The six-trial winning streak that Adam Alper and Mike De Vries of Kirkland & Ellis are on has included some real doozies over the past two-plus years. A pair of the wins in the streak were part of the firm’s winning entry for The American Lawyer’s Litigation Department of the Year last year: Namely, the $765 million jury verdict they won for Motorola Solutions against Hytera in February of 2020 involving trade secrets and their October 2020 trade secret win for TriZetto and its parents, Cognizant Technology Solutions where the jury awarded more than $850 million in damages. After a win in San Jose, California, federal court last week, the streak now includes four-straight plaintiff-side wins in trade secrets cases. There the jury awarded their client Comet $40 million, including $20 million in punitive damages after finding that rival XP Power “willfully and maliciously” stole trade secrets related to technology being used in next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.

The Litigation Daily this week caught up with Alper and De Vries to discuss how they work together as a team and the steps they take to prepare a case for a jury. The following has been edited for length and clarity.