Partner Harold Hirshman Leads Jury Trial Win for Experian

September 22, 2005

A Sonnenschein trial team led by Partner Harold Hirshman recently won a major victory for Experian, a global information solutions company, after a four-week jury trial in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County, Arkansas.  The case involved Experian's hiring of a sales executive from Little Rock-based competitor Acxiom in 2002.  In its lawsuit, Acxiom claimed that Experian and the executive had conspired to steal Acxiom business secrets and that Experian had used those secrets to compete against Acxiom, causing the company more than $100 million in damages.  In closing arguments, legal counsel for Acxiom requested $300 million in punitive damages in addition to $100 million in alleged actual damages.  After six hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict awarding nothing to Acxiom.

In addition to Harold, the Sonnenschein trial team in Little Rock consisted of a number of attorneys from the Chicago office, including Camille Bennett and Liz Leifel, with assistance from paralegal Cynthia Johnson.  Additional help was provided by Bud Nussbaum and Greg Naron, both of the Chicago office.