[2][3] He won more than $2 billion in damages and settlements in just three cases, including a $1.1 billion settlement on behalf of Texas Instruments in Samsung Electronics v. Texas Instruments, and a $536 million jury verdict in El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. GHR Energy Corp.[4] In 2020, Susman was seriously injured in a biking accident, which left him in a coma for more than a week.
[20] The firm specializes in representing plaintiffs in antitrust and securities class actions on a contingent fee basis.
[19] In January 2005 the firm was named one of the top two litigation boutiques in the country by The American Lawyer.
[21] It has been cited as the nation's top litigation boutique law firm in the Vault Rankings every year since 2012, and in 2020 was ranked by Vault as well as the nation's top midsize firm to work for, for career outlook, compensation, satisfaction, and selectivity (most of its attorneys were members of their schools’ law reviews, and nearly all clerked for federal judges, including 11 for U.S. Supreme Court justices).
[10] He won some of the largest cases in U.S. history, including a $1.1 billion ($2,100,000,000 in current dollar terms) settlement on behalf of Texas Instruments in the breach of contract case of Samsung Electronics v. Texas Instruments in 1996; and a $536 million ($1,400,000,000 in current dollar terms) jury verdict on counterclaim in El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. GHR Energy Corp in 1988.
[5][4][11] Susman won a verdict for the plaintiffs in the Corrugated Container Antitrust case in 1979, at $550 million ($2,300,000,000 in current dollar terms) the largest verdict in antitrust history at the time, and the case ultimately settled for $500 million (A lawyer who joined the firm in 1990 was given an office tour by Susman.
[23][11][24][25] He won a $140 million California jury verdict for the plaintiff in the antitrust case Masimo v. Tyco Health Care Group.
[11] In 2010, Susman was among a team of attorneys that represented Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt in his divorce trial.
[33] As a result of Susman's belief in a contingency-fee model and the law firm efficiency necessary to make it work, in 2012 he launched "Trial by Agreement" as a repository of pre-trial and trial agreements that lawyers can use to reduce the expense of unwarranted discovery and associated motions.
[34][35] Among his professional affiliations (2013–16) were State Bar of Texas (chairman, Section on Antitrust and Trade Regulation, 1976–77); the American Board of Trial Advocates (co-Chair of its Jury Trial Committee); American Bar Association, member of the commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs (Section of Antitrust Law); Director of Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists; University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Board of Visitors; and Charter Member of the Institute for Responsible Dispute Resolution.
In recognition of this gift, the board of regents, the governing body for The University of Texas System, established the Stephen D. Susman Academic Center, which opened in August of the same year, and which Dean Lawrence G. Sager described the center as "the heart of the UT Law Enterprise.
[42] Through the Susman Family Foundation, the couple has made financial gifts to The Aspen Institute, and other programs and non-profit organizations related to the arts, justice, and the environment.
"[14] Tom Melsheimer of Winston & Strawn described Susman as "almost indisputably the smartest trial lawyer who ever lived," and a "Shakespeare when it came to the use of the F-word.