The AI-Powered Litigator: Real Tools, Real Cases, Real Results

Christopher A. Suarez | Steptoe LLP

Christopher A. Suarez is an outside-the-box thinker with a passion for helping clients understand and manage risks in high-technology, particularly technologies in computer software, hardware, and semiconductor domains. As an intellectual property litigator, he focuses his practice on patent, copyright, and trade secret trials and appeals before every level of the US court system, including federal district courts, US courts of appeals, the US Supreme Court, the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and other administrative tribunals. Chris’s experience in district court litigation spans all phases of litigation, including overseeing fact discovery; taking and defending fact and expert depositions; arguing dispositive motions, claim construction, and appeals; and examining witnesses at trial. Chris’s experience at the PTAB includes cross-examining witnesses and successfully arguing on behalf of his client at the oral hearing.

In high-stakes IP litigation, Chris has represented both plaintiffs and defendants, which allows him to see each case from multiple angles. Chris also has counseled clients in dozens of appeals at the Federal Circuit, which informs the trial strategies he develops with clients in the District Court. Chris frequently participates in cases as an “appellate counsel” in IP cases—one who is embedded on the case team as co-counsel to spot appellate issues and provide an outsider’s perspective on ongoing litigation, so as to set the case team up for longer term success.

Aside from litigation, Chris provides counseling at the intersection of IP and emerging technology. He has written and spoken extensively on topics at the intersection of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He is the co-editor of the book Artificial Intelligence: Legal Issues, Policy, and Practical Strategies (ABA, 2024), as well as The Internet of Things: Legal Issues, Policy, and Practical Strategies (ABA, 2019). With his in-depth knowledge of the legal landscape pertaining to these emerging technologies, Chris helps his clients navigate the challenges and opportunities that both AI and the IoT present. To that end, Chris assists clients across a wide range of industries with risk management, establishing and refining AI governance policies and procedures, and helps provide an outside perspective on how such policies and procedures should be modified or adopted.

With his technical background, Chris also reviews AI-based products and use cases (including their underlying AI models and training data) to assess risks spanning privacy, IP, cybersecurity, discrimination, and other areas. Chris also assists clients with portfolio management, helping organizations develop or refine their IP policies and procedures, including their efforts to balance patents, trade secrets, and copyright protections in the context of AI and IoT technology. Chris is an adept advisor on patent and software licensing, having both litigated and drafted IP licenses for his clients, including those involving standards essential patents (SEPs) in the fields of wireless technologies (such as 3G, 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, and audio/video codecs) and in computer hardware. Chris has also advised clients on open-source software (OSS) licenses, including open-source AI models. As a CIPP/US certified attorney, Chris adds a privacy perspective to his IP expertise and strives to provide an interdisciplinary and practical dimension to all his advice.

Chris is also passionate about advancing the legal profession through leadership and advocacy. He is the Secretary of the American Bar Association’s Science and Technology Section and serves in the leadership of numerous bar organizations, including the Giles Rich American Inn of Court, the Federal Circuit Bar Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He is also active in the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) and a member of Steptoe’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, where he has served as the leader of Steptoe’s Latin American Lawyers Affinity Group.

Beyond IP, Chris maintains a robust pro bono practice where he represented criminal defendants before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, K-12 students facing educational injustices under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and federal employees under the employment discrimination and civil service laws. His federal employee representations have included successful representations of employees afflicted with psychiatric disabilities and brain injuries, including the Havana Syndrome, as well as whistleblower cases on behalf of federal employees who have served our country in the US Department of Labor, Department of State, Department of the Navy, and the Patent and Trademark Office.

Chris is a former elected official and public-school board member and has served on several nonprofit boards in both DC and Northern Virginia.

Paul R. Kiesel | Kiesel Law LLP

Paul Kiesel received his Juris Doctorate from the Whittier College School of Law in Los Angeles in 1985. In 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Whittier Law School. His practice is devoted to representing consumers in personal injury, class action, environmental, and toxic tort litigation.

Mr. Kiesel has repeatedly been selected as one of the top plaintiff attorneys in the State of California and the country. The Los Angeles Business Journal recognized Mr. Kiesel as one of the Top 50 Trial Lawyers. The Daily Journal named Mr. Kiesel one of the 100 most influential attorneys in the State of California. He was also selected as one of the top 500 attorneys in the United States by Law Dragon. In addition, Mr. Kiesel is rated A.V. (highest rating) by Martindale-Hubbell.

Paul Kiesel is very active in the legal community. He was the president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association for 2015-2016 and was the past Chair of the Litigation Section. He was appointed by former Chief Justice Ronald George to the State of California Judicial Council Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee. He served on the Board of Governors for the Consumer Attorneys of California and the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles for over 25 years. In recognition of his service, Mr. Kiesel was elected an emeritus (lifetime) board member of both organizations.

From 2001-2005, Mr. Kiesel sat on the Board of Governors of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. Mr. Kiesel was the Co-Chair of the Open Courts Coalition, a bipartisan committee of attorneys from throughout California advocating full funding of the civil justice system. Members of the Open Courts Coalition include the Honorable Carlos Moreno, former Governors Gray Davis and George Deukmejian, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragosa, and former California Attorney General John VanDekamp. Recently, Mr. Kiesel was named a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a trial lawyer honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers, dedicated to promoting superior advocacy, professionalism and ethical standards in the legal profession.

Jeffrey A. Koncius | Kiesel Law LLP

Jeff, again nominated in 2023 as a Southern California Super Lawyer, has been a civil litigator on behalf of plaintiffs for his entire career handling complex matters in federal and state courts, and arbitration. With experience in all aspects of civil trial and appellate practice, he has concentrated on consumer class actions in courts throughout the country representing consumers against large corporations and now does the same in financial services litigation and mass torts.

In the area of class actions, Jeff recently represented several notable musicians, among them, The Temptations and The Motels, in class actions seeking compensation relating to the payment of digital download royalties from their record labels including Universal Music Group, Capitol EMI and Warner Brothers. Jeff has also represented various Hollywood notables, including the estates of Charles Bronson, Peter Sellers and Richard Pryor, seeking payment of home video royalties from major movies studios including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, and Sony Pictures. The settlements with the studios resulted in payments to class members exceeding $51 million.

He has also been active against major automobile manufacturers such as BMW relating to the timing chain in MINI Cooper vehicles, Toyota for HVAC systems, GM for braking issues and Mazda for water pump failures. Jeff also litigates on behalf of individual investors as a result of wrongdoing by their financial services advisors including currently litigating a $10+ million loss suffered by an Indian Tribe.

Session I – AI Applications in Discovery and Litigation | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

• AI tools for litigation and discovery
• Practical use cases for AI in the context of litigation
• Supervision and oversight of attorneys who use AI tools
• Pitfalls and risks of using AI tools in litigation, including ethical rules

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

Session II – Using AI: Advanced Litigation Tactics and Practical Guardrails While Doing So | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

• AI pre-trial
• AI at trial
• Ethics and disclosure duties