Natalie Arbaugh is a Principal in the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson and the firm’s leader of the EMPOWER Women’s Initiative. Ms. Arbaugh is a trial lawyer with a broad commercial and intellectual property practice. She leads and tries commercial and business cases for both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of industries in state and federal courts throughout the country, with an emphasis on contracts, business torts, trade-secret theft, trademark/anti-counterfeiting litigation, qui tam/whistleblower litigation, employment litigation and noncompete counseling.
Having tried nearly 30 cases as lead counsel or second chair, Ms. Arbaugh has more trial experience in substantial cases than most of her peers, including on high-profile matters. And she is no stranger to complex litigation. Before she reached the age of 40, Ms. Arbaugh had managed and tried one of the largest and most complex fraud cases in Texas history as co-lead counsel. That effort, which was the culmination of nearly 8 years of effort, the review of millions of pages of documents and over 150 depositions, resulted in the largest Medicaid fraud settlement in Texas. The record-breaking case was the subject of extensive news coverage in a variety of U.S. and international media outlets, and resulted in Fish being named a Litigation Department of the Year finalist by Texas Lawyer magazine.
The depth of Ms. Arbaugh’s experience also led to her being asked to become a member of the trial team for the widely publicized insider trading case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against billionaire entrepreneur and long-time Fish client, Mark Cuban. The jury cleared Mr. Cuban of any wrongdoing following a three-week trial in Dallas federal court.
Ms. Arbaugh has a passion for top-notch client service, creative problem solving and courtroom excellence. She recognizes that her clients need and deserve well-thought out strategic advice to guide them toward the best solutions for their business problems, but they also need an attorney who is responsive and makes them a priority, twenty-four/seven. These passions have caused Ms. Arbaugh to be repeatedly recognized by surveys designed to identify exceptional legal talent. Most recently, Natalie was chosen as a “Winning Woman” by Texas Lawyer (2014) and as one of the Best Lawyers in Dallas by D Magazine (2014). Before reaching the age of 40, Natalie was chosen six times to appear on the Texas “Rising Stars” list by Texas Monthly Magazine, recognizing top and up-and-coming attorneys in Texas (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011).
Following law school, Ms. Arbaugh served as a law clerk to the Honorable Deborah Hankinson of the Texas Supreme Court. As an associate at Fish & Richardson, Ms. Arbaugh served as a “Lawyer on Loan” to the Dallas County District Attorney’s office where she prosecuted a variety of misdemeanor cases.
Ms. Arbaugh and her husband Jesse, a dentist, have been married for ten years. They have one daughter who is nine years old and enjoys running the household. In her free time, Ms. Arbaugh enjoys college football, yoga and taking part in Attorneys Serving the Community, an organization that brings together women lawyers to combine their resources and talents to support local nonprofit organizations whose programs benefit women, children, and families.
