Law360 Publishes Article by Jesse Coleman and Gio Perez on Trade Secret Damages Apportionment

Law360 featured an article by Jesse Coleman and Gio Perez, “Axed Trade Secret Award Cautions Against Bundling Damages.” The piece, published on April 7, 2026, examines a recent Fifth Circuit decision reinforcing the need to properly apportion damages in trade secret misappropriation cases.

The article analyzes Trinseo Europe GmbH v. Kellogg Brown & Root LLC, in which the court affirmed the vacatur of a $75 million jury verdict after finding that the plaintiff’s damages model improperly bundled multiple alleged trade secrets without tying value to those actually proven at trial. The authors outline key lessons for structuring damages models, expert testimony, and verdict forms to withstand post‑trial scrutiny.

As Coleman and Perez explain:

“If a plaintiff instead offers a single, bundled number that assumes every alleged secret was misappropriated, the jury will lack a reasonable, nonspeculative way to award damages limited to the trade secrets that have actually been proven — and any such award would be vulnerable to being vacated.”

The full article is available here.