Susan A. Cahoon

Susan A. Cahoon

Susan Cahoon has chaired the firm's Litigation practice group and is the firm's General Counsel. She joined the firm in 1971 and was admitted to partnership in 1977. Ms. Cahoon has spent all of her career as a litigator. Her diverse experience includes patent infringement litigation; complex commercial disputes; and securities litigation. She also is trained as a mediator and as an arbitrator and currently serves on the Georgia-Alabama Complex Case Panel for the American Arbitration Association and as a panelist for the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution.

Ms. Cahoon is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and of the American and Georgia Bar Foundations, a member of the American Law Institute, a Master Bencher of the Lumpkin American Inn of Court, and a former Trustee of the American Inns of Court Foundation. Ms. Cahoon has served as chair of committees of the Torts and Insurance Practice and Litigation Sections of the American Bar Association; and as an associate editor of Litigation, the Journal of the Litigation Section.

Ms. Cahoon has been recognized on multiple occasions in The Best Lawyers in America® for Business Litigation and in the last three editions of Chambers USA . She received the Emory College of Arts & Sciences Alumni Award of Distinction in recognition of her contributions to her profession, to the community and to her college alma mater.

Selected Experience

· Oklahoma Medical Research Found. v. Eli Lilly & Co. (W.D. Okla.). We represented plaintiff in an action against Lilly for breach of a license agreement, fraud, unjust enrichment and patent infringement arising out of Lilly's licensing OMRF's discovery that "APC" compounds could be used to treat sepsis. We obtained broad Markman rulings and, on the eve of trial, resolved the case favorably for our client.

· Smith & Nephew, Inc., v. Synthes-Stratec, Inc. and Synthes USA, Inc., (W.D. Tenn.). Smith & Nephew sued Synthes for patent infringement concerning medical devices for treating fractures of the femur. Ms. Cahoon served as lead trial counsel during 21 days of bench trial that resulted in findings of infringement.

· Civix DDI, LLC v. BellSouth Corp., Inc., (D. Colo.). BellSouth and numerous other entities were accused of infringing patents on internet use of mappings to locate points of interest in relation to a user's location. We obtained a dismissal for BellSouth, even though other defendants settled.

· Thomas v. Motorola, Inc. (W.D.N.C) and related cases. Ms. Cahoon currently is serving as lead counsel for Motorola, Inc. in this action and also representing additional defendants in other pending cases involving the same plaintiff's patent infringement claims for which Motorola is providing a defense as to its products. She is also representing additional defendants in separate Thomas cases in that district on behalf of Kyocera Wireless, which is providing a defense to purchasers of its accused products. In these cases, which involve over 40 different defendants, she and the firm are coordinating a joint defense group of approximately 35 different law firms.

· Ms. Cahoon represented a major pharmaceutical company in a commercial arbitration involving a dispute about performance under an agreement for the co-promotion of a drug. The arbitration was settled within a week of the hearing, with the opposing party paying $54 million in past due amounts and agreeing to perform under a reconstructured contract for the balance of its term. Ms. Cahoon worked closely with economists and other experts to develop evidence to show how the client sales activities had contributed to expanding the client's market share.

Background

· At Emory she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Mortar Board, was a nationally recognized intercollegiate debater and was active in student government.

· At Harvard, Ms. Cahoon was a member of the Board of Student Advisors and was a winning oralist in the Ames Moot Court Competition.

Fellow: American College of Trial Lawyers; American Bar Foundation; Georgia Bar Foundation.

Documents by this lawyer on Martindale.com