Finnegan provides appellate relief for manufacturer of oil & gas equipment manufacturer hit with $70 million district court judgment

Handled an appeal for an oil-refining equipment manufacturer accused by a rival of misappropriating trade secrets. The district court had found that the manufacturer had hired away the rival’s employees and encouraged them to use their former employer’s trade secrets to design refinery equipment. The district court awarded nearly $70,000,000 in damages. After a one-sided oral argument in which all three judges on the panel repeatedly criticized the district court’s reasoning, the case settled for a tiny fraction of the original award.