WilmerHale is a leading, full-service international law firm with 1,000 lawyers located throughout 13 offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Our lawyers work at the intersection of government, technology and business, and we remain committed to our guiding principles of:
Litigation & Trial:
Our lawyers have played an integral role in many of the most significant cases across the globe over the past several years, including internal and governmental investigations; patent, copyright and trademark cases; regulatory, government and public policy disputes; securities class action lawsuits; and federal and state appellate cases. Clients rely on our strong understanding of their industries and business goals, pragmatic and clear advice—even in the midst of complicated issues, complex legal and regulatory regimes, and high-stakes decisions—and ability to deliver practical solutions to real-world problems. Our cases and achievements cut across the litigation spectrum, and we have experience across industries, including aviation; bankruptcy and commercial; communications; defense and national security; government contracts; energy, environment and natural resources; financial institutions; labor and employment; technology; and trade.
WilmerHale’s elite lineup of intensely smart, battle-tested litigators can face down any adversary in the courtroom and win. We combine a mastery of proven trial techniques with the intellectual depth to tackle the most novel and complex legal challenges. Because we draw from a deep pool of talent across multiple regions and disciplines, we can handle cases of any scope or subject matter, in any jurisdiction. In trial after landmark trial, our gift for strategy, and for drawing cogent themes and narratives from even the most impenetrable facts and points of law have won us countless victories and earned us the respect of judges, juries, clients and competitors. In trial after landmark trial, our gift for strategy and our ability to draw cogent themes and narratives from even the most impenetrable sets of facts and points of law have won us the respect of judges, juries, clients and competitors across the United States and internationally.
Related Solutions:
Updated Sep 2023
Who We Are: Founded in October 2018, Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP (RJLF) boldly entered the market as a trial boutique with a national reach and an ambition to create a new standard for litigation firms. Focusing on high-stakes commercial litigation, intellectual property, and white collar disputes, with offices in Silicon Valley, New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Austin, the majority women-owned trial firm made national headlines for breaking away from many law firm traditions, including eschewing the billable hour in favor of arrangements that align client interests and reward efficiency. RJLF also eliminated two other standard law firm features – the partnership track and lockstep compensation – in favor of systems that encourage attorneys to advance as quickly as their skills allow. The firm is committed to attracting and retaining the most elite talent in the legal industry and pays above market.
In another departure from industry norms, RJLF is truly diverse. More than half of the firm’s lawyers are women, half of the firm’s partners are women, and 30% of the firm’s lawyers are ethnically and/or LGBTQ+ diverse. Law360’s 2022 Glass Ceiling Report: Women in Law features RJLF among the top three law firm “Ceiling Smashers” for having the highest representation of women equity partners for a U.S. firm of its size. RJLF also ranked among the top most gender diverse U.S. firms of its size, according to percentage of female attorneys. RJLF was named a “Top Trial Boutique” and awarded “Silicon Valley Firm of the Year” for three consecutive years by Benchmark Litigation and recognized as an “Elite Boutique” by The National Law Journal.
Elite Talent Wins Cases: RJLF’s break from industry traditions obviously resonated with the market, as the firm’s size quickly expanded with marquee talent from several esteemed “Big Law” firms such as Finnegan Henderson; Hughes, Hubbard & Reed; Allen & Overy; Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius; and White & Case, among many others. Our attorneys are from the most prestigious clerkships, including the Supreme Court, the D.C. Circuit, the Federal Circuit, the 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 11th Circuits, and District Courts around the country, as well as prestigious law schools such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, NYU, and others. The firm’s lawyers have undergraduate and advanced technical degrees in diverse fields including electrical engineering, physics, computer science, computer networks, biotechnology, and zoology. RJLF’s lawyers have also been recognized among the most accomplished trial lawyers by The American College of Trial Lawyers, Chambers USA, The Legal 500, The National Law Journal, Managing IP, and IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners, among many others.
Recent Achievements: Punching well above its weight, RJLF often goes toe-to-toe with some of the largest law firms in the world, including Skadden Arps, Morrison & Foerster, Gibson Dunn, and Baker Hostetler, among others. The firm proved its trial prowess when it served as lead counsel for Densify in a high-profile patent dispute against global tech giant VMware. After a nine-day trial, jurors awarded Densify $236 million in damages finding that VMware willfully infringed two Densify virtualization technology patents. The firm’s verdict on behalf of Densify was recognized in The National Law Journal’s 2021 “Verdicts Hall of Fame” (7th largest verdict in past five years).
RJLF also secured an $84 million willful patent infringement verdict on behalf of Cirba, (d/b/a Densify) against VMware. Following a five-day jury trial and after only two hours of deliberation, the jurors decided VMware had willfully infringed Cirba’s patent that covers cutting-edge virtualization technology. This was the second time a jury determined that VMware committed willful infringement.
In an ultra rare price-fixing trial against the Department of Justice (DOJ), the RJLF trial team secured a complete defense verdict after two mistrials. The case stemmed from a high-profile grand jury indictment by the DOJ that charged 10 executives, including RJLF client Roger Austin, a former Vice President of Pilgrim’s Pride, alleging a price-fixing scheme in the $28 billion-per-year broiler chicken industry. The trial win earned the team Global Competition Review’s 2023 Behavioural Matter of the Year (Americas).
RJLF also secured a precedent-setting victory on behalf of the California Restaurant Association in the “gas ban on stoves” case against the City of Berkeley. The Ninth Circuit unanimously reversed the District Court’s ruling and held that Berkeley’s ban on natural gas hookups is preempted by federal law and therefore invalid.
Pro Bono: RJLF is deeply committed to public interest litigation. We understand that our privilege of being trial lawyers naturally involves representing those in need, whether it’s high-profile impact litigation or a person who will be evicted from an apartment. We also collaborate and work side-by-side with our clients to develop targeted pro bono and community service programs. Our pro bono activities include handling cases involving civil rights, immigration, prison abuse, indigent defense, homelessness, and veterans’ issues, among others.
Updated Sep 2023
Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler is an elite boutique with twenty five attorneys, six of whom are ranked by Benchmark Litigation as Litigation Stars, and two of whom are ranked as Rising Stars.
Small by design, the firm was founded in 2009 with a singular end in mind: to produce superior results for its clients in an open and modern manner. We represent clients in the full spectrum of employment matters; criminal, regulatory and internal investigations; and commercial litigation and arbitration.
Employment: HSW has a first-tier national employment practice, and is best known for representing individual founders, partners, C-Suite executives, top producers, and practice leaders. In addition, the firm has a meaningful roster of company clients. Our practice includes litigation and arbitration, negotiation of employment agreements and separations, discreetly handling internal investigations, co-founder disputes, restrictive covenant disputes, and employment counseling. HSW is also known for its high-profile successes in FINRA arbitrations, having secured two of the six largest-ever FINRA awards. We advise clients on hundreds of millions of dollars of agreements, separations and disputes annually, and represent clients across a broad range of industries, including financial services, technology, real estate, media, health, travel, fashion, law, and entertainment.
White Collar: HSW’s White Collar department defends individuals and companies charged in sophisticated federal criminal, state and other governmental and internal investigations, typically involving financial crimes, public corruption or national security. We represent clients in cases and investigations brought by U.S. Attorney’s offices, the SEC, the US Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve, and state and local prosecutors, among other agencies. These matters span a wide range of allegations, including insider trading, criminal antitrust, public corruption, crypto and NFTs related conduct, asset forfeiture, and other investigations. Because of our firm’s elite Employment Practice, we also specialize in representing senior executives in connection with internal, regulatory, and criminal investigations stemming from their employment.
Civil Litigation and Arbitration: HSW leverages its proven skill and reputation as a first-seat trial firm to achieve results — through trial or resolution—for plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial litigation and arbitration, including employment matters, founder’s disputes, breach of contract and business torts, securities and intellectual property cases. The firm specializes in matters demanding a high level of financial and commercial know-how. HSW tries cases in state and federal court, and in all major arbitral forums.
Updated Aug 2023
Shearman & Sterling LLP distinguishes itself by harnessing the intellectual strength and deep experience of its lawyers across its extensive global footprint. The firm represents many of the world’s leading corporations, financial institutions, emerging growth companies, governments, and state-owned enterprises. Those clients, in turn, continue to choose Shearman & Sterling for its distinctive ability to leverage the knowledge and judgment of one of the world’s largest and most accomplished cross-border legal teams—a team ideally situated to help clients on their complex business transactions.
Our Litigation Practice: Shearman & Sterling’s Litigation Group is strongly positioned to counsel and protect clients in today’s challenging environment. With attorneys in the United States, Europe, and Asia, our team is ready to assist in any crisis, whether the adversary is a government regulator, a competitor, or a well-funded class action attorney.
Never before have clients faced the array of potential controversies that they do today. Prosecutions and enforcement proceedings relating to alleged business improprieties are at an all-time high. Settlements in securities and antitrust class actions regularly break previous records. What were once mundane commercial disputes have transformed into “scorched earth” battles in which adversaries root through millions of emails and electronic documents.
Such challenging times demand attorneys with the experience to counsel clients through difficult problems, and the fortitude to bring a case to trial if that is the necessary course. Our attorneys are experienced in a wide range of substantive areas, including securities, white collar defense, antitrust, anticorruption/FCPA, M&A litigation, patent litigation, commercial disputes, and arbitration. Equally important, we are trial-ready and trial-tested. Our partners include former prosecutors who have tried dozens of jury trials in United States courts. We are equally strong in the arbitration area, handling numerous contested proceedings every year.
Our attorneys are experienced in a wide range of litigation. The key areas in which we practice include:
Securities Litigation: Aggressive regulators and well-funded class action attorneys have ushered in a new era of high-stakes securities litigation. We handle all such matters, including shareholder class actions, SEC proceedings, corporate governance issues, contested takeovers, and shareholder disputes. Our Securities Litigation Practice draws not only on our litigation attorneys with experience in that area, but also on our top-tier corporate transactional practice, which has been involved in cuttingedge securities issues for many years.
White Collar Defense and Global Investigations: Our white collar team features former federal prosecutors and regulators with extensive experience representing companies, boards of directors, and individuals in internal investigations, civil and criminal enforcement proceedings, and at trial. Recent experience includes major investigations concerning price-fixing, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, insider trading, and other financial fraud.
Antitrust Litigation: We represent clients across a wide range of industries and counsel them on issues involving all aspects of antitrust and competition law. In the US, we regularly represent clients in civil and criminal matters relating to Sherman Act Section 1 price-fixing, group boycott and market allocation claims; Sherman Act Section 2 monopolization claims; claims arising under state antitrust and unfair competition laws; and merger cases. Similarly, in Europe, we have counseled and represented a wide range of clients in relation to cartels, cooperation agreements, dominance cases, mergers, and state aid in front of the European Commission and national competition authorities.
M&A Litigation: Clients rely on Shearman & Sterling to provide a one-stop solution for the most complex M&A transactions, the associated due diligence, as well as any litigation that may ultimately arise. Our litigators work closely with our transactional M&A attorneys and are often involved at the earliest stages of the transaction to provide advice and guidance throughout the process.Our M&A litigators represent corporations, investment banks, boards of directors, special committees, and other major players involved in highstakes transactional litigation.
Complex Commercial Litigation: We have represented corporations, partnerships, joint ventures, and other entities in a variety of business-related disputes relating to breach of contract, fraud, professional malpractice, business torts, and insurance and reinsurance matters.
Intellectual Property Litigation: Our intellectual property litigation practice offers a full range of legal services relating to the defense, enforcement and commercial exploitation of intellectual property assets. Our services include litigation and dispute resolution in district courts, at the ITC and before arbitral panels; inter partes and ex parte validity proceedings before the USPTO; and strategic counseling regarding litigation and licensing
Arbitration: Our attorneys handle both domestic and international arbitrations. The International Arbitration Group, centered in Paris, has particular experience in international arbitrations in the areas of investment, construction, energy, business combinations, intellectual property, and general commercial disputes. We have represented parties in arbitrations under the rules of all of the major worldwide arbitration organizations.
Practice Areas:
Office Locations:
Abu Dhabi • Austin • Beijing • Brussels • Dallas • Dubai • Frankfurt • Hong Kong • Houston • London, Menlo Park • Milan • New York • Paris • Rome • San Francisco • São Paulo • Saudi Arabia* • Shanghai • Singapore • Tokyo • Toronto • Washington, DC
*Dr. Sultan Almasoud & Partners in association with Shearman & Sterling LLP
Updated Sep 2023