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A proven first-chair trial lawyer, Mo Lovett is a fierce advocate for a wide range of national and global clients in bet-the-company litigation. When reputations are on the line or billions of dollars are at stake, clients turn to Mo 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 recent 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 Grammy winning performers, and acting as lead trial counsel for the target defendant in a 2,000-plaintiff Texas state court case arising from an explosion in Houston.
Mo Lovett has been a trial lawyer for nearly 30 years, and she’s just getting started. The courtroom is her “happy place.” A tech industry GC offers this: “As unstoppable and ferocious as Mary-Olga Lovett is in a courtroom, what truly separates her above the rest is the love, loyalty, empathy, and attention to detail she showers on her clients at every stage of a complex dispute.” And Plaintiff’s lawyer ex-Marine and opponent, the late Paul Waldner once said about her, “She fights like hell, but she fights fair.”
A first-generation American on her mother’s side and a sixth-generation Texan on her father’s, Mo is proud to be the first lawyer in her family. She received her B.A. from Stephen F. Austin State University (’90, Political Science) and her J.D. from South Texas College of Law, as it was then called. The 2021 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award, Mo recognizes her alma mater as the place where her dreams as a young law student were nurtured and developed and credits the skills she developed there with making her dominant in courtrooms across the country. She also was recently at a global law firm for nearly 18 years; when she departed there in July 2023, she was the Senior Vice President and ranking woman in a Firm of 2650 lawyers with 5,000 employees in 47 offices around the world. Mo joined King & Spalding in July, 2023, and is so proud to have been here to see King & Spalding named 2023 American Lawyer “Law Firm of the Year.” On February 21, 2024, the American Lawyer described Mo’s move from her prior firm to King & Spalding as “one of the top 25 lateral moves of the year.” She is in awe of her Firm.
From small town to big city, Mo has nearly 30 years of experience, having tried more than 50 cases with more than $100 billion at stake. Licensed in Texas and New York, Mo’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 all over the country in both state and federal courts. She represented Lady A (formerly known as Lady Antebellum) in the fight for their name. She represented JP Morgan Chase when it was accused, nationwide, of discriminating against Black customers. She successfully defended Microsoft, Inc. in a $ 43 billion trademark infringement matter. She successfully defended a$454 million hedge fund in New York State Court (called the “Supreme Court” there, y’all.) She also was hired by bp to be their lead trial counsel in a case in Cameron Parrsh, Louisiana with $50 billion in exposure – bp (formerly British Petroleum, like Mo was formerly Mary-Olga) was being sued by the State of Louisiana and 42 of its parishes for “shrinking the State of Louisiana.” She also successfully represented R.J. Reynolds against the State of Texas in a 2019-2021 war in the Eastern District of Texas which was a blatant attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to re-trade the landmark 1998 Texas Tobacco Settlement. She has been lead counsel in more than 75 patent cases in the Eastern District of Texas and has successfully tried many patent cases there on both sides of the docket, beginning in 2010. From 2019 to 2023, she represented Mattel, Inc. and Fisher-Price Inc. as co-lead counsel in cases related to alleged infant deaths in the Rock ‘n’ Play Sleeper.
Named a “Top Mentor” by the Texas Lawyer in 2020, Mo is passionate about placing women and diverse lawyers in first-chair roles, particularly in high-profile cases, and builds diverse teams to litigate every case she handles. She respectfully asks that you consider the words of one of her mentees, who now has children headed for college, for heaven’s sake: “Mo is one of the greatest attorneys I’ve ever known, but more importantly, she’s one of the greatest people I’ve ever known. She is a fiercely dedicated advocate whose clients are in the absolute best of hands. Mo has shaped so many legal careers, but also lives, including mine. I will be forever grateful for her role in making me a better lawyer and a better judge.”
Mo continues to support “Putting the ‘I’ in Imposter Syndrome” (a phrase which she is trademarking), and in 2020, The Houston Chronicle called her “the Houston attorney pushing to put more women in the courtroom.” Chambers USA ranks Mo as a Band 1 Trial Lawyer. Mo is currently listed as one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Houston and one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Texas by Super Lawyers Magazine/Texas Monthly for multiple years. She has also been recognized as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Texas and received the “Best in Patent” award from Euromoney’s Guide to Women in Business Law in 2017. She is a 17-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. She has been listed in the Legal 500 in multiple years and is listed this year in the LawDragon 500 in four separate categories: IP (Patent and Trademark), Commercial Litigation, Product Liability, and Class Actions.
While at South Texas College of Law, Mo became the first person in history to hold the titles of Champion at both the National Moot Court Competition (New York City Bar Association), (’93-’94) and the ABA’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition (’93). To the best of her knowledge, no one from any law school has done that since.
As a practicing Greek Orthodox Christian, Mo does her best to live her life by the first four Gospels of the New Testament, although she loves and respects her friends of ALL religions and those who are atheist or agnostic. As a trial lawyer, she lives her life according to the Rules of Ethics and the Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution. She also broke her ankle in spinning class (total klutz) and is still looking for her “sport.” Best of all, she met her amazing, wonderful husband at South Texas College of Law (as it was then called) in 1990. They have three sons, two of whom are very fancy Ivy Leaguers and one of whom went to A&M. Neither her mother nor her children are remotely impressed by her.
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