They’ve Got Next: Intellectual Property Fresh Face Krisina Zuñiga

Susman Godfrey LLP’s Krisina Zuñiga has words of wisdom for young lawyers in the intellectual property space looking to make their mark: “Don’t be scared or intimidated by intellectual property cases.”

She’s in a position to know. Zuñiga was co-counsel behind a nearly $40 million judgment in a case that dealt with what she called “the tri-fecta of IP”--trade secrets, patents, and antitrust violations. Zuñiga represented Repeat Precision LLC, which was hit by a lawsuit from Diamondback Industries Inc.

“It’s one of the most complex cases I’ve worked on,” said Zuñiga, who graduated from Stanford Law School in 2015. “There were all these different claims. The bad acts involved were off the charts.”

Despite the case’s difficulties, Zuñiga impressed the case’s presiding judge, Alan D. Albright, for whom patent cases are a specialty.

Zuñiga “had more standup time” than anyone on her team with “one of the most important witnesses” during the trial, her first, colleague Trey Peacock recalled.

“She was poised, confident, patient, and did a great job,” Peacock said. “Judge Albright was highly complimentary and commented that she had plainly done this before. I got to proudly tell the judge this was her very first witness at trial. The judge was very surprised.”

Zuñiga, an associate at her firm, makes it a point to learn the technology in her cases through research and collaboration.

In a case involving wireless networks, Zuñiga said she had difficulty understanding a component of the technology involved. So she spoke with a colleague who had an electrical engineering background.

“It made a huge difference,” Zuñiga said. “I had a command of the technology I didn’t have before.”

Her advice is, “Master the technology. You’ll add a lot of value to your team.”

Zuñiga is also making her mark outside of Susman Godfrey.

In June, she became president of the Houston Young Lawyers Association. Prior to that, she served as director, treasurer and president-elect for the group of local attorneys and law students 36 and younger, or who have five or fewer years of practice experience.

Between 2015 and 2018, Zuñiga completed two federal clerkships. The first was with U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas Judge Diana Saldaña. Later, she clerked for Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

As for patent cases, Zuñiga was assigned one in her first year at Susman Godfrey. And despite being intimidated at first, she “ended up loving it.”

“I’ve really come to enjoy patent cases, when you’re looking at the patent language like a formula and saying, does this infringe, matching the puzzle pieces,” she said. “It was really fun for me.”

And Susman Godfrey, Zuñiga said, provided the experiences that helped her become the attorney she is today.

“I owe a lot of my skills to the training and opportunities the firm gave me early on,” she said. “Within my first few months, I was taking depositions. Now, I’ve argued a handful of major dispositive hearings, been to trial. The opportunities have allowed me to grow quickly and achieve success.”