Sued For Patent Infringement, Trying To Understand My Options

We have a small technology company and have been sued for patent infringement. The accuser is a well known troll who has a patent that is in a space tangential to ours. I have a lawyer who is asking for a $10K retainer and says we should just settle for $20-50K and call it a win.

I have 30 years in the tech sector from engineering to CTO and have a deep knowledge of the technology we are working with, I am not a lawyer.

When reviewing the patent, I have a strong opinion that we do not infringe upon their patent, as I can refute all of their independent claims. I have also refuted each item listed in the claim chart that was part of our summons.

To me the complication is how, legally, you define certain terms in our industry. For example they require "machine-readable set of protocol frame definitions", which I interpret to mean a "definition file" of some sorts that is authored in a meta-language like JSON, YAML, TEXT, or BINARY that describes the format of data, and "source code implemented in a language that compiles to a binary" does not qualify as a "machine-readable set of protocol frame definitions".

And this is the challenge... If you accept my interpretation, his scope is narrow (and in-line with the abstract and description of the invention), if you accept his interpretation (the basis for the suit) then his patent has such a wide scope he could sue a significant portion of the software industry involved in ETL translations.

My lawyer makes it sound like we are phased with paying the troll or a pyrrhic victory that will cost us a lot more legal fees to litigate the patent in court.

So Reddit, what are my options? I hate to pay the guy off, but I also am not looking to waste money on a costly trial for the sake of my own dignity.

Location: Florida, USA