Illinois

Bartlit Beck is celebrated among peers for forging a template of what many aspire to; the firm’s name is one of the most frequently referenced by maverick litigators who calve off of larger “Big Law” institutions and forge their own shops. One peer declares, “They set the standard for litigation boutiques in the US. Most people setting up litigation shops owe at least some debt to Bartlit Beck, whether they know it or not.” Ironically, the runaway success that the firm has experienced with its business model has caused it to outgrow its “boutique” status; the firm now has more than 40 partners practicing in its offices in Chicago and Denver. “Yes, they’re like a boutique on steroids now,” sums up one peer. “The big difference between them and a boutique is that it’s not ‘eat-what-you-kill’ and it’s not just a ‘one-star’ system. They have the bench depth! They don’t need to take on all the cases to make a lot of money, they can just take the lead on two or three and just do a great job on them. That puts the client more at ease because they feel like they will get more attention.” Clients corroborate this observation. One commends the firm’s “exceptional strategic vision, incredible case management focused on the end goal, and creative and thoughtful legal analysis.” Another states, “Their team of professionals – both lawyers and other team members – is consistently extraordinary at doing hard work exceptionally well in a way that brings out the best of everyone with a highly functional team approach.”

     Few would argue that the firm’s most venerated figure remains Chicago trial icon Phil Beck, who boasts a decades-long series of appearances as lead counsel on precedent-setting cases in a wide variety of forums to his credit. Beck continues to deliver arguments in big cases and, indeed, was recently set to try a case for Gilead before the case settled. “Phil is still ‘the man,’” confirms one peer, elaborating, “but the firm has done great in alleviating the ‘what’s after Phil Beck?’ question. They have groomed powerhouse people from top to bottom.” Rebecca Bacon, another frequent mention in the Chicago office, who enjoys a whopping seventh consecutive appearance as one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation, was retained by FedEx Ground to serve as lead trial counsel in several actions in several states. Sean Gallagher has seen a pronounced spike in activity as of late. He is lead trial counsel for Pratt & Whitney in environmental tort cases involving more than $1 billion in alleged property damage and personal injury claims arising out of the declaration of a “cancer cluster” by the Florida Department of Health in a neighborhood near Pratt & Whitney’s West Palm Beach facility. More than 20 individuals who claim to have cancer as a result of environmental exposures brought personal injury claims, alleging water and soil contamination with radionuclides and other contaminants. Several hundred property owners sued individually and on behalf of a putative class of many thousands of plaintiffs. The first of these cases was otherwise set for trial in January 2022. Gallagher, along with Adam Hoeflich, is also lead counsel for several major institutional investors who collectively lost billions of dollars when the Structured Alpha hedge funds managed by Allianz Global Investors US collapsed in March 2020. The cases filed by the firm clients were settled on confidential terms. Hoeflich serves as national counsel for three DuPont entities in more than 2,000 cases pending across the country related to per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances. In these cases, plaintiffs allege that DuPont engaged in a series of corporate transactions to try to fraudulently transfer assets to avoid paying potential judgments. “I’m seeing more of Bartlit Beck these days and in particular Adam Hoeflich,” testifies a peer. “He’s a very talented guy, worth knowing. I’ve just become really aware of him but he’s been around for years. He does a lot of work for Citadel, who is one of the parties in the Robinhood cases.” Kaspar Stoffelmayr serves as lead and coordinating counsel and as lead trial counsel for Walgreens in all nationwide litigation relating to the distribution and sale of prescription opioids. He acted as lead trial counsel for Walgreens in a seven-week federal jury trial in one of only two such cases to go to a jury verdict. Stoffelmayr is also currently representing Walgreens at trial in Florida state court in a case brought by the Attorney General of Florida, and in federal court in the Northern District of California in a case brought by the City and County of San Francisco. Three other cases were set for trial later in 2022. Stoffelmayr also represents Bayer and Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer in 2018, in thousands of cases pending in courts across the country alleging that Roundup herbicide causes cancer. The firm’s intellectual property prowess has been increasingly on display, and peers are taking notice. “Bartlit Beck is doing more patent litigation! We have a great deal of respect for their IP people.” Scott McBride is lead trial counsel defending Gilead Sciences against patent infringement allegations brought by the Regents of the University of Minnesota relating to Gilead’s sofosbuvir-containing treatments for hepatitis C.

     Based in the firm’s Denver office, newly listed star Sundeep “Rob” Addy (along with former partner Sean Grimsley, who left the firm for an in-house role) were appointed in September 2020 by the Colorado Attorney General as special assistant attorneys general to serve on the team conducting a “patterns and practices” investigation into the Aurora Police and Fire Departments. The Colorado Legislature authorized this investigation in 2020 after a series of high-profile reports of law enforcement misconduct – specifically, a pattern of racially biased policing. Addy is championed by a client who extols, “Rob is an exceptional writer, [a] versatile and creative lawyer, [and is] really great at making sure the whole team brings their strengths. He is also fun to work with and has a great sense of humor.”

Kirkland & Ellis has become an international powerhouse equipped with a diverse breadth of talent and bench strength, often holding high-level appointments in virtually every area of practice it offers. Over the years, the firm has been characterized as “formidable” with “something ‘cool and tough’ about them that you just can’t touch.” The firm’s litigation section has surmounted the market in nearly all practice areas – antitrust, securities, product liability, appeals, intellectual property, white collar and investigations, commercial and bankruptcy. As of late, its product liability, antitrust, and bankruptcy practices have been particularly active with its signature top-tier representation.

     Kirkland is noted for housing leaders in trial law. The marquis of the trial team is DC lawyer Mike Brock, a consistent name on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list since its inception in 2014. He has led the team – equipped with Chicago’s standout partners Leslie Smith and Anne Sidrys – in one of the largest multidistrict litigations, representing the client through numerous bellwether trials, many of which were successful. New York’s Devora Allon and Jay Lefkowitz serve as the go-to team for antitrust cases involving pharmaceutical companies. Peers also serving the pharmaceutical industry have noted their work in the market on behalf of generics. “They are very busy and cornered a subset of the market,” observes a peer who represents brands. Allon and Lefkowitz achieved two wins for Impax Laboratories recently in separate antitrust actions. One concerned a Federal Trade Commission challenge for a pay-for-delay agreement between Impax and Endo, for which the team secured a full dismissal in March 2022. This year, the pair obtained a key settlement in the multidistrict litigation arising from a patent litigation settlement. The win followed a successful summary judgment ruling as to claims brought by the end-payor payments and won remand of the initial order certifying the class. Allon and Lefkowitz have also been handling product liability cases concerning marketing and sales disputes. Lefkowitz also specializes in appellate work. For Teva Pharmaceuticals, the pair prevailed on a second motion to certify a class of direct purchasers after the Third Circuit granted the team’s petition for interlocutory appeal and reversed the district court’s certification.

     New York-based Sandra Goldstein is a leader of the securities bar, known for her “terrific reputation” and “sizeable book of business,” according to a peer in the market. “She has a carousel of securities and Delaware-related litigation on the go,” they add. Another observes, “If you do anything in private equity – anything! – Kirkland is involved somewhere.” She has developed a talented bench dedicated to securities litigation in the New York office.

     Goldstein and Stefan Atkinson have served as lead counsel defending numerous clients against securities class actions over the last year. They handled litigation in major markets for securities, such as Delaware. The pair recently represented 3G Capital, one of the largest shareholders, in a derivative action alleging violations of federal securities laws and breach of fiduciary duty. Goldstein and Atkinson achieved a complete dismissal in both Illinois and Delaware, affirmed on appeal. They combined efforts with Rachel Fritzler in representing Honeywell and certain current and former officers, as well as a Honeywell employee and former officer of Garrett Motion, in two separate securities class actions. The former arose out of the company’s accounting for asbestos-related liabilities, and Fritzler, Goldstein and Atkinson obtained a favorable settlement. In the latter case, representing an employee and officer, the class action alleges violations of Section 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act. After oral argument, the team obtained a full dismissal.

     New York’s Matthew Solum and Aaron Marks are well-regarded partners in the securities and commercial litigation arenas. Solum, regarded as “a great lawyer and a lovely guy,” has been increasingly active on the securities front. As one peer in the market confirms, “We are seeing him everywhere and not just in one specific type of securities case either. He gets M&A work, derivative work, class actions – you name it.” Solum and Yosef Riemer secured a victory on behalf of Bristol Myers Squibb at the Second Circuit, successfully dismissing a securities class action that sought $10 billion in damages. Plaintiffs alleged that Bristol Myers Squibb misled investors about the clinical trial assessing its first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer, Opdivo. The Second Circuit agreed with Riemer and Solum’s arguments and further clarified the use of expert testimony in complaints governed by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

     Another leader representing the financial industry comments, “Aaron Marks is a brilliant lawyer and has phenomenal judgment.” On the complex commercial front, Solum and Marks represented Blackstone and its affiliates in New York and in Italy where they handled an arbitration in Milan. The dispute stemmed from the client’s purchase of an office complex from RCS Media Group, which alleged that Blackstone had engaged in criminally usurious conduct. Acting as plaintiffs, Solum and Marks settled the claims in New York. In Milan, the team obtained an arbitration ruling that it did not engage in misconduct.

     The firm is also a dominant force in bankruptcy, as one leading lawyer put it, “In bankruptcy, it’s Kirkland every day.” A trial lawyer of many disciplines, Michael Slade led the team handling the first major cryptocurrency restructuring in the US, representing Voyager in its efforts to regroup following FTX. After a four-day hybrid confirmation hearing that encompassed cross-examining witnesses live and virtually, Voyager’s proposed “toggle” plan was confirmed, but not without objections from individual creditors and government entities such as the US Department of Justice and New York State, among others. The government has appealed. Slade is a leader in more areas than just bankruptcy. He is recognized in commercial and product liability litigation and also as a Top 100 Trial Lawyer.

A full-service firm with a national – and global – footprint, Loeb & Loeb provides a wide array of legal services through its six offices in the US and two in China. In litigation specifically, the firm has deep ties to the entertainment industry. “It’s really time to take a closer look at Loeb & Loeb,” says one contemporary. “For entertainment litigation, they are really quite dominant. They have some strong connections there, some very high-profile clients.”

     Not surprisingly, much of this is serviced by practitioners in its Los Angeles office. A team of Loeb litigators, led by partner Jim Curry, represents CBS in litigation relating to the popular daytime television program “Judge Judy,” including defending CBS against first-of-their-kind cases involving claims that a sale of a television library should trigger a “buy-out” of the profit participant’s interest. The Loeb team also previously defended CBS against a related case where a former agent and profit participant sought a declaration that Judge Judy’s salary is too high and should not be deducted as a profit participation. Curry and his team won the case on appeal of the granting of summary judgment to CBS.

     LA partners John Gatti and Lauren Fried represent Miramax and its related licensees, including Amazon and Walmart, among others, in a suit brought by a photographer that claimed to own the rights to an iconic photograph of Uma Thurman used in a poster for the movie “Pulp Fiction,” which Miramax produced. After decades of Miramax licensing the image, the photographer claimed for the first time in his 2020 lawsuit that he owned the photograph, that Miramax had no right to exploit the photo in any way, and that Miramax and each of its licensees were liable for copyright infringement. The Loeb team successfully secured an order that the photographer was late in filing any copyright registration, thereby limiting the alleged damages. Gatti and Fried also represent singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman in a copyright-infringement case based on rapper and songwriter Nicki Minaj’s sampling of Chapman’s works without permission. On summary judgment, the district court found triable issues of fact as to whether Minaj could be held liable on Chapman’s distribution claim and set a date for trial. Minaj subsequently agreed to pay Chapman the full amount of damages sought and judgment was entered in the federal court case in Chapman’s favor for nearly half a million dollars.

     Operating from the firm’s New York office, Barry Slotnick and Tal Dickstein represent a group of six music publishers in a copyright-infringement action against the owners and operators of the website Wolfgangs.com, an online collection of recordings of thousands of live concert performances. The collections consisted primarily of audio and audiovisual recordings of concert performances from the 1960s to the 2000s by artists such as the Rolling Stones, The Who and the Grateful Dead. Defendants acquired the concert recordings primarily from the concert promoters and concert venues that recorded the concerts. Defendants converted those recordings to digital format and made them available for streaming or download to subscribers of their websites. The music publishers asserted that defendants’ exploitation of the recordings constituted copyright infringement of more than 200 works to which they owned the copyrights. Dickstein and Slotnick also defended UMG Recordings, PeerMusic and Warner Records, the publishers and record labels for the hit song “You Raise Me Up,” which was initially released by the Irish band Secret Garden in 2001, and then released by the US performing artist Josh Groban in 2003. The plaintiff, an Icelandic songwriter, claims “You Raise Me Up” infringes an Icelandic song titled “Soknudur.”

With offices in Chicago, Washington, DC, and San Francisco, Massey & Gail fashions itself as “a different kind of law firm,” with lawyers covering areas of litigation involving administrative, commercial, antitrust, intellectual property and appeals. An appreciative client raves, “Massey & Gail took over a suit from a former firm, and I wish I had found Massey & Gail first because the difference is night and day in both professionalism and performance. As long as it fell under their area(s) of expertise I would give them all of my legal work.”
     Chicago’s Leonard Gail, a generalist commercial litigator, has kept particularly active with a varied portfolio of litigation matters over the past 12 months. In one such matter, he served as lead counsel to two relators who sued household goods giant Lowe’s under the Illinois False Claims Act, alleging Lowe’s defrauded the State by failing to collect and remit sales tax when Lowe’s sold dishwashers and microwave ovens for which it also provided installation. The parties agreed to bifurcate liability and damages and held a bench trial on liability: whether Lowe’s knowingly avoided its obligation under Illinois sales tax. In March 2021, the Court found for plaintiffs on liability, holding that Lowe’s knowingly avoided paying tax on the sale of installed appliances. The parties currently are litigating damages, which will result in a multimillion-dollar recovery for the State. The precedent-setting liability finding resolved a disputed question of law that has pervaded the industry for years. Jonathan Massey, based in the DC office, is noted for mining a practice dedicated to appellate work. In another tax-related matter, Massey acts as co-counsel to several brand-name “big law” firms representing The Coca-Cola Company in a tax dispute involving approximately $3.3 billion in alleged underpayments for tax years 2007 to 2009.  Coca-Cola has disclosed that the total amount for subsequent tax years could reach $12 billion. Massey also represents approximately 2,300 children injured by lead-contaminated water in Flint, MI.  A court-approved settlement was entered in 2020, and the settlement fund currently includes $600 million from the state of Michigan, $20 million from the city of Flint’s insurance companies, $20 million from McLaren Flint Hospital and $1.2 million from Rowe Professional Services. Anyone who lived, worked, or went to school in Flint from April 25, 2014, to November 16, 2020, and was exposed to contaminated drinking water is eligible to receive money from the settlement. Most of the $641.2 million will go to young children who suffered lead poisoning. 

Polsinelli has grown beyond its Kansas City roots to inhabit various strategic locations throughout the country. The firm’s aggressive expansion over the years has equipped it with breadth and depth in many areas of litigation, while still maintaining its premier reputation as a go-to litigation firm for the healthcare industry.

      Chicago’s Mary Clare Bonaccorsi previously served as Polsinelli’s Cross-Department Litigation Chair, while keeping an active practice mainly focusing on the healthcare industry, routinely leading high-stakes corporate internal investigations for clients in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, her casework often involves false claims act litigation in both state and federal courts throughout the country. Thomas Gemmell and Daniel Reinberg join Bonaccorsi in the Chicago office. Gemmell’s practice mixes IP and business litigation. He leads several industry-specific practices, serving as lead of the unmanned systems and advanced robotics practice and co-lead of both the aviation practice and the transportation and logistics practice. Reinberg like Bonaccorsi concentrates his practice on the healthcare industry.

      John Peterson bridges a geographic and practice divide, practicing in Nashville and Chattanooga as well as Los Angeles, Peterson is a commercial litigator with vast experience in securities as well as real estate, and he is yet another Polsinelli partner devoted to healthcare litigation, an industry essential to Tennessee's economy. New addition to this year’s Litigation Star ranking is Atlanta-based partner Kurt Erskine. His practice’s focus is white collar crime, both investigating and litigating cases against state and federal entities. He is leading a healthcare company through a civil rights investigation conducted by the Department of Justice. Beyond the healthcare industry, Erskine is handling securities and insider trading fraud investigations by the SEC and DOJ, as well as a fraud case filed by the FBI and DOJ. Farah Nicol operates out of the firm’s Raleigh and Los Angeles offices and serves chair of the firm’s litigation department -- the first leader to not be based in Kansas City, the firm’s mainstay. Nicol’s primary focus is on product liability and toxic tort litigation.

     Rounding out the South, Dallas partner Adrienne Frazior debuts this year as a Litigation Star. She leads government investigations with an added expertise in employee benefits. Currently, Frazior defends companies that managed and administered self-funded health benefit plans in a Department of Labor investigation and subsequent litigation. She also defends a company in a matter alleging violations of Missouri Sunshine Laws, initiated by the state’s Attorney General.

     Polsinelli has maintained a commitment to upholding its labor and employment practice. Denise Drake, chair of the labor and employment practice, is among the firm’s leading, Missouri-based litigators. Drake is a leader through and through – leading the practice, the expansion into growing markets, and clients in their disputes. She has been consistently distinguished as a Labor & Employment Star since its inception, maintaining the status with a roster of notable class action disputes. Los Angeles litigator September Rea serves as the firm’s arbitration and dispute resolution vice chair, with Colorado-based Donald Samuels serving alongside her as chair. . Rea leads the California-based lawsuits arising from an investigation into allegations of C-suite misconduct that included abuse, harassment, retaliation and unfair competition. The case has spanned Italy, California, and Texas. Dallas’ Angelo Spinola specializes in handling labor and employment disputes on behalf of clients in the home health industry, particularly hospice and homecare companies. He recently resolved a lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) challenging the company’s alleged practice of not including certain nondiscretionary bonuses in the regular rate when calculating overtime pay. 

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan continues to reign supreme as the ubiquitous litigation juggernaut it set out to be upon its genesis. The firm name’s official subtitle of “Trial lawyers” makes no bones about its agenda, and the firm has fulfilled this boast with what has been observed as typical aplomb. The firm has placed as one of Benchmark’s Top 20 Trial Firms since that list’s inception, and no fewer than four of its attorneys have consistently been recognized in Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America, an enviable percentage. “If you’re in the litigation game, not only do you know Quinn Emanuel but you are seeing them, and chances are good that you’re seeing them a lot. They just perennially acquire talent,” is how one peer sums up the firm’s dominant position, further confirming, “I know I certainly do. If I’m out with fellow litigators, they are sure to come up in conversation – I’m forever going, ‘Ah, I knew you were going to bring them up!’” With offices in New York, DC, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Houston, and in several venues throughout California, the firm’s geographic footprint has grown to further showcase its bench depth. The firm leaves no stone unturned when it comes to litigation services either; nearly every practice area is touched on by its expansive roster of partners, with particular pockets of strength in the areas of bankruptcy, white-collar crime, antitrust, intellectual property and commercial litigation. “Subject-matter expertise is down to each individual – but either way Quinn breeds you to fight in court, period.”

The firm has historically found itself in the national headlines for its role in milestone cases, and this year was no exception. Stephen Swedlow, a Chicago-based partner, led a team that recently obtained judgments against the US government in precedent-setting litigation from July 2020, recovering $3.7 billion for health insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act concerning the “risk corridors” created by the act. This eye-popping sum is even more remarkable considering that it was on a contingency basis. On the strength of this, Swedlow not only makes his debut as a litigation star in this edition of Benchmark, but also wins a coveted position among the Top 100 Trial Lawyers. Another consistent placer on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list, New York’s Michael Carlinsky led long-time client AIG to a February 2022 victory (which also made the news) by getting a policyholder’s claim for $27.5 million worth of coverage tied to a settlement with the State of Texas denied. Carlinsky and his team argued that the policyholder had structured a settlement with the State of Texas for Medicaid fraud in a fashion that was intentionally designed to mask a contract case, which would allow for coverage. Yet another Top 100 Trial Lawyer, Los Angeles’ Bill Price is viewed favorably by several other candidates on this privileged list. “I think the world of him, he’s the best,” offers one peer, summing up the general consensus. Price’s recent client list includes Elon Musk, for whom Price scored in December 2019 in the defamation case brought against him by one of the rescuers of 12 children trapped in a cave in Thailand, after Musk referred to him as “pedo guy” following an online spat. Just weeks later, Price logged another win, in the plaintiff capacity, in an IP case in which he represented the California Institute of Technology in a patent dispute with Apple. Price chalked up a whopping $1.1 billion verdict for his client.

The firm’s bankruptcy practice is viewed by peers in the restructuring capacity as “one of those rare instances where they have actual bankruptcy trial lawyers, as opposed to just corporate or hybrid restructuring people.” This same peer elaborates further on the flinty approach employed by these practitioners, which include Susheel Kirpalani – a near-constant mention: “These are the bomb throwers, the people you think of when you’re going, ‘Who do I call when I need a rabid dog?’”
While the firm is certainly better known for its trial-level work, its appellate work – and particularly that of New York-based luminary Kathleen Sullivan – has also prominently featured in newsworthy matters. In December 2021, Sullivan, along with future stars Rollo Baker and William Adams, scored when they persuaded the Delaware Supreme Court to uphold a trial court decision allowing client Mirae Asset to walk away from a $5.8 billion deal to buy luxury hotels based on the seller’s breach of an “ordinary course” covenant. This decision, delivered via an en banc ruling, upheld what is reported to be only the second decision ever from the Court of Chancery allowing a buyer to back out of a merger.

With a legal footprint spanning over 16 offices in numerous jurisdictions around the country, including New York, Chicago, DC, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and West Palm Beach outfits, Saul Ewing’s litigation team is equipped with an arsenal of diverse practice specializations. Among the most notable and active of the firm’s area specializations are its commercial, higher education, real estate, and white collar practices.

     Among the firm’s most exalted is litigation chair Cathleen Devlin of Saul Ewing’s Philadelphia office, who emphasizes in her practice complex environmental, commercial contract, and business tort litigation. Devlin currently serves alongside environmental civil litigation and appellate chair John Stoviak as lead counsel to Cyprus Amax Minerals Company in environmental litigation against TCI Pacific Communications regarding Cyprus’s pursuit of more than $14 million of recovery from TCI. The matter arises in connection with Cyprus’s environmental investigation and remediation as to arsenic, cadmium, and lead soil contamination allegedly attributable to 20th century zinc smelting operations in Oklahoma. Following Devlin and Stoviak’s obtainment of an alter ego summary judgement ruling entitling Cyprus to CERCLA contribution from TCI and a corresponding award of $14.2 million, a total which covers 45% of associated cleanup costs through 2017, TCI sought appeal of the ruling on the Tenth Circuit and was met with a complete affirmance. TCI currently seeks a Tenth Circuit rehearing.

     On the higher education front, the fount of the firm’s acuity is largely indexable to Joseph O’Dea, Jr. of Chicago; Wilmington, Delaware-based litigation vice chair and co-chair of the higher education practice group James Taylor, Jr.; and, also serving as co-chair of higher education in addition to co-chair of the K-12 schools practice, Chicago’s James Keller. Whereas O’Dea continues in the critical role of counsel for Pennsylvania State University in all litigation regarding the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal, Keller is active in the role of counsel to Pennsylvania College of Technology (PCT) in a bellwether class action filed against PCT wherein plaintiffs seek partial tuition reimbursement as a result of the transition to online learning following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The matter will address novel and salient questions as to the contractual obligations of an institution to its students and the legal approximations of remote education’s quality.

     Also hailing from the firm’s Chicago office, commercial litigator Amy Kline directs her focus on the representation of insurance and reinsurance companies, as well as institutions of higher education. Joined by Boston partner Joseph Lipchitz, Kline currently represents Merck & Co. in litigation filed against Bayer AG regarding Merck’s sale of the Dr. Scholl’s line of products to Bayer under a stock and asset purchase agreement (SAPA). The matter arises following Bayer’s refusal to honor the terms of the SAPA, which stipulate that certain product-related claims in connection with currently unfolding and highly public talcum powder liability actions would transition to Bayer’s purview in 2021 after a specified period during which they remained Merck’s responsibility. Following an attempt on Bayer’s part to dispel itself of liability, Merck retained the firm and filed suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

     At the firm’s Baltimore office, partners Jason St. John and Charles Monk, II are currently defending the Maryland State Board of Education against a landmark government and education class action brought by parents of City of Baltimore schoolchildren in an attempt to revive a suit dating back to the 1990s, regarding claims that the state’s allegedly inadequate levels of funding and vital resources constitute a violation under Article VIII of the State Constitution.

     In Boston, complex commercial litigators Lipchitz and Jeffrey Robbins recently defended Muslim civil rights advocate Lori Saroya in a defamation suit filed against Saroya by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), of which she previously served as a member of the national board, in connection with Saroya’s censuring of CAIR’s purported conduct of negligence as to sexual harassment and discrimination. Lipchitz and Robbins were successful in obtaining CAIR’s unconditional withdrawal with prejudice from the suit following two hearings before a US Magistrate and another before the US District Court Judge presiding over the matter.

A global business firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been steadily increasing its litigation profile in both market share and in a literal headcount and geographic footprint sense. “I would have no hesitation sending anyone to Willkie,” insists a peer. “They are a firm on the rise.” While its core strength in the US has historically been New York – and remains so – the firm has branched out and developed other domestic locations as well. It opened a Chicago office in 2020, officially planting its flag on the Midwest legal landscape, continued developing its DC resources, and has doubled down on its expansion in California, where it now has three offices (Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.) “The biggest disrupter in the LA market recently has been Willkie Farr,” quips a peer in an observation on the firm’s build-out of that office. “I feel like anything that’s not nailed down, they’re trying to take!”

Willkie’s bet on California has paid dividends; the firm has attracted star partners in each office. In Los Angeles, the office’s managing partner Alex Weingarten is a peer favorite. “Alex was at Venable before moving to Willkie,” states a peer, who goes on to confide, “I was trying to get him to come here! He’s a terrific litigator who has some high-profile entertainment clients. [He’s] Unbelievable!” Weingarten for nearly a decade has represented the co-trustee of a family trust who was embroiled in a long-running, multi-generational family dispute concerning who was behind a conspiracy to steal tens of millions from the trust, built by the Chinese immigrant grandparents through a successful real estate venture. After reaching a settlement in 2018, in which the trustee’s mother essentially agreed to forfeit $30 million due to the likelihood of her being behind the conspiracy, the mother then changed her mind and spent four years attempting to void the settlement. In March 2022, Weingarten triumphed in convincing the California Court of Appeal to enforce the settlement. A peer also notes that multi-faceted commercial litigator Simona Agnolucci “left [revered San Francisco litigation boutique] Keker [Van Nest & Peters] to open Willkie’s San Francisco office. She’s a player.” Working on a team with DC’s Michael Gottlieb and Mark Stancil, Agnolucci secured a decisive victory in the US District Court for the District of South Carolina in obtaining a dismissal of nationwide class claims brought against Navy Federal Credit Union, a federally chartered, member-owned, not-for-profit credit union serving the military, veterans, and their families. A federal class action was first filed in the Southern District of California, alleging on behalf of a nationwide class that Navy Federal breached its agreement with certain of its customers by charging debit card users a small fee for certain overseas transactions. After Willkie filed Navy Federal’s motion to dismiss, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed her complaint. Almost in parallel, another nearly identical lawsuit was filed by different plaintiffs in the District of South Carolina, which met with a similar voluntary dismissal. Willkie’s hot streak in recruiting continues; this past year the firm lured Koren “Kori” Bell, a celebrated white-collar crime-focused partner formerly with local boutique Larson, to its bench. A peer also insists, “Let’s talk about [San Francisco-based IP-focused future star] Barrington Dyer – he’s great!”

Willkie’s insurance practice has made a substantial rise as well. A peer advises, “Look into Christopher St. Jeanos – ask around about him! He’s a stand-up lawyer, and I think he’s only in his mid-40s! My litmus test when it comes to dealing with counsel is ‘Are you just a paper tiger?’ And Chris is not – he’s the real deal.” Another testifies that St. Jeanos is “doing AIG work and all the Marsh work, and he is at the upper echelon in terms of quality.” St. Jeanos and long-time insurance star Mitchell Auslander (both based in the New York office) obtained a significant victory for AIG in litigation concerning McKesson, one of the leading distributors of prescription opioids in the US and a target of the sweeping litigation against all entities in the chain alleged to have contributed to the national epidemic. McKesson, which recently agreed to contribute $7.4 billion to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits brought by government bodies across the country, sought coverage from AIG for its defense costs, judgments, and settlements incurred in the opioid lawsuits. At issue in the litigation are AIG policies with $375 million in total policy limits. The Willkie duo scored when the Northern District of California held, for the first time, that a wholesale drug distributor’s conduct in distributing opioids was not an “accident,” and therefore not covered under commercial general liability policies issued by AIG. The same pair also logged victory for this same client in similar claims brought by Purdue Pharma. 

New York-based securities partners Todd Cosenza and Tariq Mundiya are representing Curo in a shareholder-derivative suit regarding the company’s plans to transition Canadian borrowers from one type of loan to another. The derivative litigation is follow-on litigation from a 10b-5 case in the District of Kansas that has settled. Individually, Cosenza recently achieved a significant win, obtaining dismissal of a derivative action against the independent directors of Wells Fargo in a case arising out of alleged failures by Wells Fargo and its board to comply with several consent orders issued by banking and other federal regulators in the aftermath of the financial services company’s high-profile 2016 customer account fraud. Mundiya defended Resideo Technologies against claims arising from Honeywell’s 2018 spin-off of Resideo and the earnings guidance provided in 2019, upon which Resideo’s stock price fell precipitously, leading to class-action litigation in Minnesota and derivative litigation in Delaware. “Tariq is very good on the M&A side of things,” confirms a peer.

The chairman of the Chicago office, Craig Martin, joined Willkie in 2020 from Jenner & Block and has continued to build out the firm’s Windy City office. Martin’s practice encompasses a wide spectrum of commercial litigation, quasi-white-collar work, intellectual property, and pro bono human rights issues. “Craig brought over a team from Jenner with him to Willkie and he’s been very successful.”