Losing a $500 million jury verdict sounds like a general counsel’s worst nightmare. That’s what happened to Facebook Inc. last February, when federal jurors in Dallas found that Facebook’s Oculus unit had relied on another company’s intellectual property to launch its Rift virtual reality headset.

So why does Facebook’s GC, Colin Stretch, sound so calm talking about the case now? It might have something to do with the law firm he tapped to challenge the verdict: Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.