In life, as well as in business, making a decision with a gun to your head rarely yields good results. Unless, of course, you maintain your cool, says Morrison & Foerster partner David Doyle.

That’s exactly how his client, San Diego-based Acon Laboratories, a tiny biotechnology company, avoided a three-year bet-the-company patent infringement suit — by instead sealing a $175 million deal announced Feb. 24.