Overview
(December 5, 2016, Chicago) — Steptoe Chicago partner Michael Dockterman has been named to The National Law Journal’s list of Trailblazers in Litigation. The list was featured in a supplement in the December 5 issue of the legal publication.
Mr. Dockterman has been principal trial counsel in state and federal courts in more than half the states in the United States. His extensive litigation and trial experience involves commercial, governmental, and white-collar criminal matters, and includes securities, antitrust, intellectual property, environmental, contract, fraud and product liability cases, as well as a variety of amateur sports disputes.
Mr. Dockterman also advises boards and board committees on matters of corporate governance and compliance, defends board actions in securities and derivative litigation, and represents both corporate and individual interests in grand jury and other government investigations across the country.
In a high-profile trial, Mr. Dockterman successfully defended the city of Chicago in state court challenging the largest public works project in the country, construction of the People-Mover for O’Hare International Airport. Mr. Dockterman was brought on board only four days before the trial began. Mr. Dockterman also tried the landmark “Clickety-Clack Track” trade secrets case to a successful jury verdict. Mr. Dockterman served as lead defense counsel for PlayWood Toys, which was sued by the manufacturer of Thomas the Tank Engine wooden trains over wooden track that goes clickety-clack.
In February 2016, Mr. Dockterman co-led the Steptoe team that secured a significant victory for Pacific Gas and Electric Company in a federal court jury trial in the Northern District of California. The trial centered on breach of contract and negligence claims brought by Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company against PG&E arising out of a power outage at a refinery owned by Tesoro. Tesoro sought more than $10 million in damages. PG&E maintained there were three outages – one at PG&E’s transmission substation, one at the refinery’s power plant, and one at the refinery. At trial, PG&E accepted responsibility for the substation outage, but claimed Tesoro was responsible for the other two outages and the associated damages. The jury agreed with PG&E, finding PG&E did not breach its contract with Tesoro to provide standby power and that PG&E was responsible for only 35% of Tesoro’s damages. The jury found that Tesoro was 65% responsible for its damages and awarded Tesoro less than $3.5 million, substantially less than the $10 million Tesoro was seeking.
Mr. Dockterman is ranked in Chambers USA and has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America and Illinois Super Lawyers.
About Steptoe
Steptoe & Johnson LLP is an international law firm widely recognized for vigorous advocacy in complex litigation and arbitration, successful representation of clients before governmental agencies, and creative and practical advice in guiding business transactions. The firm has more than 500 lawyers and other professionals in offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Phoenix and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.