Winning: James Hurst, Kirkland & Ellis

Tell us about your biggest trial win from January 2016 to July 2017 and how you achieved the result for your client.

Kirkland represented Abbott in Colquitt v. Abbott Laboratories before a Dallas jury in April 2016. Kevin Colquitt, an alleged whistleblower, sought more than $1 billion for alleged Medicare fraud. The challenge was, [that] 90 percent of the time doctors used Abbott's medical device in "off label" procedures never approved by the FDA.

We changed the topic, shifting the focus away from allegedly improper "off label" marketing to helping patients, offering testimony from eight doctors describing how they saved and improved patients' lives through these off label procedures.

The result was a complete defense verdict after just three hours of deliberations. It's the first-ever jury verdict in a Medicare fraud case based on alleged off-label marketing.

Share two trial tips that have been key to your success.

1) Preserve your credibility at all costs. Speak from the heart during a trial and talk about what's true. Credibility is massively important in front of a jury.
2) Master time management. Like most trial lawyers, I cannot tolerate handling any trial without first immersing myself in the facts, issues and evidence, and that takes time.

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