Mary-Olga Lovett

Mary-Olga (“Mo”) Lovett is Senior Vice President of Greenberg Traurig, with operational responsibilities for the firm’s Texas offices, and is a member of the firm’s global Executive Committee. A proven first-chair trial lawyer, Mo is a fierce advocate for her wide range of national and global clients. When reputations are on the line or billions of dollars are at stake, clients turn to Mary-Olga to spearhead the litigation, knowing that she has the experience and tenacity to take even the most complex cases to verdict. She is a strategic thinker who is often called in to lead other litigation teams in complex cases across a variety of industries. Her current representations include leading legal teams defending a global energy giant regarding allegations of billions of dollars of environmental damage, defending a global tech firm in a multibillion-dollar Lanham Act case, prosecuting trademark claims for multi-Grammy-winning performers, and acting as lead trial counsel for the target defendant in a 2000-plaintiff Texas state court case arising from an explosion in Houston. 

With more than 27 years of experience, she has tried more than 50 cases, with more than $100 billion at stake. The Houston Chronicle called her “the Houston attorney pushing to put more women in the courtroom’’ and South Texas College of Law Dean Michael F. Barry called her “a trusted advisor and true business partner, and she epitomizes the profession of attorney and counselor at law.’’ She is a frequent speaker on cutting-edge topics in the law and spoke in fall 2021 at the Benchmark Women in Litigation Forum on “Protecting your brand in the era of cancel culture.’’ Mo is passionate about placing women in first-chair roles, particularly in high-profile cases, and builds diverse teams to litigate every case she handles.

Licensed in Texas and New York, Mary-Olga’s cases involve a wide variety of complex legal issues, including patent infringement, trademark infringement, theft of trade-secrets, commercial disputes, class actions, employment litigation, and product liability matters. She has tried cases to verdict in state and federal courts in more than 20 jurisdictions. She has also represented U.S. and international clients in appellate litigation before state and federal courts of appeal and the Texas Supreme Court. She is currently listed as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Texas by Super Lawyers Magazine/Texas Monthly and one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Houston, and in 2016 she was named one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Texas. In 2017, she was named Best in Patent, by Euromoney’s Guide to the Leading Women in Business Law. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation, Managing IP magazine’s “IP Stars,” in which she has been recognized as one of the “Top 250 Women in IP,” and Euromoney’s Guide to the Leading Women in Business Law (2014-2021); she was also short-listed for “Best in Patent” by Euromoney in 2016. She is a 14-year member and Senior Life Fellow of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the qualifications for which require a minimum of 20 first-chair jury trials to verdict and peer election.

Some of Mary-Olga’s most recent verdicts (all cases tried as first chair since 2011):

• Defense verdict in favor of an energy hedge fund accused of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and gross negligence based on that $454 million fund’s implosion amid market volatility (New York Supreme Court)
• Defense verdict for Microsoft, Inc. on claims that its enterprise software caused the failure of an $85 million online sports-retail business (United States District Court for the Western District of Texas - San Antonio, Texas)
• Defense verdict on behalf of Fortune 500 navigation-device manufacturer Garmin accused of patent infringement (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas - Marshall)
• Defense verdict in a bet-the-company class-action suit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for the nation's largest provider of emergency medicine and ambulance services (United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas-Corpus Christi)
• Defense verdict of non-infringement for the country’s leading consumer products company, Rank Group Limited/Reynolds in lawsuit alleging willful patent infringement (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas – Marshall Division)
• Obtaining multimillion-dollar award of attorneys’ fees for prevailing plaintiff in commercial case (Harris County, Texas)
• Defense verdict of non-infringement for global medical device company (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas – Tyler Division)
• Award of $537 million and assets valued in excess of $1 billion in favor of client on alter ego claims in a dispute involving a global family energy company. (Harris County, Texas)

A first-generation American on her mother’s side and a sixth-generation Texan on her father’s side, Mary-Olga received her B.A. from Stephen F. Austin State University and her J.D. from South Texas College of Law in Houston. She was the first person ever to hold the national titles in moot court for both the National Appellate Advocacy Competition (ABA) and the National Moot Court Competition (Association of the Bar of the City of New York/American College of Trial Lawyers).

Concentrations

• Trial and appellate law
• Commercial and complex litigation
• Patent litigation
• Trademark litigation
• Health law
• Trade secret litigation
• Product liability litigation