 2016 against La-Z-Boy on behalf of Paul Megdal, whose garage invention on power motion furniture was so successful that La-Z-Boy licensed the technology. But after Paul’s death, La-Z-Boy refused to pay royalties. A jury ordered La-Z-Boy to pay $5.7 million in past royalties and settled on appeal for $13.5 million.

What is the most important lesson you learned as a first-year attorney and how does it inform your practice today?
Take ownership of your cases. When you’re new and low on the totem pole, it’s easy to think that you just need to do a good job on the specific task that you were assigned. Not so! While you need to bring you’re A-game every day to your assignments, our most successful teams are the ones with every team member at every level showing up to work each day thinking about how she can help win the case. Just because you may be junior doesn’t mean you can’t think hard about key strategies and weaknesses. If every team members approaches their day with the central question of how are we going to win this case, then more ideas are shared, problems are identified earlier, and the best and most creative solutions are selected.

How do you define success in your practice?
In the world of high-stakes litigation and trial work, it is often a zero-sum game of winners and losers. Verdicts and results matter most. But separate from the final outcome, trial lawyers are artists. And I see each case as a blank canvass at the start. So success to me is to craft a unique theme and tell my client’s story in a manner that the judge and jury best understands why our case matters and why we should win.

What are you most proud of as a lawyer?
I’m proud that my colleagues and I rewrite the odds for our clients. I’ve enjoyed significant success in my career focusing on—and winning—multi-million dollar intellectual property and business lawsuits, mostly on behalf of inventors, artists, innovators, and others who otherwise do not have the resources of their opponents. But I’m most proud of thme pro bono work I’ve done on behalf of those who needed access to justice but could not afford a lawyer. In my first year as a lawyer, I tried a case in immigration court against the federal government in which I was able to secure asylum for a young Ethiopian woman who faced persecution for her political views on women’s rights and free speech. More recently, I obtained a $950,000 jury verdict for a victim of sexual assault that occurred in Laos when my client was 14 years old. The results in these cases, among many others my colleagues at Robins Kaplan have obtained on a regular basis, have positively impacted people’s lives forever. I’m both proud and fortunate to be part of a firm so dedicated to fighting for and championing equal justice for all.

Who is your greatest mentor in the law and what have they taught you?
Ronald J. Schutz. Can you increase the word limit? He’s one of the greatest trial lawyers in the country, and the lessons I learned trying cases by his side over the years are limitless. That said, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention his “one riot, one ranger” mentality as we take on armies of lawyers with lean trial teams; that I know exactly what to say if I get an unexpected answer on cross examination; and the importance of never, ever giving up.

Just for fun, tell us your two favorite songs on your summer music playlist.
“Hell of a View” by Eric Church: “This ain’t for everybody/Toes hanging off the ledge” pretty fairly captures high-stakes litigation and trial work, especially for plaintiffs. But for those who are cut out for it, the practice sure is rewarding.

“Learning to Fly” by Tom Petty: No summer playlist is complete without Tom Petty. Learning to Fly is one of my favorites about personal growth. Even with successes, trial work is a humbling profession that demands resilience and never giving up.