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Stephanie's practice focuses primarily on patent litigation. She has experience handling all phases of patent litigation, including written discovery and document production, fact and expert witness depositions, Markman briefing and hearings, dispositive motion briefing and hearings, trials, appeals, and mediation/settlement. Stephanie has represented both patent owners and accused infringers in patent infringement suits in federal district court and before the International Trade Commission. She also has experience litigating patent-related appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and representing clients in patent validity trials before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.. Stephanie has represented clients in a wide variety of technological fields, including wired and wireless networking, wireless telecommunication networks, power-over-ethernet, e-commerce systems, internet marketing, oil and gas tools and systems, heavy machinery, and computer systems (including software and hardware).. In addition to her patent litigation experience, Stephanie has tried seven jury trials to verdict as a Deputy Prosecutor for the City of Austin as part of the firm's attorney loan program. Before attending law school, Stephanie worked as an engineer for a semiconductor equipment manufacturer. Following law school, she served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Timothy B. Dyk of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Mr. Smits has over 20 years of experience in intellectual property litigation and transactional practice, involving patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyright and other technology law related issues. Over the course of his career, he practiced in Los Angeles with Robbins, Berliner & Carson, which became the Intellectual Property Section of Fulbright & Jaworski in LA, before returning to Austin in 1998, initially joining the IP Section of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. Following his time at Akin, Gump, Mr. Smits worked at several start-up companies doing both legal and technical work before joining National Instruments in 2010, where to this day he is the head of their IP section as Senior IP Counsel at NI. During his stay at NI, the IP litigation and transactional practices have made major improvements in efficiency, cost savings and performance. Mr. Smits started his career as a product engineer with Texas Instruments in Dallas, first earning a BSEE from his home state's Michigan State University, along with an MBA in Engineering Management during his time at TI, before moving to Austin to secure his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. He is licensed with the State Bar of Texas and the United States Patent Bar. Away from work, he enjoys travel, languages, reading, sports, gambling, craft beer, and supporting animal-related causes, both personally and through various charities.