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Recommended
Highly Recommended
A&O Shearman is the newly combined entity composed of US-based Shearman & Sterling and UK-headquartered Allen & Overy, both of which were individually global powerhouses even prior to the merger, giving the new arrangement a massive global footprint. Within the States, the firm is called upon most often for its experience and acumen with matters of the securities and white-collar and enforcement variety and is quickly developing a leading profile in the antitrust space as well. A&O Shearman’s domestic operations showcase litigation star power in its offices in New York, DC and increasingly Texas.
New York’s Adam Hakki has long been a perennial peer favorite and remains one, with glowing reviews offered on a unanimous basis. Hakki’s practice is largely focused on, but not limited to, the securities, antitrust and governance fields, with experience in both the criminal and civil capacities. “Adam is very, very good, especially for the underwriters,” testifies a peer. Another contemporary remarks, “Adam just seems to be in everything, and is very involved all the time. He doesn’t just pop in and out on a surface level, he gets in the trenches.” Hakki secured a complete victory on behalf of Barclays in a class action litigation arising out of the mining operations of Brazilian mining giant Vale’s “Iron Quadrangle,” which has one of the largest concentrations of iron ore deposits in the world. The plaintiffs, Brazilian homeowners and municipalities, alleged that US banks, including Barclays were strictly liable for various environmental damage caused by Vale’s mining activity by providing over $17 billion in financing to Vale despite their alleged awareness of the environmental risks. The complaints exclusively brought claims arising pursuant to Brazilian law. In September 2024, the Southern District of New York granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint on forum non conveniens grounds, concluding that these cases must be litigated in Brazil. Hakki, along with
Agnès Dunogué and Lyle Roberts, obtained a significant victory on behalf of PayPal Holdings in a putative securities class action alleging that PayPal made material misstatements and omissions related to a metric the company uses to track net increases to the number of active PayPal accounts, which, through incentive campaigns, allegedly gave rise to fraud and led to the creation of illegitimate accounts, causing the company’s stock to trade at artificially inflated prices. In January 2025, the court dismissed all of the claims. “Agnes is terrific, I see her a lot,” confirms a peer. Hakki, along with Richard Schwed and DC-based star Todd Stenerson, also represented PayPal in an antitrust capacity in a case in which plaintiffs allege that PayPal uses illegally restrictive merchant contracts that insulate its high transaction fees from competition and inflate online retail prices for consumers. “Todd is a fantastic antitrust lawyer,” declares one peer of Stenerson’s. “He’s creative and he's a trial lawyer! You don’t always have trial lawyers in antitrust cases – so many of them
settle!” White-collar-focused John Nathanson led a team that represented crypto exchange KuCoin in a DoJ criminal indictment and CFTC and NYAG civil enforcement matters, all of which claim that the client and its two China-based founders failed to implement anti-money laundering protocols and thus allowing suspicious transactions associated with substantial sums to flow through its trading platform. A team composed of Hakki, Dunogué and
Thad Behrens obtained a significant victory representing the underwriters of seven note offerings for Norfolk Southern. The plaintiffs alleged that the offering materials for these note offerings failed to disclose alleged material facts and trends related to safety risks that eventually materialized with train derailments in February and March 2023, after which the prices of these dropped significantly. In July 2024, that defendants obtained a partial motion to dismiss. Behrens, based in Texas, is called “just a brilliant lawyer” by a peer, who testifies, “and he can try anything. He is building out that [A&O] office in Dallas.”
Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider
With offices in Hartford, New York, and Washington, DC, Axinn has established itself as a formidable force in high-stakes litigation, particularly in the areas of patent disputes, antitrust, and complex commercial matters.
In Hartford, Matthew Becker has been at the forefront of one of the most closely watched pharmaceutical patent disputes in recent years. Representing Norwich Pharmaceuticals in its challenge against Salix Pharmaceuticals over the blockbuster drug Xifaxan, Becker navigated a case involving 26 patents and more than 460 claims. His team secured a mixed but strategic ruling, with the Federal Circuit ultimately affirming key victories in April 2024 and subsequent appeals denied. Fellow Hartford partner Ted Mathias has also steered Norwich through a decade-long dispute with global pharmaceutical leaders over baloxavir marboxil, an antiviral treatment for influenza. The outcome of this litigation carries broad implications for the flu-treatment market. In Washington, DC, Aziz Burgy secured a decisive win for Cosette Pharmaceuticals in litigation over Firvanq, a treatment for serious bacterial infections. His team achieved a favorable consent judgment covering six patents in Delaware and negotiated a settlement in New Jersey litigation. Meanwhile in New York, Denise Plunkett, head of Axinn’s litigation group, leads the firm’s antitrust practice. She is guiding Tyson Foods through billion-dollar class actions alleging price-fixing in the poultry and pork industries, co-defended major real estate entities in commission-fixing litigation and continues to defend Google in multidistrict AdTech litigation with Sherman Act and state law claims brought by leading publishers.
With 16 offices (15 throughout the US and one in Shanghai, China,) the practitioners of Blank Rome are revered most notably for their activity in the insurance recovery space. The crown jewel of the firm, the insurance team takes on cutting-edge matters on behalf of leading corporations and institutions, distinguishing itself from its peers by providing counsel exclusively to policyholders. Members of the insurance group are acclaimed by clients for the laudable breadth of their expertise in, among other matters, complex insurance litigation and disputes arising from manuscript policies, and are additionally recognized as “responsive and providing sound advice.” Clients go on to praise Blank Rome’s insurance specialists for being “abreast of the latest commercial developments.” While policyholder-side insurance work may be what the firm is most celebrated for, it is making strides in other areas as well;
Anthony Haller, a labor and employment litigator in the Philadelphia office, is cheered by a client as “an astute listener who provides thoughtful and thorough counsel.” Also based in Philadelphia, general commercial trial lawyer
Andrew Fletcher is praised by a client as “very strategic, detail-oriented, [who] can work through a complicated legal and factual matter quickly and efficiently, [while providing] business-oriented legal advice.” A Keystone State peer insists, “Look closer at Blank Rome, especially in Philly – they are great! They don’t just do insurance!”
Insurance DC-based co-chair James Murray garners praise for the deep insurance knowledge that he makes available to leaders in the corporate space, government entities, and religious institutions, among others, in their most sensitive and critical matters, often pertaining to sexual abuse liability and COVID-related coverage claims. Murray delivered a critical argument that led to a milestone win in September 2025 for Catholic diocese when the Supreme Court of the State of New York reached a favorable decision that doubles the amount of coverage available under particular policies that the London market sold to Catholic dioceses in the 1970s. Separately, Murray has served as the court-appointed Special Insurance Counsel to the debtor in the long-running Diocese of Rochester bankruptcy, related to its ongoing defense of decades long sex abuse claims. After six years, Murray helped secure nearly $200 million in coverage for the client to help pay victims. Another DC-based insurance specialist,
John Gibbons led the team that secured a victory for Nooter, a construction engineering and maintenance contractor, in long-running asbestos insurance litigation. The appeals panel affirmed a trial court decision preventing Evanston Insurance from making arguments in Missouri federal court regarding the payment of more than $60 million for asbestos litigation. The Court ruled that Evanston had been contesting the same issue with Nooter in state court for years, thus barring them from pursuing the federal case. Omid Safa, also an insurance specialist based in DC, receives a client testimonial of, “Omid is a great listener and is extremely knowledgeable. He supports us in every way. Whatever we need he is there to help and problem solve.”
Cahill Gordon & Reindel remains a favorite with its stable of loyal long-time clients, which include global cornerstones of the financial industry, as well as embattled individuals who turn to Cahill practitioners for counsel but probably hope to never see the firm (or any litigator) again. One of Cahill’s clients voices appreciation for the “comprehensive advice, with excellent strategic game plan” that the firm has become known for. Cahill is best known for its concentration in the commercial, securities, antitrust and white-collar crime capacities.
Operating from both the firm’s New York flagship as well as its DC location, Brad Bondi has become known as a trusted advocate for white-collar and securities enforcement matters. Bondi leads a team that is representing five large hospital funds as plaintiffs in connection with potential claims against Allianz Global Investors arising from the catastrophic implosion of Allianz’s Structured Alpha investment products. The allegations concern violation of federal securities laws and state common law claims. Total losses claimed exceed $10 billion. Bondi also represents former a KPMG senior partner and executive who is charged, along with four others, in a high-profile case with wire fraud and other offenses relating to the misappropriation by the defendants of confidential inspection information from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. “Over the years I have some to know Brad well and have trusted him on several important projects,” testifies a peer. Bondi is not the only partner in this group earning acclaim; Nola Heller represents a former asset manager who is charged for her alleged role in a $63 million scheme to place fraudulent bonds in discretionary client accounts. In March 2020, Heller served as lead trial counsel in a four-day evidentiary hearing regarding the client’s motion to withdraw her guilty plea. The response is also strong for Anirudh Bansal, a younger partner who is making a swift ascent. “I think Anirudh is first-rate,” opines a peer. “He was a junior to [celebrated former Cahill partner] David Kelley so he got excellent training and then had big shoes to fill, which he did. He stepped up in a big way, and I expect you’ll see more of him.”
In the commercial capacity, Tammy Roy is another younger partner making a rapid rise. A client addresses Roy as “a rock star” who “[has] command of facts without getting lost in details. [She has a] bright future.” Roy has taken the lead on several notable engagements as of late. She represents S&P Global in five related actions alleging that S&P made reckless misrepresentations in connection with the rating of a life settlement securitization. In March 2019, several claims were dismissed but others were allowed to proceed and are now in discovery. Roy also represented UBS in connection with a defamation claim filed by a former UBS employee-turned-whistleblower after UBS publicly refuted the plaintiff’s claims, which were published in a book, regarding the details of his role in a tax-evasion scheme allegedly implicitly endorsed by UBS. UBS also denounced the plaintiff and highlighted lapses of credibility in his story. The parties settled the matter in September 2020. Roy also represented UBS Financial Services in a putative class action filed in the Southern District of New York in October 2020. The named plaintiff sought to represent an alleged class of US citizens living abroad who she claimed had their UBS investment accounts frozen, converted to cash or closed without timely notification. At a pre-motion conference that was filed for in January 2021 in anticipation of UBS’s motion to dismiss, the plaintiff conceded that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction and subsequently filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal of all claims.
Cahill has long serviced Credit Suisse in cases straddling an intersection of securities and antitrust issues. Joel Kurtzberg, a recent addition to Benchmark’s litigation stars, has proven his mettle in having taken the lead on several of these matters. “Get Joel on your radar,” advises a peer. “He has earned it.” The team also includes long-time stars Herb Washer and Elai Katz, the latter known primarily for his antitrust acumen and the former frequently pivoting between securities, antitrust and commercial cases. “Elai is an antitrust secret weapon,” confides a peer. “He comes on like a bit of a street fighter, but you can tell by his writing – and he does a lot of it – that he is really studious and geeks out on this stuff.” Washer is said to be able to “do it all, while all the while being one of the more pleasant and well-spoken litigators you’ll encounter.” Others servicing Credit Suisse in various capacities include Sheila Ramesh and future star Jason Hall, as well as David Januszewski, a seasoned partner who receives near-universal acclaim from peers in the market. “David is fantastic, he should get national recognition,” insists a peer. Beyond his work for Credit Suisse, Januszewski also acts for Deutsche Bank. On behalf of this institution, Januszewski led a team (including Ramesh) that litigated a six-day bench trial in Connecticut seeking to enforce a judgment, secured by the bank in a UK court in 2013, against Alexander Vik and his offshore investment entity Sebastian Holdings, seeking to hold Vik liable personally as the Sebastian Holdings’ alter ego in Connecticut. Januszewski also prevailed on behalf of Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, securing a July 2020 dismissal in the Northern District of Illinois for a suit filed in March of that year in which plaintiffs filed their complaint against the bank, asserting claims for negligence, conversion, and contribution in connection with the transfer of securities alleged to have been funneled among various entities as part of a third-party’s long-running Ponzi scheme.
Founded in May 2025, Dunn Isaacson Rhee is the collective entity forged upon the three DC-based star trial lawyers –
Karen Dunn, Bill Isaacson and Jeannie Rhee – decamping from Paul Weiss to launch their own agenda-driven venture dedicated to thorny, contentious disputes, investigations and crisis management. The firm’s appearance on the scene, described by one observer as “a pretty seismic event” immediately grabbed headlines and generated buzz among the legal community, which continues. “All eyes are on them, you cannot ignore it if you tried. Everyone’s talking about it,” testifies one peer. Additionally, it’s noted that “They are growing, like gangbusters! They went from just recently even getting an office in DC to expanding into New York and even California – they also added [another Paul Weiss alumnus, based in San Francisco]
Meredith Dearborn!” Adding further to its Paul Weiss pedigree, DC’s
Jessica Phillips also joined. One peer quips humorously, “They seem to be adding associates left and right, and I’m paranoid they’re going to come after some of mine next. I’m getting to the point where I’m taking my associates out for lunch regularly and saying, ‘So…please tell me you’re not sending resumes to Dunn Isaacson.” The firm’s inexorable and rapid growth, usually seen at larger and more established firms, has been equally a subject of speculation. “Normally, if I see that kind of growth right away, I say ‘Whoa, Nellie! You’re taking on big bites pretty quickly, there – is that sustainable?’ But these people seem to be doing it the right way. They’ve been around ‘Big Law’ so they’ve learned the pitfalls and the parts of the system that are broken and avoided them. I think they have too much talent and too much rainmaking potential there not to succeed.” Indeed, the firm’s three name partners alone boast a healthy log of newsworthy trial wins – in both the plaintiff and defense capacities – that collectively span the spectrum from commercial to antitrust to social justice. Dunn and Rhee have appeared regularly on Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation list, both making another showing in 2025. Dunn is an all-purpose generalist trial lawyer. “Karen Dunn needs no introduction,” quips a peer. “Just read the news.” Rhee lays claim to a white-collar and investigations background. Isaacson has been a nationally ranked star in the antitrust category since 2015. “He is one the top antitrust minds out there,” declares a contemporary, “and he’s not someone you would only call if you wanted to surrender and make a sweet deal with the government. He can try a case!”
Hausfeld has emerged as a plaintiff-side firm to be reckoned with in several categories. Unlike many other companies of its ilk, however, the firm has not opted for taking the “boutique” route and has instead embedded itself globally, with litigators practicing in 11 offices throughout the US and in Europe. Primarily in the antitrust capacity, Hausfeld is an undisputed trailblazer, identified as a ubiquitous presence by peers on both the plaintiff and defense sides of the “V.” One major defense peer confirms, “Hausfeld is who we almost always see on the plaintiff side if there is antitrust class action. Even if it’s not exclusively them, they are always somewhere in the mix.” Another frequent opponent notes, “They have a wide scope regarding antitrust actions, and they are also huge in sports. I do a great deal of this work, and it’s nearly always against Hausfeld, at least in the biggest and best cases.” Still another sums up the firm’s stature by saying, “Many firms try to do what they do, but Hausfeld is one of the few that gets it right and one of the ones we take the most seriously.” Over the past several years alone, the firm has landed national headlines for its dogged pursuit of antitrust and sports claims. The firm was chosen by the DC Attorney General’s office in May 2021 to spearhead its efforts in a massive antitrust case against online retail juggernaut Amazon. More recently, Hausfeld scored big as co-lead counsel in a major case alleging that more than 30 Blue Cross/Blue Shield entities across the country have entered into agreements not to compete with each other for customers of health insurance. The litigation sought damages on behalf of a proposed class of more than 100 million subscribers, along with injunctive relief that would increase competition in the market for health insurance. After eight years in litigation, the plaintiffs scored a $2.67 billion settlement in October 2020. In addition to monetary relief, the settlement proposes systemic injunctive relief that will change the landscape for competition in healthcare. This settlement was approved in August 2022 – Judge Proctor approved the $2.67 billion settlement on behalf of employers and individuals.
While the DC office – where firm founder and former name partner Michael Hausfeld is based – has long been viewed as the firm’s center of gravity, with his transition to a “chairman emeritus” position, several California-based partners are taking bigger roles. “It’s more about the team now,” observes one peer. Megan Jones in the San Francisco office has been identified by several peers as “a leader at Hausfeld now,” with one peer testifying, “I have been very impressed with her, she has been leading quite a few cases.”
Melinda Coolidge, based in the DC office, serves as managing partner for the firm as well as attending to her own litigation matters that have earned her a debut as a future star in this edition. In July 2022, Coolidge led a team that reached a $90 million settlement in a ground-breaking case on behalf of app developers nationwide challenging Google’s 30% revenue share imposed on apps and in-app products sold on the Google Play Store. Coolidge is also part of a team is at the forefront of antitrust litigation over allegations that the nation’s four largest freight railroads – Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, and Norfolk Southern – colluded on fuel surcharges and overcharged customers by billions of dollars collectively.
Haynes and Boone is a multi-discipline outfit that emerged as a regional player in the Southeast and South Central US. The firm maintains a network of 17 offices with 40 practice areas spreading across its locations. Historically a revered legal brand in its native Texas, the firm has more recently expanded into markets like Washington, DC, largely on the strength of a rapidly burgeoning insurance coverage practice. The firm has won the praise of multiple peers; one testifies, “We are very often in the same sandbox as them, we see them often.” Another peer, based in Houston, extols, “They are really in the mix now, great people. [They have] Quite a bit of action in Dallas, too.” Clients voice their appreciation for the firm’s approach and prowess. One describes Haynes and Boone’s litigators as “aggressive and thoughtful, with an excellent understanding of the law,” and states that they are “good at keeping client focused, thoughtful with billing and credits, excellent at strategy, trustworthy and empathetic.”
The DC office in particular features trial lawyer Barry Buchman who is a leading policyholder insurance litigator with a specialty in complex insurance coverage, general liability coverage disputes and other cutting-edge insurance coverage matters. “Barry and his team are active in the sexual abuse coverage disputes area,” notes one insurance-focused peer. “When people ask for referrals, he’s always 1, 2 or 3 on the list.” Additionally, Buchman’s practice also touches on commercial disputes that include business torts and representing private equity firms and automotive companies especially. Most recently, Buchman served as lead litigation counsel representing Lionsgate and Starz in a Directors & Officers insurance coverage case that arose out of Lionsgate’s acquisition of Starz and a subsequent shareholder class action that was filed by Starz shareholders. They alleged they were underpaid for their shares compared to the price Lionsgate paid for the shares of another group of shareholders. The insurers for Lionsgate and Starz denied coverage, claiming the “Bump-Up Exclusion” clause in the policies, and after the class action settled for $92.5 million, the clients filed a lawsuit against the insurers for their denial of coverage. One of the insurers for Starz filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that the client improperly compromised the insurer’s subrogation rights against a Starz shareholder, John Malone, who allegedly played a significant and improper part in the Lionsgate’s acquisition. The matter became an issue of first impression regarding whether Malone was considered an “insured person” as he was not a director or officer of Starz. Buchman successfully persuaded the court to consider Malone an “insured person” and the court ruled in the client’s favor based on the policies that prevent insurers from asserting subrogation rights against an insured.
Haynes and Boone is also a noted powerhouse in the specialty area of appeals. “In appellate work, they are a premier firm,” raves a peer. “Nina Cortell [now Senior Counsel status] is still active but her protégé
Anne Johnson is just tremendous. I would love to hire either of them away but I doubt we could ever get them!” Johnson, domiciled in the firm’s Dallas office, has indeed emerged as a star in this space. She made headlines with her representation of BBVA, on behalf of whom she persuaded a Texas appellate court to overturn a $110 million fraud verdict against the client. The suit was brought against BBVA by a borrower who claimed that a BBVA employee made misrepresentations during loan renewal negotiations. The plaintiff alleged that, at the time the employee represented that his loans were not being sold, the bank was in the process of selling them—an action permitted by the loan documents. The plaintiff claimed that the employee’s representation caused him to lose out on various business opportunities. Johnson and her team were called into action after an unfavorable verdict in 2017. In December 2020, a three-justice panel of the appellate court unanimously reversed the judgment and ruled that the plaintiff take nothing on his claim. Johnson is also lead counsel on appeal for Toyota North America in an appeal stemming from a $242 million verdict against the manufacturer in August 2018. Johnson makes her debut appearance as one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation in this edition. Houston’s Mark Trachtenberg also notched an appellate win when he persuaded the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a summary judgment in favor of client Caterpillar. In the suit, AIG Europe asserted negligence and product liability claims against Caterpillar, which manufactured an engine used in pumping units at an oil-and-gas well site in Texas. A 2016 fire at the site led to millions of dollars in damages, which AIG sought to recover from Caterpillar and another defendant. Haynes and Boone was retained after a judge in the Eastern District of Texas denied AIG’s motion for partial summary judgment and granted Caterpillar’s motion for summary judgment on each of AIG’s claims.
Celebrated boutique Hecker Fink has earned itself a pride of place in the crowded New York litigation market. Peers and clients stand united in their reverence for the firm and appreciation for its structure and operations. “They’re a firm that’s at the tips of our tongues if there’s a trial that it wouldn’t make sense for us to do,” testifies a peer. “If they can handle it, it goes to them. I know a lot of people who are coming out of the government are excited about the prospect of working there.” The firm is also noted for keeping its eye on cultivating the future levels of talent. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the momentum behind
David Gopstein, who made his debut as a future star in the last edition of Benchmark and has already made a swift ascent to litigation star only a year later on the strength of plaudits from various corners of the market. One peer insists, “David is definitely someone you need to look into!” A client raves, “David is an elite writer, a gifted oralist, and a better person. He is especially skilled at trials and in oral arguments before US Courts of Appeals.” Another extols, “David is smart, creative and responsive. His approach is client centered, and he seeks to provide the best results for the situation.”
Shawn Crowley makes her debut in this edition on the strength of client praise. “Shawn is exceptionally intelligent and great with clients. She also has a great way with people generally.” The firm also benefited from the addition of
Damaris Hernández, a young star formerly with Cravath.
Michael Ferarra and Sean Hecker are two stars of the white-collar bar. “Mike Ferrara and Sean Hecker are two people that I would call if I was in the crosshairs,” declares a peer, going on to quip, “Who doesn’t love Sean Hecker?” A client calls Hecker “a smart, responsive, creative lawyer,” and addresses Ferrara as “a strategic thinker with excellent legal and advocacy skills.” One peer also insist, “Everyone knows Sean but you have to give more notice to
Jenna Dabbs – she’s also terrific.” Dabbs, along with debut future star
Kate Doniger, represents Amentum, formerly known as AECOM Government Services, in a False Claims Act lawsuit, alleging false labor billing on a contract AECOM and related entities performed for the US Government in Afghanistan. Following a 2020 motion to dismiss and appeal, the Second Circuit subsequently affirmed the dismissal of most of the claims, and the parties engaged in fact and expert discovery on the remaining claim. In the fall of 2024, the Court converted the motion to dismiss to one for summary judgment and, after motion practice, granted summary judgment in AECOM’s favor. Dabbs also acted with DC-based
Joshua Matz representing a plaintiff in his suit against the President and other Administration officials challenging as unlawful his purported removal from office as the Special Counsel of the US Office of the Special Counsel. While the plaintiff ultimately lost this case, the firm was able to secure him a month in office after the President purported to fire him. During that month, the obtained reinstatement for nearly 6000 unlawfully terminated federal employees. Dellinger’s restoration to office after the President purported to remove him was groundbreaking, and the case was the first against the Administration to reach the Supreme Court in the President’s second term. Matz is cheered by a client as “outstanding, brilliant, hard working and compassionate.”
While Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel has been a mainstay of the New York legal community since its inception, it has, in recent years, expanded in a modest and measured fashion, starting with an office in Silicon Valley, and moving full steam in to the DC market by storm with its auspicious acquisition of prized local shop Robbins Russell, incorporating a deep team of celebrated practitioners across several practice areas. “That’s a big deal,” sums up one local peer, voicing the general consensus. “Robbins Russell was a classic DC firm and now the platform has given both sides many new opportunities.” Key among these new recruits is appellate “dynamo” Roy Englert, a frequent visitor to the Supreme Court and an authority in the practice. Englert is “all appeals, all the time,” and respected by a vocal percentage of the leading figures in the DC appellate community. “Roy is fantastic,” testifies one peer. “He brought an amicus in a case we are working on, and we were very impressed.” Gary Orseck is another recruit with fluency in appeals, as well as a broad-based commercial, securities and white-collar practitioner. “Gary is a tremendous lawyer,” extols a peer. “He has a really good sense of judgment and is a great writer.” Orseck’s achievements exemplify these ringing endorsements; he defended United Health Services’ officers and directors in a derivative suit alleging securities fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and other claims, relating to alleged improper patient-admission practices at the client’s affiliated behavioral-health facilities throughout the country. The claims were dismissed in 2019 but went to appeal In December 2021, at which point the parties resolved the matter, originally valued at more than $1.5 billion, on the basis of non-monetary reforms regarding corporate compliance. In a similar matter, Orseck leads a team defending Community Health Systems and certain of its affiliates and former officers against fraudulent transfer, breach of contract, illegal dividend, and related claims brought by the Litigation Trustee for the QHC Litigation Trust. The Litigation Trustee seeks to avoid, among other things, a $1.2 billion transfer from QHC to CHS in connection with a 2016 spinoff transaction. The DC group comes with some youth factor to balance out the senior talent; future star William Trunk is part of Orseck’s team on the aforementioned Community Health matter, and Ariel Lavinbuk comes equipped with a practice that encompasses commercial litigation as well as a bankruptcy element, an area for which Kramer Levin, through its New York office, has historically been seen as Tier 1.
The bankruptcy practice has earned plaudits from fellow leaders in the area. “It is run by Ken Eckstein and Tom Mayer, who are great in court, great at deals, and just great at bankruptcy everywhere,” declares one peer, who further attests, “I see them all the time and they give me and anyone else a run for the money.” Eckstein leads a team that, for the past three years, has served as lead bankruptcy counsel to represent the Ad Hoc Committee (AHC) of 10 state attorneys general, six municipalities, and the Plaintiffs Executive Committee in the multidistrict litigation and a federally recognized Native American Tribe in the ongoing bankruptcy saga of embattled opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma. White-collar crime is another field in which Kramer Levin boasts an unanimously lauded roster. “The Kramer Levin team actually does trials! That’s rare in the white-collar world, and these are actually for some very high-profile individuals,” marvels one peer. Barry Berke is an undisputed leading presence. He was recently thrust into the limelight when he was called into service as special counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives in connection with its investigation and impeachment proceedings of Donald Trump, and as of February 2020, Berke returned to Kramer Levin with newly burnished credentials. Not that he needed them; even before this engagement, Berke has been routinely identified by peers as “absolutely one of the best,” with one elaborating, “Especially at his age point, he has some of the best experience you could ask for and credibility beyond question.” Clients agree; one calls Berke “a counselor, a litigator, and a strategist,” and goes on to assert, “No one is better.” While Berke’s profile in the community is undisputed, others in this group are making their mark. Dani James acted with Berke in representing Theodore Huber, a partner and analyst at Deerfield Management, in parallel actions brought by the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission arising from Huber’s trading based on purportedly confidential government information relating to Medicare reimbursement for healthcare services. Both celebrated white-collar stars Berke and James represented biotech giant Amgen in a commercial litigation capacity in the client’s dispute with Novartis over the latter’s alleged breach of contract and tortious conduct arising out of the parties’ collaboration agreement to commercialize a migraine drug. On a counterclaim, Amgen alleged that Novartis breached the contract when it allowed its subsidiary to manufacture a competing migraine drug, and then actively concealed this from Amgen. The Kramer Levin team on this matter also included
Norman Simon, who typically deals with cases involving the Lanham Act and false-advertising claims, niche areas in which Kramer Levin has been noted as being one of the few major players.
The firm has recently developed a more “hard IP” practice, spearheaded by Dr. Irena Royzman, who is noted by peers to “occupy a definite presence in the pharma patent space.” Royzman has historically represented Janssen, and on behalf of this client sued several generic manufacturers under the Hatch-Waxman Act for infringement of patents protecting Symtuza, a treatment for HIV/AIDS. The action is in active fact discovery and claim-construction proceedings, and a bench trial is scheduled for October 2023. The IP area is bookended on the West Coast by Lisa Kobialka in the Silicon Valley office (opened in 2011). Kobialka, whose practice is primarily devoted to the tech space, brought patent infringement actions against Xerox and Ricoh relating to systems and methods covering various aspects of printers and/or copiers as well as their processes, performance and maintenance, and workflow management.
The firm upholds its dedication to labor and employment litigation, regularly representing high-profile clients in a variety of respects, particularly emphasizing – though not limiting itself to – highly sensitive and complex single-plaintiff employment disputes. No stranger to the public eye, employment law chair Kevin Leblang of New York is regularly active at the forefront of the most highly exposed disputes in employment litigation. Leblang currently defends Stifel in a sexual harassment lawsuit that has gained significant market attention. In 2022, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) passed, leading the court to reverse its initial order to compel arbitration. Leblang has since appealed the decision to the Second Circuit. Leblang is routinely prepraing for trial. He is also active in discovery and pre-trial practice, defending Société Général in a sexual orientation and harassment lawsuit. Eliza Kaiser, also of the firm’s New York office, represents leaders across a variety of industries in disputes and investigations. Kaiser represented Facebook against a Department of Justice action that alleged that the company engaged in discriminatory hiring practices in the US in relation to its immigration policies. She negotiated a settlement with the DOJ as well as a parallel matter with the Department of Labor. Leblang and Kaiser’s fellow partner Robert Holtzman was recently engaged in three separate arbitrations on behalf of Natixis, all of which were successfully resolved.
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Hunton Andrews Kurth |
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Hunton Andrews Kurth is an international law firm with over 900 lawyers across more than 20 offices in the United States, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The firm serves a wide range of clients, including Fortune 100 companies, financial institutions, energy companies, utilities, and government entities. One client describes the firm as having “substantive knowledge and strategy, that are great.” as well as having “responsiveness and understanding of our business” which “keeps me coming back.” California-based litigator Shannon Broome is a nationally recognized authority on Clean Air Act and climate change matters, including as part of joint defense groups where she, Virginia-based partner Cassandra Collins, and New York-based partner Shawn Regan serve on the lead counsel team representing Marathon Petroleum Corporation and its affiliated company, as well as Speedway LLC in more than 30 climate-change related cases in jurisdictions across the country. These actions have substantial implications for the global energy supply, as well as overall global economic growth. Fellow California partner Ann Marie Mortimer is currently defending Flurry, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yahoo!, in a putative class action alleging that Flurry conspired to exchange private and confidential information for their own benefit in connection with Flo Health, which owns health and fitness apps. The plaintiff alleges that Flo Health violated their own policy by knowingly giving users’ information to third parties without appropriate user disclosure and consent. Also based out of the Virginia office, Elbert Lin succeeded in restoring a key element of the Alaska public correspondence school program, a program utilized by 22,000 students throughout the state, when the Alaska Supreme Court agreed that a lower court had wrongly struck several statutes as facially unconstitutional. The decision not only restores an important educational program for Alaskan children but also gives critical guidance to Alaska lower courts on the difference between facial and as-applied challenges. Maya Eckstein was co-lead counsel representing the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles in a putative class action involving attorney’s fees, which received a favorable 7-2 ruling from the US Supreme Court in February 2025. Washington DC-partner Neil Gilman is on the counsel team representing Hisamitsu America in a false advertising litigation and related consumer class action stemming from a national litigation campaign related to use of maximum strength for over-the-counter pain-relieving patch products. |
Latham & Watkins has handily transitioned from its image as a California-headquartered focused on corporate work. Although the firm did see its origins in the Golden State and has a coveted corporate practice, Latham has also gained a well earned reputation as an undeniable litigation powerhouse whose footprint has not only reached national levels but boasts litigation heavyweights in nearly every one of its US offices across a diverse spectrum of practice areas. “I see Latham everywhere because they are so big,” confirms a peer, attesting to the firm’s domestic dominance. The “so big” litigation bench got even bigger in August 2025 with the addition of all-purpose trial ace
David Marriott, formerly with Cravath, a significant augmentation to Latham’s trial horsepower; Marriott has been one of Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America for three consecutive years. The firm’s New York office also got a boost from the arrival of Margaret Graham, a former prosecutor who attends to white-collar and enforcement work as well as commercial litigation. One peer notes, “She just left the office of the Southern District to join Latham!”
Latham’s antitrust credentials were on display in a decisive victory secured by San Francisco’s
Chris Yates and New York’s Larry Buterman for the athletic governing body US Soccer Federation in a high-profile antitrust action filed in the Eastern District of New York. North American Soccer League (NASL) claimed that US Soccer conspired with the Major League Soccer (MLS) to exclude NASL from Division I and II professional soccer and monopolize these markets through US Soccer’s Professional League Standards. Following a three-week trial, the Latham duo persuaded a 10-person New York jury to unanimously find for US Soccer and MLS. The jury's verdict affirmed that NASL’s market definition was contradicted by pre-litigation business records, and that NASL's failures were self-inflicted. A peer confirms, “Chris Yates is one of the few people cornering that intersection of antitrust and sports!”
Chicago’s Sean Berkowitz, said by peers to “still be crushing it,” chieved dismissal of a shareholder suit filed against Walmart over disclosures related to an investigation concerning opioids, similar to those files against dozens of other entities for their roles in the prescription opioids supply chain. In 2018, Walmart began disclosing these litigations and investigations, warning investors that it could not provide any assurance to the scope or outcome of the investigations—or whether its business, financial condition, or results would be materially and adversely affected. Shareholders brought a securities class action after Walmart’s stock price traded down following Walmart’s lawsuit against the DoJ, seeking a declaration that it had not violated the Controlled Substances Act, and the DoJ then sued Walmart civilly, asserting it had. Berkowitz moved to dismiss the lawsuit explaining that Walmart and its executives timely and accurately disclosed the DoJ investigation and its consequences. The court agreed with and dismissed the plaintiffs’ amended complaint, closing the case.
Michele Johnson, in the Orange County office, is a frequent presence in the securities litigation capacity, and is recognized as one of the people in this practice to have tried cases. Johnson won a complete dismissal of a $300 million complaint against cardio device entity Edwards Lifesciences in Delaware Court of Chancery, in a decision recently upheld by the Delaware Supreme Court. Edwards acquired Valtech and its Cardioband valve repair device in 2017, with up to $350 million in milestone payments contingent on regulatory and sales achievements over a 10-year period. Dissatisfied with Cardioband's progress, former Valtech shareholders sued Edwards for $300 million, alleging a failure to use commercially reasonable efforts to develop the device. Plaintiffs appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court, and Latham successfully defended the lower court’s decision and reasoning to the Delaware Supreme Court, which affirmed the Court of Chancery’s decision. Johnson also acted with DC intellectual property partner
Michael Morin for Sarepta as trial counsel in a major patent and antitrust dispute in Delaware. After a one-week two-phase trial, a Delaware federal jury invalidated the opposing party's patent, upheld Sarepta’s patent, and awarded Sarepta $116 million in lost-profit damages. Johnson also acted with San Francisco’s
Melanie Blunschi in securing a first-round dismissal with prejudice for Apple, its five named executive officers, and its board of directors in a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York. On the eve of Apple’s 2023 annual shareholder meeting, the plaintiff, a Teamsters union and Apple shareholder since 2005, filed a lawsuit challenging Apple’s 2023 Proxy Statement and asserted a derivative claim, alleging the board breached its fiduciary duties by awarding “excess” compensation. The court dismissed the complaint with prejudice, finding no indication that the plaintiff could cure the deficiencies in the complaint. Jamie Wine in the New York office also is a noted figure in the securities space, with a practice that also encompasses general trial work – Wine is a noted Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. “I continue to be impressed with Jamie,” declares a New York contemporary.
Intellectual property and commercial litigation boutique Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg has made a notable impression on the legal community in fairly short order. Formed as Reichman Jorgensen in 2018 upon the departure of trial luminary Courtland Reichman from McKool Smith in order to launch this venture, the firm underwent a branding overhaul in 2021, continuing to build upon its pedigree and swiftly rising market profile. A peer marvels, “They started national! And yet they are still lean and nimble.” Another notes, “They are known for doing a lot of IP work but it’s more than just standard patent cases – it’s more diverse, with a lot of it crossing over into antitrust and even bankruptcy. And they seem to be more diverse in the types of patent work, too. It doesn’t seem like it’s beholden to pharma work – it’s a broader industrial spectrum, and it seems like more tech.” Reichman Jorgensen is also a majority women-owned firm, and, most notably, it has focused on fostering a trial-forward agenda. Peers address the firm as “smart and hungry.” The firm’s unique structure – a litigation boutique that spans a national footprint, was amplified further when its network of offices (which include Silicon Valley, Washington, DC, Atlanta and New York) when it launched an office in Austin, Texas in August 2023. With regard to the firm’s patent practice, peers note that “They are getting hired for a lot more DEFENSE cases now. In the first couple of years, it seemed like a lot more plaintiff work – you get a couple of big plaintiff wins, you get more plaintiff work. But then the defense bar sees this and says, ‘Oh, you’ve got all of these plaintiff cases, you must be really good lawyers. How about doing some work for us?’”
The firm made a notable addition to its new Austin office in February 2025 with the addition of
Scott Cole, an IP trial lawyer who spent 20 years at McKool Smith before leaving in 2021 for brief stays at Quinn Emanuel (opening that firm’s Austin office) as well as his own solo endeavor before joining Reichman Jorgensen to further its Texas buildout. Cole attends to a mixed practice that emphasizes plaintiff non-practicing-entity work, largely acting on behalf of entities holding varied tech patent portfolios.
Matt Berkowitz, in the firm’s Silicon Valley office, has also been building a practice with a noted emphasis on plaintiff-side work, an opportunity not afforded to him before joining the comparatively flexible arrangement offered by Reichman Jorgensen. His recent engagements include serving as lead counsel for Valtrus in its enforcement of Hewlett Packard patents in multiple litigations in the cellular and networking space and data center-cooling technology. Reichman, also based in the firm’s Silicon Valley office, is revered by peers as “a trial veteran, which is unique at his relatively young age, but not that surprising, seeing as how he got his chops through his time at McKool.” A client calls him “a strong advocate and a true trial lawyer,” and goes on to quip, “I only wish there more of him.” In April 2024, Reichman and DC’s Christine Lehman secured a staggering $525 million patent infringement verdict for Kove IO against Amazon Web Services at a trial in which the jury found that the defendant, through its use of Kove’s technology for its cloud business, infringed all three patents at issue in the litigation. “This was huge,” marvels a peer. “They [the Reichman Jorgensen team] literally put the opposing firm out of business!” Almost a year to the day, the same duo scored an $84 million willful patent infringement verdict on behalf of Cirba (dba Densify) against tech giant VMware. The verdict was announced in May 2023, following a five-day jury trial. Sarah Jorgensen, who is based in the Atlanta office and has a practice focused more on commercial litigation, works with Reichman on multiple matters concerning several municipalities’ ban on natural-gas hookups. Michael Feldberg, based in New York, represents Barclays Bank in multidistrict consolidated class actions alleging that several major global banks, which were members of The London Gold Fixing Company, conspired to suppress the price of gold from 2004 to 2012. With nearly $8 billion in potential damages at stake, Barclays agreed to a settlement, which was approved in August 2022.
Sidley Austin occupies a prestigious position that has grown far beyond its Chicago roots and blossomed into a full-service international powerhouse. “They really cover the waterfront,” declares a peer, speaking to depth and breadth of the firm’s practice portfolio. “They have some great people across almost every area.” While the firm has grown to global stature, it is still considered primarily for its national footprint, particularly in its offices in LA and San Francisco, Dallas, DC and New York, as well as the aforementioned Windy City. The firm is also cheered for its approach to litigation; one peer testifies, “I’ve recently had good experiences with Sidley. They are not only good litigators but there’s also an ethic there across the board. You can tell how they lean, they’re very polite, and I value that. I view that as someone you want to work with. You know, we’re in litigation, but we don’t have to be doing battle all the time.”
The firm’s DC office, already considered one of its strongest, made a significant augmentation in 2024, when it lured
Greg Williams and Richard Smith to its ranks from Wiley Rein. “Greg and Richard were at Covington [& Burling] before – they seem to be moving in parallel! They are both great, and that’s a nice boost for [Sidley.]” Williams’ hire has been viewed as a strategic enhancement to the firm’s international arbitration and litigation practice, which has historically been regarded as one of the country’s most seasoned. The firm’s DC office is also home another Covington alumnus,
Jennifer Saulino, a product liability star who makes the remarkable three-pronged debut in Benchmark as a litigation star, one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America, and one of the Top 250 Women in Litigation on the strength of some considerable credentials and peer review. “Jennifer belongs in the top league,” insists another peer on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list. “She’s versatile and great on her feet in court, where she spends a lot of time.” Saulino obtained a major victory on behalf of Roundup herbicide manufacturer Monsanto in a product-liability trial alleging that Roundup was linked to the plaintiffs’ injuries. In March 2024, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their case with prejudice, unable to prove that Roundup was the cause of their alleged injuries. The judge accepted the dismissal with prejudice and discharged the jury. The DC office is also home to not only the firm’s but the country’s top appellate luminaries,
Carter Phillips. “I often forget to mention him, not because he’s not still killing it, but just because I take it as such a given,” states a peer. Phillips secured a major victory when the Second Circuit affirmed a judgment against Lynn Tilton and her companies for breaching her fiduciary duties to TransCare and conducting an actual fraudulent conveyance. Phillips argued the appeal and led the briefing team. DC’s
William Levi is namechecked as the next generation of appellate firepower. “Will came into a case we had involving Microsoft, and he was the lead on the legal issues team. He’s not a trial lawyer, but he’s a great appellate counselor. He can write a brief on the fly that tells the judge the facts with common sense.”
Based in the New York office, Eamon Joyce, who makes the leap from future star to litigation star in this edition, recently successfully settled the last of a series of putative class action cases, which began in 2014, involving allegations that Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s flushable wipes are not in fact flushable. In a series of cases filed around the country, plaintiffs (consumers and municipalities) alleged the claims of “flushable” and “sewer-and-septic safe” on the packages for Cottonelle and other Kimberly-Clark brand flushable wipes were false and misleading. In the firm’s San Francisco office,
Sarah Brody is routinely championed by peers in securities capacity. “I’m a big fan of Sarah,” declares one, “and she’s got a great practice. She has had a lot of cases involving startups – there are a lot of them in the Bay Area – that go public…and then they fail. Sarah has had a sweet spot with that.” In the labor and employment practice,
Wendy Lazerson is praised by a client as “very experienced, smart, and knowledgeable, who diligently and thoughtfully represented our interests.” In the Los Angeles office,
Debra Pole has long been acknowledged as a product liability trial lawyer. “She’s still a rockstar,” enthuses a peer. “She still commands the room.”
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett boasts a long history as one of the country’s most esteemed full-service legal brands. “Where the big corporate work is, litigation often follows,” explains one peer, “and since Simpson gets the top-class corporate work, they did a fantastic job in installing top-class litigators to handle it when that occurs.” Another peer attests, “We see Simpson Thacher, but only on something of a higher (dollar) amount – the premium work.” This alluded-to “premium work” covers a large span of practice areas, most of them connected to large, regulated institutions.
Simpson Thacher’s antitrust team has seen a remarkable rise in profile as of late, particularly through its DC office.
Sara Razi in particular got a rare opportunity to display her trial prowess as well as her antitrust acumen when she represented Change Healthcare in the DoJ’s challenge to its $13.8 billion acquisition by UnitedHealth Group. A federal judge rejected the DoJ’s claims in September 2022. The DoJ filed a notice of appeal with the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in November 2022 and subsequently abandoned the appeal in March 2023. Fresh off of this win, Razi further demonstrated her acuity with health-oriented merger-clearance actions with when she provided counsel to HCA Healthcare in antitrust cases surrounding its sale of three hospitals to Louisiana Children’s Medical. The cases concern claims that the two parties to the transaction proceeded with it prior to properly reporting details to regulators. More recently, Razi and
Preston Miller triumphed over the FTC when, in January 2025, a Texas court denied the FTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block Mattress Firm’s acquisition by Tempur Sealy International. “That’s a big deal as a win,” explains a peer, “but it’s also a big deal in illustrating Sara’s growing versatility. I knew her as being pretty much dedicated to the health care industry before, but this [representation] shows she is not exclusive to that [sector.]”
Simpson Thacher’s blue-ribbon securities team in New York has kept equally busy. Arguably the most active and visible star in this capacity,
Jonathan Youngwood also serves as the firm’s head of litigation and is described as “brilliant, practical and efficient.” Among his many appointments, Youngwood is representing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) in connection with a lawsuit filed in July 2023 in New York federal court by Banco San Juan Internacional Inc. (BSJI), a Puerto Rico-based international banking entity. BSJI is seeking an emergency injunction to prevent FRBNY and the Federal Reserve Board from closing its “Master Account” and terminating its access to FRBNY services, claiming that there is no basis for FRBNY’s decision to do so and that the Administrative Procedures Act requires FRBNY and the Board of Governors to provide services, including access to a “Master Account,” on a non-discretionary basis. Lynn Neunercontinues to be a perennial favorite with peers and clients and has the distinct honor of being both one of Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers and one of its Top 250 Women in Litigation (in fact, one of the Top 10) – honors she has claimed since 2015. “Lynn is knowledgeable and communicates well,” testifies one client. “She possessed the technical knowledge and was articulate in presenting the case.” Another client refers to Neuner as “one of the most responsive lawyers I know, and also one of the most strategic and savvy; she knows how to get things done.” Still another extols, “Lynn brings top legal acumen and excellent presentation skills orally and in writing. [She] Excels in relationship building with courts, mediators and opposing counsel and also provides excellent client service. She focuses in on the key issues and provides clear judgment and direction.” Neuner’s practice seamlessly straddles commercial and insurance work as well; in an example of the latter practice (in which Simpson Thacher has long been considered one of the country’s strongest), she and
William Russell, a bankruptcy partner, have been retained by Travelers with respect to insurance claims and inquiries arising from thousands of talc-related tort claims brought against Johnson & Johnson the wake of its infamous “Texas Two-Step” – a controversial maneuver of forming a subsidiary to absorb its talc liabilities and then plunging this subsidiary into bankruptcy. In December 2024, the New Jersey Superior Court granted summary judgment to Travelers, holding that Travelers had no duty to indemnify an approximately $2.2 billion jury verdict against J&J in an underlying talc-related tort litigation because the jury’s verdict was based on findings that J&J expected or intended the injuries suffered by the plaintiffs. In another example, a team composed of Neuner, insurance-specific star Bryce Friedman and Los Angeles’
Chet Kronenberg acted for Chubb in connection with an aviation coverage matter, litigating and then negotiating a resolution of two cases filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York by aircraft lessors seeking coverage under certain aviation insurance policies for alleged losses stemming from events in Russia and Ukraine. The third lawsuit is pending in the Superior Court of the State of California. The three cases involve 23 planes and over $1 billion in claims.
The firm’s white-collar/enforcement and investigations practice has also continued to build.
Nick Goldin is championed as "really excellent and could actually try a case, in addition to his strategic advisory work.” A client champions Goldin as a “brilliant and creative strategist.”
Jeff Knox, a former prosecutor based in the firm’s DC office, is cheered by a client as “someone who has really adapted very quickly to the defense side and is very creative and thoughtful.” An impressed peer sums up Knox’s acuity in this field as “just breathtaking.”
With 21 offices throughout the US, Europe and Asia, Skadden has long been a totem of excellence in the global legal community as a full-service one-stop shop. While its capabilities span a wide spectrum, litigation is a key pillar. “Skadden has so much deal flow,” observes a peer, “that an equally strong litigation bench is essential. [Skadden] certainly has that to spare.” Virtually all of the firm’s domestic offices house an ample grouping of litigation stars, with peers noting that Skadden has strategically doubled down on the Los Angeles market as of late. “LA is a dynamic market right now, and it is increasingly the tip of Skadden’s litigation spear.”
The observation of the firm’s bench strength in LA can arguably be best exemplified by the recent hire of Manuel Cachán, who boasts a proven trial lawyer pedigree. “He was a ‘must-get’,” quips a peer. “Skadden really scored there. He’s going to be trying the biggest and most important cases.” While Cachán, who earned his stripes at revered LA boutique Munger Tolles as well as a stint at Proskauer, is a multifaceted business litigator, he has most recently minted himself a pole position in the product liability area.
Skadden is also known for its blue-ribbon securities practice, mainly operating from New York. Jay Kasner has long been a leading figure in this area and continues to be. A peer marvels, “Jay is still humming along strong! He still shows up and delivers the goods like someone half his age. I don’t know how he does it.” Perhaps more remarkably, Kasner has demonstrated his prowess with newer and more novel industries like cryptocurrency. He recently represented Coinbase, who was sued in March 2022 by plaintiffs who alleged that the client operates as an unregistered securities exchange because 79 digital assets traded on the platform are actually securities. The plaintiffs sought to rescind their transactions and to recover monetary damages, as well to force Coinbase to register as a national securities exchange or broker-dealer. In February 2023, the claims were dismissed in their entirety, with prejudice. While Kasner remains the firm’s most seasoned securities partner, others are quickly becoming the names of the next generation. Alex Drylewski has developed and demonstrated a particular prowess in the crypto area. Drylewski and
Tansy Woan secured the dismissal with prejudice of a securities class action brought against crypto-focused investment advisor, Paradigm Operations, and other investors in Uniswap Labs, the developer of Uniswap, a decentralized digital asset protocol. The plaintiffs claimed that defendants profited from the sale of scam tokens while users lost money to anonymous issues of the tokens traded on the Uniswap protocol. The Southern District of New York ruled that the backers did not sell the tokens at issue and were therefore not at fault, and plaintiffs concerns should be addressed by Congress rather than the courts. In September 2023, the plaintiffs appealed the district court’s decision to the Second Circuit. In February 2025, the Skadden duo secured a decision affirming the dismissal of the putative class action. Scott Musoff
has become particularly prominent in terms of visibility and activity. “Scott Musoff is awesome,” extols a peer. “[He’s the] nicest guy in the world, easy to work with, and still relatively young.” The duo of Kasner and Musoff were enlisted to replace existing counsel representing theme park entity Six Flags and certain directors and offices, who were faced with a class action alleging the company and the defendant officers issued false and misleading statements concerning the progress and accounting for certain Six Flags-branded theme parks to be built in China. The Skadden pair triumphed for the client in June 2023. A bi-coastal team composed of Kasner,
Susan Saltzstein, Los Angeles partner Peter Morrison and Palo Alto partner
Mark Foster scored an October 2024 victory with the dismissal of a putative securities class action filed against Hawaiian Electric Industries and certain of its current and former officers stemming from the devastating August 2023 wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii. The plaintiffs broadly allege that the client misled investors to believe that the utility was taking appropriate action to mitigate wildfire risks. The court held that the client could neither be held liable for statements made by its subsidiaries nor had the plaintiffs sufficiently plead falsity or scienter. Musoff and Los Angeles partner Winston Hsiao
represented Myriad Genetics and certain current and former board members and executives in derivative litigations arising out of public statements Myriad made regarding its flagship pharmacogenetic test GeneSight. In 2023, the Skadden duo parachuted into a related federal securities litigation and brokered a favorable settlement. In 2024, the team took over settlement negotiations in the tagalong derivative actions and negotiated a settlement comprised of corporate reforms and a minimal attorneys’ fee award to the plaintiff’s counsel. The Delaware Court of Chancery approved the settlement and dismissed the action with prejudice.
A New York team of Saltzstein and Patrick Rideout scored on behalf of Johnson & Johnson in a case concerning a shareholder’s proposal that J&J's shareholders adopt a bylaw requiring individual arbitration of securities class actions against the company and its officers or directors. Rideout has developed his own fan base as well. “If I had a bet-the-company case of any kind that had a likelihood of going to trial, that’s who I’d call,” insists a peer. “He is a problem solver and a no-nonsense litigator but has a sense of humanity to him that I find gets lost in a lot of those large, complex cases of the type that he gets involved in.”
Skadden has seen an increased level of activity in other areas as well. New York’s Timothy Nelson and Julie Bédard, who works out of the firm’s New York and São Paulo offices, are noted standouts. Both are experienced and active with tribunal matters such as ICC and ICSID. The firm also scored a key recruit in the antitrust arena,
James Fredericks, who joined the DC office after decades acting as a prosecutor with the DoJ. A peer in this capacity advises, “Look into him! He’s only been with the firm about four weeks so far [as of spring 2024] but this is a major feather in Skadden’s cap.”
Weil Gotshal & Manges enjoys a reputation as a firm whose litigation bench is one of the most comprehensive in terms of practice depth. The firm’s national reach is spread among offices on the East Coast in New York and DC, throughout several locations in California, two locations in Texas, one in Boston and a location in Miami. Its practice area portfolio also covers a lot of ground, with product liability, bankruptcy, antitrust, commercial, intellectual property, securities and white-collar crime all playing prominent positions in the overall composition of the firm’s litigation service offerings.
The firm made a notable augmentation to these services within the past couple of years with the recruits of DC-based Mark Perry and Drew Tulumello, both of whom joined Weil from Gibson Dunn and both of whom provide strategic enhancements to Weil’s appellate capacity. “Weil has really made a significant investment here,” declares a peer in reference to the firm’s development of the appeals practice. “They are now officially a player in that specialty – they went from 0 to 100.” More recently, in July 2025, the firm implemented an investment in the buildout of its intellectual-property capacity with the addition of
Doug Lumish, a Bay Area patent-focused star formerly with Latham & Watkins.
David Lender, the New York-based global head of litigation, continues to remain one of its most visible and active all-purpose trial lawyers. “He continues to impress,” offers a peer, summing up the general consensus. Lender led a team that secured a $55.5 million trial victory on behalf of GoodRx, a provider of drug discount coupons, before the American Arbitration Association in a breach-of-contract dispute against a service provider. The victory, which also included a permanent injunction, followed a week-long arbitration hearing in November 2023. Lender was also recently retained by global energy/chemical company ExxonMobil to serve as lead national trial counsel in defense of numerous high-stakes public-nuisance lawsuits regarding plastics pollution. Currently, there are three cases, with more expected: one filed by the California state Attorney General alleging that ExxonMobil deceptively promoted chemical recycling as a solution for the plastics crisis; another filed by environmental NGO Sierra Club and other entities asserting claims for nuisance and unfair competition, and making similar allegations as the California AG case; and still another recently filed by Ford County, Kansas, seeking to represent a class of counties in Kansas that allegedly have incurred and will continue to incur sanitation costs for plastic waste clean-up and disposal. These cases, which are in their infancy, will be bellwether cases to watch as states and municipalities seek to hold chemical producers responsible for plastics pollution, even as those states and municipalities have failed to execute viable recycling programs that help combat pollution.
Diane Sullivan, another trial veteran who has been celebrated in this capacity for decades, has been retained by Duke Energy as lead trial counsel in a high-stakes antitrust dispute involving wholesale power generation. Duke sued NTE Carolinas for breach of contract, and NTE Carolinas countersued, alleging that Duke, as a competitor, has monopoly power in the wholesale electric power market in the Southeast and used anti-competitive behavior to continue their monopoly. The district court granted Duke’s motion for summary judgment on all antitrust issues, and the parties settled Duke’s breach-of-contract claims. NTE Carolinas appealed the ruling on the antitrust claims, and the Fourth Circuit vacated the judgment. A team composed of
David Yohai, Theodore Tsekerides and Adam Hemlock successfully represented long-time client Warner Bros. Discovery, and its subsidiary, Turner Broadcasting (together, WBD) in a high-profile lawsuit against the National Basketball Association. The suit involved the NBA’s attempt to give the rights to broadcast NBA games to Amazon and take them away from TNT. Under its agreement with the NBA, WBD had the right to match any offer that the NBA receives for the right to distribute NBA games for the 2025-2026 season and beyond. In July 2024, Amazon Prime Video made an offer to the NBA for a package of games, which WBD matched. However, the NBA rejected WBD’s match and struck a deal with Amazon. After the court set trial for April 2025, the parties entered into a global settlement resolving the dispute in which WBD and TNT retain the rights to broadcast basketball games.
Weil’s securities is helmed by New York’s John Neuwirth, who, together with future star
Josh Amsel, has been successfully defending long-time client AMC Entertainment in fast-tracked stockholder litigation in Delaware Chancery Court, arising from the global movie theater chain’s planned overhaul of its capital structure. The plaintiffs in the consolidated case allege that AMC’s senior management and board of directors breached their fiduciary duties by diluting common stockholders’ voting power through the creation of a new preferred class of securities and a subsequent planned reverse stock split. Just weeks before a hearing, the Weil team negotiated a settlement, the approval process of which became a highly contested affair, with a number of objections before Weil ultimately secured court approval, affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court in May 2024.
Weil is also one of the few “Big Law” firms to house a labor-and-employment litigation group, with New York’s
John Barry being its central figure. A peer and former opponent testifies, “I had an ugly knock-down, nasty fight with John – that guy was relentless! But when it came time to settle, we were able to sit down and get it done. I was impressed.”
While it operates from offices in Washington, DC, New York, and Los Angeles, Wilkinson Stekloff remains the essence of “litigation boutique.” More specifically, a litigation boutique with a uniquely pronounced emphasis on high-end trial work. Formed in 2016 by veteran DC trial celebrity Beth Wilkinson, Wilkinson Stekloff, which began as arguably the most buzz-worthy of law firms, is in the unique position of remaining one almost 10 years later. Despite numerous personnel and name changes, the firm has retained its allure as an elite shop and, if anything, has only further cemented that status for itself. “Wilkinson Stekloff is my favorite firm in the whole US right now,” exclaims one peer without hyberbole, a summarized opinion shared by several other contemporaries. Additionally, the firm’s position as one of Benchmark’s Top 20 Trial Firms (a position it has claimed since its beginnings) remains secure in this edition.
Wilkinson’s position as one of Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers in the US also remains unshakeable. “Beth everything you want to be as a trial lawyer and leader, especially as a woman,” testifies one peer. A client cheers Wilkinson’s “great judgment and instinct, lots of trial experience, and [the way she] engages well with judges.” It is also noted, however, that “Beth was also smart enough to build a great team around her. In particular,
Rakesh Kilaru, who is so poised and smart and has so much political savvy and courtroom finesse.” Kilaru is summed up by a client as “a uniquely talented trial and appellate lawyer. He is equally at ease in the courtroom at trial and before appellate panels. He is one of the smartest lawyers I've ever dealt with and is also one of the nicest and easiest with which to work. He is the first person I'd want on my side in an important legal fight.” Kilaru and Wilkinson worked with
Brian Stekloff to secure a defense victory on behalf in the summer of 2024 of the NFL, its 32 Member Teams, and NFL Enterprises, overturning a $4.8 billion verdict that a jury awarded to plaintiffs in a certified class-action lawsuit regarding the clients’ practices regarding its Sunday Ticket package — a sports subscription that broadcasts regular-season NFL games unavailable on local affiliates — which allegedly violated antitrust laws. In another sports-related antitrust matter, Kilaru and
Cali Arat negotiated for a groundbreaking $2.8 billion settlement, announced in May 2024 and approved in April 2025, of a series of antitrust class-action lawsuits brought by hundreds of thousands of current and former collegiate student-athletes against the National Collegiate Athletic Association and five major conferences of schools. These disputes concern the nature of student-athlete compensation. In yet another antitrust-related appointment, Wilkinson and
Kosta Stojilkovic have recently been retained by Hewlett Packard Enterprise to defend against the DoJ’s challenge to its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks. This is the first merger challenge brought by this administration.
Williams & Connolly enjoys a prestigious position as perhaps the only DC firm with just one office that boasts national and international recognition. Its pedigree is further enhanced by one of the biggest stable of trial stars in the US. Williams & Connolly has long garnered plaudits for its product liability, securities, appellate and its especially high-profile white-collar practices – all of which have historically showcased the firm’s courtroom elan – and more recently it has emerged as one of the country’s most prominent players in antitrust and intellectual property cases. The firm is even developing a burgeoning international arbitration practice.
Antitrust has been particularly robust for many DC-based lawyers of late, but Williams & Connolly has earned a coveted position. “In every one of the last few antitrust cases I’ve been in, firms are bringing in trial lawyers,” offers a peer. “Not the usual, traditional ‘used to work at the FTC, speaks very technically, etc.’ The plaintiffs are not thinking of this technically. So you need courtroom experience, and Williams & Connolly definitely exemplifies that.” Illustrating this point, Heidi Hubbard is lead trial counsel and co-lead counsel in an antitrust action filed by the FTC that alleges many practices in Amazon’s retail store are anti-competitive. Trial is scheduled for October 2026. “Heidi has been mostly known for products, and yet here she is on a huge antitrust case,” marvels one peer. “She really can do it all.” Jonathan Pitt also acts on this case and has been playing an increasing role in several other antitrust actions as well. Pitt also works with Robert Van Kirk in representing the University of Notre Dame in sweeping putative class- action litigation filed against more than a dozen top private universities, alleging that the defendants violate the federal antitrust laws by conspiring to limit financial aid. Specifically, the suit accuses defendants of participating in a price-fixing cartel allegedly aimed at eliminating financial aid as a point of competition between the schools. Van Kirk is identified as another all-purpose trial lawyer, who spent the better part of a decade representing the Carlyle Group in securities cases. John Schmidtlein serves as lead trial counsel for the search engine in the landmark antitrust enforcement actions brought by the DoJ and various State Attorneys General accusing the company of maintaining an illegal monopoly over internet search and search advertising. Trial on the remedies phase was scheduled to commence in May 2025. “John is terrific, really running point as Google’s front-line lawyer.”
Beyond antitrust, Enu Mainigi led a team that in March 2025
won a major jury trial victory as lead counsel for Albertsons and SuperValu in the Central District of Illinois in a long-running False Claims Act case that had been all the way to the US Supreme Court and back. Mainigi joined the case as lead trial counsel after the Supreme Court rejected the False Claims standard that had been applied by the Seventh Circuit and the district court, reversed a defense summary judgment ruling in two companion cases, and remanded the case for trial. “Enu Mainigi tried this case hard,” states a peer. “She’s sharp and has a strong team.”
Mainigi and Ryan Scarborough successfully represented Fifth Third Bank in litigation alleging unfair and abusive acts and practices in connection with allegedly unauthorized account openings. In July 2024, the parties announced a global settlement. Scarborough is a cheered by a client as “a top-notch attorney who is also a nice person, and that is hard to find.” Another addresses Scarborough as “empathetic, responsive, and a top-notch communicator with a strong ethical compass. He is a bright, warm personality while still being reassuringly dry and measured when discussing litigation forecasting.”
Intellectual property star David Berl
has secured a series of major victories on behalf of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in Regeneron’s Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act litigation concerning Regeneron’s vision-saving product, Eylea.
in December 2023, a West Virginia court ruled in Regeneron’s favor following a bench trial against Mylan Pharmaceuticals, holding that a key patent covering Eylea
was valid and infringed. The trial involved technical fact and expert testimony regarding technology for stabilizing the protein active ingredient in Eylea. The court rejected each of Mylan’s numerous challenges to the validity of Regeneron’s patent, and Berl also persuaded the court that Mylan’s proposed biosimilar product infringed the asserted patent. “David Berl is a brilliant mind in every respect,” opines a peer.
Joseph Petrosinelli has long been recognized as “a pillar of the product-liability bar” and has also earned a reputation for his courtroom prowess and demeanor. A client sums up Petrosinelli as “likeable, strategic and knowledgeable.”
A global business firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been steadily increasing its litigation profile in both market share and a literal headcount/geographic footprint sense. “A few years ago, I would have said Willkie was a great business firm with a small but good litigation bench,” offers a peer. “Not anymore! They have really doubled down on litigation of late, and it seems to really be working. They are now in several key markets and building several practice areas to rival others.” 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 observation of 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, that office’s managing partner Alex Weingarten is a peer favorite. “Alex is the real deal. He represented Jamie Spears [father and former conservator of Britney], and I thought he did a very good job with that,” opines one peer. “Alex was at Venable before moving to Willkie,” states another 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 represents The Chosen, Inc. producers of the popular television series, The Chosen. The client is engaged in an arbitration against a licensor of the series Angel Studios. Angel Studios has dramatically exceeded the scope of its licensed use of the series and is using its affiliation with the client to improperly promote its unrelated content. An arbitration hearing was commenced in March 2024. Acting with Weingarten on this matter is Kori Bell, a white-collar-focused partner with an avid peer following of her own that the firm lured from LA boutique Larson in 2023. Weingarten also represents Fitness Technologies, a software company servicing enterprise fitness boutiques, in its lawsuit against a concerning claims, among other things, the rival has engaged in an scheme to exclude competitors from the industry, including the use of exclusive contracts and non-competes. In San Francisco,
Simona Agnolucci, identified by peers as “a real player,” acted with
Benedict Hur in leading Google to a March 2024 defense against allegations of violating New York and Minnesota privacy laws by improperly retaining consumer streaming video rental data, such as rental history and personal identification, beyond the legal limits. Agnolucci also acts with Jonathan Patchen in representing Ever.Ag., a provider of technology, services, and intelligence platforms to the US dairy industry, in a hotly contested trade secret dispute against a Canadian startup competitor that has asserted antitrust counterclaims against the client, alleging that Ever.Ag has illegally monopolized the market for data services for milk producers and processors in the US through anticompetitive contracts and acquisitions of competitors. A peer also insists, “Let’s talk about [San Francisco-based IP-focused future star]
Barrington Dyer – he’s great!”
In the New York office, the firm continues to enjoy esteemed positions in the insurance and securities spaces. In the former practice,
Christopher St. Jeanos represents AIG, which has a major role in current and expected future coverage disputes arising from the opioid lawsuits. There are now 15 active litigations against 13 different policyholders. “He’s a stand-up lawyer,” insists a peer, “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.” Securities partner
Tariq Mundiya is representing Zayo founder, CEO, and Chairman Dan Caruso in an action arising out of a $14.3 billion buyout of Zayo by a consortium of equity co-investors. Plaintiffs claimed that Caruso breached his fiduciary duties by steering the sales process towards an acquirer so he could capture upside through a roll-over of his stock and remain as CEO post-merger. They further alleged that the company’s board was aware of the CEO’s actions and did not properly oversee his actions to maximize stockholder value and that Caruso was liable for making misleading disclosures and omissions in a proxy statement recommending that stockholders approve the merger. Another securities partner,
Todd Cosenza represents several current and former Board Members of Wells Fargo & Company in a civil RICO action. The plaintiff is a business owner who contends that he was injured when about $1.3 million of three of his companies’ funds were deposited into unauthorized deposit accounts and then withdrawn without authorization.
Craig Martin, Chairman, Americas, 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, white-collar work, intellectual property, and pro bono human rights issues.
The Litigation & Trial Department leverages a global platform to provide unmatched legal services. With over 1000 top-tier litigators, we bring experience, insight, and determination to every client. Our pragmatic approach ensures favorable results through effective collaboration with local counsel, co-counsel, and government regulators. We develop aggressive and creative litigation strategies, often resolving matters before trial. When necessary, clients can rely on our ability to win at trial, arbitration, regulatory proceedings, and on appeal.
Antitrust & Competition: Our distinguished team comprises highly qualified lawyers adept in both local and international antitrust and competition matters. We provide expert counsel on merger clearance, cartel investigations, competition-related litigation, IP antitrust issues, and compliance training. Our team is committed to delivering exceptional client service in cases involving monopolization challenges, rapid-response merger litigation, and innovative, high-stakes theories.
Complex Commercial Litigation: Our team combines trial-ready capabilities and business fluency to tackle complex challenges. We represent public and private companies, financial institutions, private equity firms, governmental entities, and high net worth individuals in commercial disputes. Over the past decade, we have tried or arbitrated hundreds of cases to verdict with an extraordinary success rate in US federal and state courts and arbitration panels. Our team includes more than 350 former federal law clerks and more than 35 former federal prosecutors, providing invaluable institutional knowledge and courtroom experience.
Connectivity, Privacy & Information: Our firm brings together a global team of lawyers addressing the critical legal issues arising from digital technology and services, in disciplines including communications, data privacy and cybersecurity, internet law, and digital copyright. Our team handles high-profile litigation, regulatory investigations and counseling, internal investigations, and technology transactions for clients in multiple industry sectors. We handle matters requiring extensive experience in particular areas of the law governing digital commerce, as well as matters that cut across legal silos to deliver exceptional results for our clients.
Environmental Litigation: We represent clients in administrative and regulatory proceedings, enforcement, litigation, transactions, and legislative matters. We help clients navigate complex agency rulemakings, secure approvals for energy and infrastructure projects, and resolve environmental investigations and compliance issues. Our wide-ranging expertise and unique government experience set us apart, delivering successful outcomes in groundbreaking matters worldwide.
Intellectual Property Litigation: Our litigators have unparalleled experience in IP strategy and disputes, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade dress, and trade secrets. We are actively involved in precedent-setting multijurisdictional litigation on a global scale, including extensive experience across numerous U.S. district courts, as well as proceedings before the Federal Circuit, ITC, and PTAB. Our team is comprised of technically trained lawyers, technical analysts, and dedicated IP paralegals, adept at managing cases in diverse industries across life sciences, technology, and more, including semiconductors, software, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, electric motors, engines, emerging technologies, cloud computing and networking, packaging, building products, and banking technologies, among others.
Securities Litigation & Professional Liability: Our Securities and M&A Litigation team is renowned for its exceptional expertise in handling complex securities class actions, shareholder derivative litigation, and litigation arising from M&A transactions. We have defended more federal securities lawsuits than any other firm in the US in the last five years, and our presence in the Delaware courts is unparalleled among our peer firms (Lex Machina). Recognized as the Securities Group of the Year by Law360 in four of the past five years, and consistently ranked #1 by Chambers and Legal500, our team comprises leading lawyers, former federal prosecutors, and senior SEC staff. We are the go-to firm for Fortune 500 companies, major financial institutions, and the Big Four accounting firms, securing high-profile, precedent-setting victories. We excel at resolving matters before trial through dispositive motions or settlements, and have a proven track record in trial success.
Supreme Court & Appellate: Led by a former U.S. Solicitor General, our Supreme Court and Appellate Practice boasts an outstanding record before the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts. Over the past two decades, our advocates have argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court, representing Fortune 100 corporations, state governments, leading educational institutions, and individuals. Recently, we secured certiorari in nearly a dozen cases and have prepared briefs for hundreds of cases in both federal and state appellate courts.
White Collar Defense & Investigations: Our firm is at the forefront of advising on white collar and enforcement matters, offering unparalleled expertise in high-profile, sensitive cases globally. We leverage deep experience with regulators and prosecutors to guide clients through inquiries and investigations, skillfully defending against enforcement actions and prosecutions. Our track record includes avoiding charges and achieving full acquittals, often defeating government prosecutions before trial. We represent clients in actions by the SEC, DOJ, PCAOB, FINRA, CFTC, state attorneys general, Congress, and other global regulators. Our team excels in export controls, economic sanctions, and national security-related work, including CFIUS reviews and FOCI mitigation. Our defense lawyers include former senior prosecutors and government officials from top agencies.
Updated Oct 2025
Sidley is an elite global law firm. Harnessing 158 years of legal heritage, we provide strong representation on behalf of clients in more than 70 countries. Our lawyers apply a Built to WinSM client service model to their legal strategies, ensuring the best possible outcomes in complex transactional, restructuring, regulatory, and litigation matters. With 21 offices strategically situated in key commercial and financial hubs across the world, our perspective and our reach are truly global. Our 2,300 lawyers, fluent in more than 80 languages, possess the cultural awareness and cross-border legal acumen needed to bring clarity to a dynamic business landscape.
Follow Sidley on Twitter @SidleyLaw.
Appellate: Sidley is widely recognized as one of the premier appellate firms in the country, and as a trailblazer — regularly addressing intricate, precedent-setting issues in federal and state law in the Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, as well as state appellate and supreme courts across the nation. Since the inception of the practice in 1985, the team, including more than 20 former Supreme Court clerks, has briefed over 220 cases on the merits and argued more than 150 cases before the Court.
Bankruptcy: Sidley’s global Restructuring group is regularly involved in the largest restructurings throughout the world. The team represents companies facing in-court or out-of-court restructurings, official and ad hoc committees of creditors, agent lenders, and participants in distressed M&A processes. Sidley prides itself on the group’s ability to use innovative, bespoke approaches to obtain the best results in complex situations.
Commercial: Clients repeatedly turn to Sidley’s Commercial Litigation team when their most important disputes must be tried. Sidley’s track record of successes is unparalleled in high-stakes, mission-critical cases against well-regarded opponents, no matter the forum. The team’s full-service litigation capabilities are relied upon by leading global companies with household names.
Competition/Antitrust: As a part of the firm’s global antitrust offering, Sidley has a strong and well-respected litigation practice. Sidley lawyers represent clients in their most complex cases, including matters involving antitrust enforcement, merger clearances, claims of collusion, and other alleged antitrust violations. The team has represented domestic and international corporations, trade associations, government entities, professional societies, and individuals in the full range of civil and criminal trials.
Insurance: Sidley’s Insurance Disputes practice advises on significant insurance litigation nationwide across a variety of areas, including regulatory compliance, insurance class actions, reinsurance disputes, ERISA litigation, general commercial litigation, securities and shareholder litigation, and Supreme Court and appellate courts, among other areas.
Intellectual Property: Sidley boasts one of the most distinguished and highly regarded Intellectual Property litigation practices in the U.S., with approximately 80 lawyers and a deep bench of trial lawyers. Handling matters for innovation-driven clients ranging from global Fortune 500 companies to groundbreaking startups, the team develops winning strategies for high-stakes IP litigation involving patents, trade secret and unfair competition, false advertising, copyright infringement, and trademarks.
International Arbitration: Sidley’s Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy practice exemplifies a superior depth of knowledge of the law, regulatory challenges, and culture of the jurisdictions in which the team practices. Operating from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, the team works as a tightly integrated team of practitioners with different cultural and legal backgrounds and broad language capabilities.
Labor and Employment: Sidley is at the forefront of representing employers in major high-profile class and collective action litigation against many of the biggest and most aggressive plaintiffs’ firms in the country. The team is known for winning bet-the-company cases and deftly handling high-value discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, executive disputes, whistle-blower claims, restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation, and investigations involving matters of the utmost importance to companies.
Product Liability and Recall: Sidley’s Product Liability and Mass Torts practice has played key roles in many of the most significant product liability litigations. The team has decades of experience handling claims associated with products, the facilities that manufacture them, and the companies that sell them. We defend clients in state and federal courts and are typically lead counsel in multidistrict litigations and state coordinated proceedings.
Securities: Sidley’s Securities and Shareholder Litigation team stands out for the strength of its work, winning complex securities matters at the trial level and on appeal across a variety of sectors. The team’s deep bench and extensive experience allows Sidley to represent a wide range of clients. This includes major corporations and private companies, boards of directors and board committees, senior executives, financial advisers, investment banks, and auditors.
White Collar Crime: Sidley lawyers have handled investigations in more than 130 countries, collaborating seamlessly across borders and practice groups to offer a cohesive approach to white collar crime and corporate investigations matters. The firm can mobilize teams quickly to swiftly deploy the critical legal support needed to manage sensitive, high-profile investigations and litigation.
Updated Sep 2024
Williams & Connolly is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier litigation firms. Our lawyers routinely handle significant and complex civil, criminal, and administrative cases across the United States and around the globe. The firm maintains a strong tradition of hiring the best and the brightest and training and promoting its lawyers from within, producing closely knit and collaborative teams dedicated to achieving successful outcomes for our clients.
The firm was founded in 1967 by legendary trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams. In the tradition of our founder, we share a passionate and principled dedication to excellence and success in all that we do. Over the last five decades, many of the world’s most prominent organizations and individuals have trusted us with their most important and complex litigation, investigation, and arbitration matters.
The firm’s clients include major global companies from virtually every sector, including Pfizer, Disney, Samsung, Intel, Bank of America, Google, The Carlyle Group, Medtronic, AstraZeneca, Genentech, Eli Lilly, 21st Century Fox, and HSBC. In addition, our lawyers have represented numerous law and accounting firms in professional liability and other matters, one reason why the Washington Post has recognized Williams & Connolly as the firm that other professional firms “turn to when they’re in trouble.”
The firm’s robust intellectual property practice successfully represents clients in patent litigation matters worth billions of dollars. In the healthcare and consumer industries, Williams & Connolly serves as national coordinating, trial, and/or resolution counsel for major pharmaceutical, medical device, pharmacy, technology, and consumer products companies in mass torts, multi-district litigation, and class actions. Our lawyers litigate cross-border commercial and other disputes in wide-ranging international litigation and arbitrations. We have handled many of the most complex corporate, financial, and securities disputes stemming from the global financial crisis. We represent companies and individuals in government investigations and prosecutions of all types, including allegations of fraud, corruption, and FCPA violations. Our lawyers also regularly appear before the Supreme Court and state and federal courts of appeals.
Known for our ability to take cases to trial, and the deep bench of lawyers at the firm who have tried civil and criminal matters in courts across the country and internationally, Williams & Connolly is described by Chambers USA as “offering unmatched strength in depth and top-level trial capabilities,” and “[a] class act: a delight to litigate with, and fearsome to litigate against.” In addition, Washingtonian magazine has highlighted the firm’s “uncompromising emphasis on victory.”
Our distinctive approach to litigation has earned the firm top marks from leading publications and ranking services, such as Chambers, Legal 500, The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, and Benchmark Litigation, both for overall litigation prowess as well as for many practice- or industry-specific types of litigation. We hire the top graduates from the best law schools and provide a collaborative training ground for young litigators, providing clients with the highest-quality representation at every level of seniority and with a cohesive team always working to advance their interests. Vault has ranked Williams & Connolly as one of the top law firms for selectivity, partner-associate relations, career outlook, satisfaction, quality of work, and business outlook. Williams & Connolly maintains a nearly one-to-one partner-to-associate ratio, ensuring that matters are leanly staffed and that our associates gain significant hands-on experience. Our approach to hiring and advancement from within fosters a unique culture that focuses on teamwork, preparation, and tenacity designed to deliver results.
WilmerHale is a leading, full-service international law firm with more than 1,200 lawyers located throughout 12 offices in the United States and Europe. The firm's lawyers work at the intersection of government, technology and business, and are committed to guiding principles of:
- providing quality, world-class legal and client services;
- promoting a culture of opportunity and inclusiveness;
- fostering an environment that promotes an entrepreneurial spirit, collaboration and collegiality by drawing on the exceptional talents and varied experience of our lawyers;
- encouraging lawyers and staff to perform public service and give back to the community through pro bono work, government service, service to the bar, teaching, and supporting public institutions and charitable organizations; and
- hiring and retaining exceptionally talented lawyers who possess the common trait of outstanding academic and personal achievements.
Litigation:
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. Learn more about our litigation practices at https://www.wilmerhale.com/en/solutions/litigation.
Regularly hailed as one of the strongest litigation teams in the industry, the Debevoise litigation practice consistently delivers outstanding results for its clients.
Recent matters include:
- Led a landmark cryptocurrency win on behalf of Ripple Labs in which the Southern District of New York Court ruled that Ripple’s XRP token is not a security, and not subject to SEC regulation when sold to the general public.
- Secured a rare post-trial victory obtaining a Rule 29 acquittal of ex-Fox International Channels CEO Hernan Lopez in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
- Won summary judgment on behalf of YPF S.A., the largest energy producer in the Republic of Argentina, defeating claims for roughly $15 billion in damages and pre-judgment interest.
- Secured a historical win for Fortinet and eight other defendants with the dismissal of a suit brought by Realtime Data by invalidating seven patents and over 120 individual patent claims.
- Obtained a dismissal of a class-action lawsuit against Tether and Bitfinex in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- Won a $100 million award for Gramercy Funds Management and Gramercy Peru Holdings in an UNCITRAL arbitration against the Republic of Peru relating to Peru’s agrarian reform bonds – largest amount awarded against Peru in any treaty arbitration and the first decision finding Peru liable under the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.
- Represented the Board of CBS Corporation in an investigation of sexual harassment allegations against the CEO and senior personnel
- Reached a resolution with the DOJ and EPA for Toyota’s emissions reporting practices without any criminal charges being filed
- Represented Booking.com in a Supreme Court case where the Court ruled 8-1 that Booking.com’s eponymous domain name is not generic and could register as a trademark
- Successfully represented Qatar and Qatari entities and individuals in claims arising from measures imposed by UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt against Qatar, twice prevailing before the International Court of Justice
- Responded to a significant data breach for Capital One and conducted a related investigation for the bank’s Board
- Represented Robinhood in SEC and FINRA settlements relating to best execution practices and payment for order flow
- Secured a $75 million bench trial victory for Resolution Life in the NY Supreme Court stemming from an M&A transaction
- Secured a $327 million victory in a dispute for D. E. Shaw / TERP in the NY Supreme Court on claims for breach of contract and damages from the sale of First Wind Holdings
- Won a record-breaking $400 million award on behalf of Perenco Ecuador in the final phase of its 13-year-long dispute against the Republic of Ecuador
- Won preliminary injunctions on behalf of Diamond Hands Consulting which operates “SatoshiStreetBets” web and social forums, forcing its competitors to stop using the moniker and hand over infringing social media accounts to DHS.
- Secured the dismissal of a securities class action on behalf of Tribune Media Company which accused the company of failing to disclose that its proposed merger partner Sinclair Broadcast Group, was playing hardball with regulators regarding their demand that Sinclair divest certain broadcast stations.
- Helped get relief in federal courts for nearly 46 inmates serving onerous sentences resulting from outdated mandatory sentencing provisions that were disproportionately invoked against Black men
The firm’s litigation practice is led by co-chairs Mary Beth Hogan and Andrew Ceresney and features an all-star roster, including former Attorneys General Lord Peter Goldsmith KC and Michael Mukasey and former Chair of the SEC Mary Jo White, who returned to Debevoise in 2017 following her four-year tenure. Ms. White, who previously served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for nine years, is Senior Chair of the firm and leads the Strategic Crisis Response and Solutions Group.
Their team also includes over 15 former Assistant U.S. Attorneys or Department of Justice attorneys, including a former federal district court judge, the former Chief of the Criminal Division of the Southern District of New York, the former Acting Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ Criminal Division, the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security and three former Unit Chiefs of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
The breadth of experience offered by Debevoise in and out of the courtroom sets their litigators apart. They bring personal attention, seasoned judgment, deep industry knowledge, credibility and substantive legal experience to each matter, tailoring advice to clients’ needs and circumstances. They work seamlessly and collaboratively with clients and co-counsel and across practices to achieve the best possible results for our clients.
Based in New York, Washington DC, London, Paris, Frankfurt, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, their broadly skilled team of nearly 300 litigators handle domestic and cross-border disputes of every kind and complex matters in courts in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, France and elsewhere, as well as before arbitration tribunals, agencies and administrative bodies worldwide. They represent clients as plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of areas, including:
- Antitrust & Competition
- Arbitration & International Disputes
- Bankruptcy
- Business Integrity
- Crisis Management
- Data Strategy & Security
- Commercial Litigation
- Insurance Industry Disputes
- Intellectual Property
- Internal Investigations
- Labor & Employment Litigation
- Product Liability
- Securities Enforcement
- Securities Litigation
- Trial Practice
- White Collar & Regulatory Defense
Another notable and distinguishing feature of the Debevoise litigation practice is the success of their women partners. Benchmark Litigation has named nine Debevoise women litigation partners among the “Top 250 Women in Litigation”—an exceptional ranking for a firm of its size. Since the inception of Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 250 Women in Litigation” list in 2013, the firm’s partners have been recognized every year for demonstrating its tradition of serving clients at the highest levels and of contributing to the development and advancement of distinguished women leaders.
Updated Oct 2023
Full-service IP firm: Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP is one of the world’s leading intellectual property law firms, practicing all aspects of patent, trademark, and copyright law. It is a true one-stop shop for all IP matters, with experts in every area of IP and technology. The firm also provides counseling and litigation services in advertising, privacy, and a wide spectrum of additional IP-adjacent commercial matters. Its comprehensive approach to clients’ IP needs and Finnegan’s mega-boutique size underpins its year-to-year, decade-to-decade pre-eminence in IP litigation across all industries and tribunals.
Global presence: With offices in the United States, Asia, and Europe, Finnegan’s multinational team represents clients on IP issues relating to European, German, UK, and U.S. IP law.
Industry and technical expertise: Finnegan offers full-service IP legal and technical experience in virtually every industry and technology: biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biologics and biosimilars, combination products, chemicals, oil and gas, electronics, semiconductors, computers and software, FinTech, Internet of Things (IoT), automotive, aerospace and aviation, industrial manufacturing, consumer products, food and beverage, outdoor recreation, sports and fitness, digital health, medical devices, clean energy and renewables, robotics, textiles, artificial intelligence (AI), and 3D printing.
IP-focused talent: With Finnegan’s practice centered on intellectual property, the firm is positioned to create economies of scale and focus all resources on providing the best tools and teams for clients. In the past five years, Finnegan has filed over 675 IP-related district court cases. The firm’s team is comprised of over 250 litigators, including career trial attorneys. Over 275 of Finnegan’s legal professionals hold degrees in scientific disciplines (more than 75 hold PhDs). Over 215 professionals are registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
ANDA litigation: Since being involved in the very first ANDA litigation, Finnegan has been a leading firm representing innovative pharmaceutical companies before federal district courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Our successes derive from a deep bench of experienced and technically sophisticated attorneys who understand the long-term plans of innovative pharmaceutical companies, as well as the legal particularities of ANDA litigation under the Hatch-Waxman Act and the nuances of pharmaceutical patent law. Over the last five years, our attorneys have represented more than 20 brand companies in more than 450 ANDA litigations involving revolutionary drugs such as Brilinta®, Farxiga®, Relistor®, Jublia®, Aptiom®, KISQALI®, ORILISSA®, and Abilify®. We consistently have 150+ ongoing ANDA litigations every year, providing counselling and litigation services for a range of technologies such as antibodies, automated DNA sequencing, diagnostics, imaging agents and other research tools, molecular mechanism infringement claims, and protein therapies.
International Trade Commission (ITC) litigation: When it comes to ITC litigation, Finnegan was litigating IP cases at the ITC long before it became the popular forum it is today. Litigating in the ITC presents a unique challenge—litigating a technologically complicated case in a short period of time, in a pressure-packed forum that can make or break the commercial success of the products at issue. At the ITC, summary determination is rare, and approximately 45 percent of Section 337 cases go to trial, all in front of an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), not a jury. When choosing a firm to litigate in the ITC, trial experience in the ITC is of paramount importance. In the past five years, Finnegan attorneys have been involved in more than 10 percent of Section 337 cases. Over 150 of the firm’s attorneys have litigated at the ITC. Finnegan also has practitioners with ITC experience in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and mechanical fields. Our attorneys have even tried ITC cases involving design patents and trademarks. During the past two years, more than half of all ITC cases have involved electrical and IT- related technologies and semiconductors; Finnegan has more than 80 lawyers and over 20 professionals who have at least one degree in electrical engineering, computer science, or some other related form of specialized technology.
Trademark litigation: Finnegan’s trademark litigation practice spans numerous industries and covers all types of trademark rights, including service marks, trade dress, product configuration, trade names, domain names, letters, numbers, colors, and telephone numbers. Representing both plaintiffs and defendants, our lawyers have decades of experience litigating both large and small trademark cases before courts throughout the country and regularly appear before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and its Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the federal circuit courts of appeal, district courts, and other tribunals. We have an impressive track record of favorably resolving litigious matters for our clients, whether by choosing a forum that gives clients the best chance to win on the law, filing a motion to dismiss, obtaining an early temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, positioning a case for settlement, moving for summary judgment, or taking the case to trial. One of our strengths is the use of experts to enhance our clients’ legal positions. For many years, we have worked with numerous consumer survey experts on a wide range of issues in trademark litigation, including likelihood of confusion, likelihood of dilution, genericness, secondary meaning, and fame. We also make strategic use of other experts in areas such as linguistics, marketing, consumer psychology, industry practices, and damages.
Practice Areas:
- Advertising
- Copyright
- Design Rights
- European, German, and UK IP Law
- Export Control
- IP Litigation
- Patent Office Examinations
- Patent Portfolio Management, Monetization, and Transactions
- Post-Grant Proceedings
- Privacy
- Trademark
- Trade Secrets
Other Offices:
North America: Atlanta · Boston · Palo Alto · Reston · Washington, DC
Europe: London · Munich
Asia: Seoul · Shanghai · Taipei · Tokyo
Updated Sep 2024
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Hunton Andrews Kurth is a global law firm with over 900 lawyers handling a range of complex transactional, litigation, and regulatory matters for clients in many industries, including energy, financial services, real estate, retail and consumer products, and technology. With offices across the US and in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, the firm is aligned with clients’ businesses and committed to delivering exceptional service. Our full-service litigation practice is one of the largest in the country, with particular depth in key litigation markets such as Texas, California, New York, Florida, and Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic.
Since its founding more than 100 years ago, Hunton Andrews Kurth has been a business-focused firm, an approach we continue in today’s litigation-focused climate. Our team of more than 400 litigators draw upon decades of experience to handle all aspects of disputes with the goal of achieving successful results whether in a courtroom or the boardroom.
Our skilled litigators focus on strategy from the outset and develop individualized litigation plans that are comprehensive in scope, mindful of each client’s business and legal goals, and aligned with client needs. We aggressively and efficiently represent clients at different phases of their corporate life cycles. Whether advising a start-up in patent litigation or a Fortune 100 company in a bet-the-company class action, we apply the same principles of client-focused representation to achieve the desired result.
Litigation Overview: Hunton Andrews Kurth has a top global litigation team, having litigated and/or arbitrated in all 50 states and many foreign countries. We often serve as national or worldwide coordinating counsel. Our diverse team has the collective knowledge, skill, and experience to help businesses identify and manage risks, respond to existing or threatened litigation, and pursue resolution in any venue. Hunton Andrews Kurth attorneys are admitted to the American College of Trial Lawyers and ranked by publications such as Chambers USA, Legal 500, and Benchmark Litigation, and the firm is named one of the “most feared firms in litigation” by BTI.
We handle litigation matters in the energy, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, food, hospitality, consumer products, and retail industries, tailoring strategy on a case-by-case basis. Our commercial litigation docket includes class action defense, commercial contract issues, white collar defense, administrative matters, cybersecurity and privacy investigations, and appeals in state and federal courts. We represent corporations and other entities across a broad range of complex matters – from providing advice and counsel about business disputes and torts to civil litigation, trial, and appeal. We are often engaged in “bet-the-company” cases, multidistrict litigation, and coordinated state law proceedings. Our lawyers have the experience to handle cases that involve multiple adversaries in courts across the nation and abroad.
In addition, the firm’s environmental team, with more than 45 environmental attorneys and scientists, many of whom are former DOJ attorneys and senior regulatory agency officials, handles high-profile environmental litigation matters. These include enforcement defense, permit litigation, and challenges to environmental regulatory programs before federal district and appeals courts and the US Supreme Court, addressing issues of nationwide significance.
Updated Aug 2024
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a leading international law firm, consistently ranks among the world’s top law firms in industry surveys and major publications. The firm is distinctively positioned in today’s global marketplace with more than 1,800 lawyers and 21 offices.
Litigation Practice: Acclaimed as a litigation powerhouse, Gibson Dunn and the members of the Litigation practice have a long record of outstanding successes. The American Lawyer named Gibson Dunn a Finalist in its 2022 Litigation Department of the Year competition, noting that “when news breaks and the pressure rises, clients call Gibson Dunn’s litigators to regain control.” This award follows the firm’s unprecedented four wins in this biennial competition.
The members of our litigation practice group are not just litigators, they are first-rate trial lawyers. Each year, we try numerous cases to verdicts before juries, judges and arbitrators. Our clients have trusted us to try their most significant disputes to verdict.
We have tried cases and argued appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court and state supreme courts in addition to federal and state courts across the United States involving almost every foreseeable area of controversy. We also handle disputes before a wide variety of nonjudicial forums, from federal and state agencies to international arbitrations.
Antitrust & Trade Regulation: Gibson Dunn serves clients in virtually every significant area of antitrust and trade regulation law, including cartel and government civil investigations, class action treble damage litigation, private antitrust litigation, government review of mergers and acquisitions, and trade regulation matters.
Appellate: Gibson Dunn has one of the nation’s leading appellate practices with broad experience in complex appellate litigation at all levels of the state and federal court systems. The practice has been involved in matters covering an array of constitutional, statutory, regulatory and common-law issues. Our lawyers have presented arguments in front of the Supreme Court of the United States nearly 160 times.
Business Restructuring & Reorganization: The firm has extensive experience in both US and multinational insolvencies. Its lawyers regularly represent and counsel official creditors’ committees, ad hoc creditor groups, secured lenders, investors and companies (including DIP and exit financing) in out-of-court work-outs and Chapter 11 cases.
Commercial Litigation & Arbitration: Gibson Dunn’s approach emphasizes the full spectrum of services for our clients. Our litigators are trained to evaluate actual and potential cases at the earliest stages, to first determine if litigation can be avoided, or, if it is filed, whether the matter can be resolved quickly and economically. We pride ourselves on handling our litigation matters as efficiently as possible. Gibson Dunn lawyers are fully familiar with a wide array of alternative dispute resolution techniques, including arbitration, mediation, “mini-trials” and the like.
Intellectual Property: Gibson Dunn’s deep bench of trial lawyers with technical backgrounds, advanced degrees and industry experience provides the necessary insight to develop and defend against sophisticated claims in a wide range of industries and complex technologies. Our litigators are recognized throughout the industry as leaders in prosecuting, defending and trying IP claims in federal and state courts, before administrative bodies including the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as well as before arbitration panels.
Labor & Employment: Gibson Dunn is known for our unsurpassed ability to help the world’s preeminent companies tackle their most challenging labor and employment matters. We have prevailed in what are believed to be the largest class actions under several different U.S. employment laws, including Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the wage and hour laws. Gibson Dunn has also worked on high-profile ERISA cases, nationally recognized Sarbanes-Oxley ‘whistleblower’ cases and aggressive advocacy on OSHA issues.
Securities Litigation, Regulation & Corporate Governance: A recognized leader in the defense of securities class actions, derivative litigation and SEC enforcement actions, the firm advises companies on disclosure, accounting and regulatory issues for domestic and foreign regulatory bodies. The partners include nationally recognized securities class action defense counsel and a number of former senior officials with the SEC, NASD and DOJ.
Transnational Litigation: Gibson Dunn’s Transnational Litigation practice specializes in protecting clients against claims in U.S. and other courts stemming from overseas activities, as well as reducing and eliminating the risks posed by foreign litigation that, if unchecked, threaten company-wide implications. Our uniquely skilled, creative and experienced transnational team is equipped to manage all aspects of cross-border litigation, including devising, coordinating and implementing offensive and defensive global strategies and has represented clients in some of the highest-profile cases around the world. Gibson Dunn’s international team consists of US, English, French, Spanish and German-qualified lawyers, many of whom are dual qualified.
White Collar Defense & Investigations: The firm defends prominent companies and executives against federal and state prosecutions and has conducted numerous sensitive internal investigations in areas including anti-money laundering; computer and IP crimes; environmental violations and compliance; FCPA matters; forfeiture (civil and criminal); health care fraud; privacy; procurement fraud; securities, financial institution and accounting fraud; and tax offenses. The practice group includes numerous former federal and state prosecutors and officials, many of whom served at high levels within the DOJ, SEC and other key investigative arms of the government.
Founded in 1920, Akerman is recognized as one of the country’s premier law firms, with more than 700 lawyers in 25 offices throughout the United States..
Commercial Litigation: Akerman offers a leading trial team that includes litigators across the United States. We represent a diverse range of clients across numerous sectors, with particular strength in the financial services, private equity, insurance, real estate, construction, health and life sciences, and energy sectors. Akerman lawyers regularly appear before judges and arbitrators in class actions, securities, white-collar, fraud and recovery, product liability, intellectual property, employment, bankruptcy, and general business matters.
Appellate: With a bench that includes many former appellate and trial court judges, Akerman’s appellate practice is a national powerhouse with demonstrated success in handling appeals related to complex commercial litigation. Akerman's appellate team frequently assist trial lawyers during all phases of litigation, preserving errors for appeal, drafting motions and responses, and providing strategic advice on the best approach for seeking relief on appeal. They handle numerous matters before appellate courts nationwide in various commercial cases and class actions. We also have experience in administrative appeals involving high profile issues before state agencies. Additionally, Akerman's appellate lawyers represent industry associations as amicus curiae in appellate proceedings when our clients are not a party to an appeal but have a substantial interest in the outcome.
International Litigation & Arbitration: Akerman has a long record of accomplishment in resolving complex multijurisdictional disputes. Our team represents multinational, foreign, and domestic corporations and individuals before U.S. federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings before a wide range of international arbitral bodies in multiple jurisdictions. Akerman litigators help clients successfully address conflicts in a broad range of sectors, including general commercial disputes, power and energy, construction and engineering, and banking and finance, among many others. Our highly responsive, multilingual team works in tandem with experienced local counsel to provide seamless resolution to disputes throughout Latin America, as well as in Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East.
Employment Litigation: Akerman’s national, multidisciplinary team helps clients navigate claims brought before state and federal agencies and boards as well as trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. Our lawyers regularly defend employers in all types of employment litigation, including complex class-action discrimination cases and collective action wage and hour matters. We also represent employers in connection with administrative charges and audits, and have successfully negotiated and supervised numerous settlements with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Updated Sep 2024
King & Spalding helps leading companies advance complex business interests in more than 160 countries. Working across a highly integrated platform of more than 1,300 lawyers in 26 offices globally, we deliver tailored commercial solutions through world-class offerings and an uncompromising approach to quality and service.
Trial and Global Disputes: Our experienced disputes lawyers try and arbitrate high-stakes cases every year across the globe in the most challenging jurisdictions for corporate clients. Recognized for creativity, meticulous preparation, and top-rate advocacy, our lawyers help clients navigate the litigation lifecycle, working together from day one to identify business objectives, develop a strategy to meet those objectives, and then execute that strategy. With more than 450 lawyers in 17 offices worldwide, we are uniquely able to staff and manage large and cross-border disputes from filing, to trial, and through appeal. Our lawyers have a variety of expertise across substantive areas, including Appellate Law, Class Action Defense, Commercial Litigation, Construction & Engineering Disputes, Corporate & Securities Litigation, E-Discovery, Insolvency Litigation, Insurance Coverage & Recovery, Intellectual Property, International Arbitration, Labor & Employment, Product Liability, Professional Liability, and Toxic & Environmental Torts. Working together—one area of expertise informing another—our disputes lawyers provide clients with seamless and efficient representation in the most complex and sensitive matters.
Capabilities:
- Appellate, Constitutional and Administrative Law
- Bankruptcy and Insolvency Litigation
- Class Action Defense
- Commercial Litigation
- Construction and Engineering Disputes
- Corporate and Securities Litigation
- E-Discovery
- Insurance Coverage and Recovery
- Intellectual Property, Patent, Trademark and Copyright Litigation
- International Arbitration and Litigation
- Labor and Employment
- Product Liability
- Professional Liability
- Toxic & Environmental Torts
Government Matters: Clients ranging from Fortune Global 50 corporations to high-profile individuals in every region of the world entrust King & Spalding’s Government Matters practice to guide them through rapidly changing regulatory landscapes, complex investigations by U.S. and foreign enforcement authorities, highly sensitive internal investigations and related, often parallel civil proceedings.
Hundreds of lawyers across the United States, Europe and Asia bring decades of prior government service and industry experience to our regulatory and investigative practices, which serve the financial services, pharmaceutical and medical device, healthcare, energy, automotive and technology sectors in particular. The team includes six U.S. Attorneys, 24 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and former senior officials from the highest ranks in regulatory and enforcement organizations that are most significant to our clients.
Our experienced team includes former leaders at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Commerce, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Bank of England, the U.K’s Financial Reporting Council and the World Trade Organization.
Capabilities:
- Antitrust
- Data, Privacy and Security
- Environmental, Health and Safety
- FDA and Life Sciences
- Government Advocacy and Public Policy
- Government Contracts
- Healthcare
- International Trade
- National Security and Corporate Espionage
- Securities Enforcement and Regulation
- Special Matters and Government Investigations
Corporate, Finance and Investments: Our Corporate, Finance and Investments team brings a collaborative approach to help clients execute complex, high-value transactions. We have a fully integrated platform with more than 330 lawyers in 17 offices, offering clients the benefit of global specialists with local knowledge and industry expertise. We work side by side with our clients to execute transactions efficiently and effectively—we understand what matters to both our clients and opposite parties and we explain the actual, practical risks to our clients.
Capabilities:
- Activist Defense
- Alternative Capital and Credit Funds
- Capital Markets
- Construction and Procurement
- Corporate Governance
- Emerging Companies and Venture Capital
- Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
- Energy and Infrastructure Projects
- Financial Restructuring
- Investment Funds and Asset Management
- Leveraged Finance
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Middle East and Islamic Finance and Investment
- Private Equity
- Real Estate
- Securitization
- Tax
Updated Sep 2024
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is a premier firm of more than 1,000 lawyers with diverse backgrounds, personalities, ideas and interests who provide innovative and effective solutions to our clients’ most complex legal and business challenges. With 10 offices across North America, Europe and Asia, and a robust international network, the firm represents many of the world’s largest and most important public and private corporations, asset managers and financial institutions, as well as clients in need of pro bono assistance. We consistently earn high praise for our collaborative, commercial approach, providing novel and efficient solutions to otherwise intractable situations.
The firm is widely recognized as having market-leading practices in private equity, public company M&A, litigation, white collar and regulatory defense, and restructuring. Within these broad practices, we also offer numerous market-leading specialized practices, including intellectual property and technology transactions, finance, capital markets, private funds, competition/antitrust, tax, executive compensation and real estate, among others. Our firm is at the forefront of legal innovation and offers a full suite of premier legal services to clients across borders.
Litigation:
No other law firm can approach Paul, Weiss’s experience and record of success in the most complex, high-stakes disputes in U.S. federal and state courts and before major arbitration bodies. With a deep bench that includes many of the country’s most accomplished trial lawyers and former senior government officials, our Litigation Department is uniquely positioned to handle multifaceted crises, from sprawling cross-border, multi-regulator enforcement actions to parallel private litigation. We are regularly entrusted with fast-moving, franchise-threatening matters because of our ability to develop and execute a winning strategy, no matter the problem or adversary, and to see the matter through to the ultimate resolution, whether at trial or before the Supreme Court.
White Collar & Regulatory Defense:
Clients facing white collar and regulatory enforcement challenges look to Paul, Weiss to protect their businesses and reputations and manage the behind-the-scenes interplay among competing regulators and enforcement agencies. We handle a vast range of regulatory and enforcement inquiries, including across jurisdictions. Our lawyers are adept at conducting internal investigations on behalf of companies, boards, audit committees and special litigation committees.
Broader Practice:
We are widely recognized for our expertise in many specialized litigation, regulatory defense and investigatory areas, including, among others: Anti-Corruption & Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; Anti-Money Laundering; Antitrust; Artificial Intelligence; Restructuring Litigation; Congressional Investigations; Copyright & Trademark Litigation; Crisis Management; Cryptocurrency & Blockchain; Cybersecurity & Data Protection; Employment, Workplace Investigations & Trade Secrets; ERISA, Pension & Benefits Litigation; False Claims Act & Qui Tam Litigation; Financial Services Litigation & Investigations; Foreign Direct Investment Regulation; Insurance Litigation; Internal Investigations; International Arbitration; Investigations; Investment Management Litigation; Mergers & Acquisitions Litigation; National Security & CFIUS; Patent Litigation; Product Liability & Mass Torts Litigation; Sanctions; Securities Litigation; and Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation.
Updated Sep 2025
Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service national business law firm with over 400 lawyers in eleven offices (Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Washington, DC), is widely recognized for its innovative, value-driven approach to delivering legal services.
At Thompson Hine, we integrate service excellence with innovation through SmartPaTH™, our comprehensive legal service delivery model developed in 2013 and continually enhanced. This program was created to respond to clients’ needs for a more predictable, efficient, and transparent service experience. Thompson Hine has made significant investments in talent, proprietary technology, processes, and infrastructure to increase efficiency and provide greater value. SmartPaTH combines disciplined legal project management, process efficiency, flexible staffing, and value-based pricing to align service delivery with client goals-driving efficiency, predictability, transparency, and cost control without sacrificing quality.
Our approach is powered by more than a decade of budgeting experience and proprietary technology, including a new AI- and machine learning–driven algorithm that analyzes over 13 years of client matter data housed in a robust data warehouse. These tools refine cost projections and improve planning, budgeting, monitoring, and matter management, delivering increased predictability in legal spend and better alignment with client objectives.
Legal Project Management is central to SmartPaTH. We define scope, develop detailed work plans and budgets, monitor progress, and conduct post-engagement reviews. Proprietary tools streamline budgeting and work planning, while our matter management system supports clear communication and progress tracking. We continuously improve processes by mapping workflows, creating templates, and developing practice-specific toolkits.
Our innovation is widely recognized across the legal industry. Thompson Hine is a finalist in two 2026 categories the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards North America—Innovation in AI Strategy for our firmwide generative AI professional development initiative and Innovation in New Legal Products.
Additionally, to optimize improvements in planning, budgeting, monitoring and managing matters, the firm commissioned three formal surveys of in-house counsel to ascertain their perceptions and needs, the most recent of which was just published, in November 2025. The survey data, combined with informal client feedback, guides the firm’s innovation efforts
We continue our strategic national growth, opening our 10th office in Minneapolis in 2025, following Los Angeles in 2024, and adding key lateral talent across offices.
Thompson Hine. Always Innovating.
www.thompsonhine.com/innovation
Updated March 2026
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The world’s leading organizations and global players choose Proskauer to represent them when they need it the most. With 800+ lawyers in key financial centers around the world, we are known for our pragmatic and commercial approach. Proskauer is the place to turn when a matter is complex, innovative and game-changing. We work seamlessly across practices, industries and jurisdictions with asset managers, private equity and venture capital firms, Fortune 500 and FTSE companies, major sports leagues, entertainment industry legends and other industry-redefining companies.
Proskauer lawyers are at the cutting edge of contentious matters and have extensive trial experience in virtually every major forum across the globe. Proskauer has established itself as the go-to litigation and labor & employment firm for Fortune 100 companies, titans of the sports and cultural world, industry leaders in consumer products, and even commonwealths in times of existential crisis. We represent clients in challenging circumstances, address novel critical issues, and have a strong track record of success, securing landmark victories in the most high-profile of matters.
Our litigators have the depth, breadth and experience to handle disputes across industries and practice areas, including antitrust, products liability, asset management, sports, labor & employment, bankruptcy, copyright, false advertising, trademark, insurance recovery, international arbitration, patents, privacy and cybersecurity, real estate, securities, and white collar. Our clients turn to us for all aspects of litigation: trials, appeals (including at the Supreme Court), investigations, counseling, and government contractor issues.
Proskauer is consistently ranked for its litigation capabilities throughout the United States and abroad. We have earned top rankings from The American Lawyer (including regional publications), Benchmark Litigation, U.S. News Best Lawyers, Daily Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal, and Chambers, among others. The Firm was also previously noted in the New York Law Journal as a General Litigation Finalist for Litigation Department of the Year.
Clients called on us throughout the year to help them navigate their most challenging disputes, and we met the moment. Recent representations include:
- Lead outside counsel to the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico. The Oversight Board was created under PROMESA, a federal statute enacted in 2016, to oversee the restructuring of Puerto Rico’s finances. The Oversight Board represents the Commonwealth and related public entities in the largest ever series of municipal restructurings in the United States. At the height of its crisis, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico had approximately $74 billion of bond debt and $55 billion of under (or un-) funded public pension liabilities. The litigations surrounding Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis, pending in the District of Puerto Rico, likely represent the single most active docket in the federal courts over the last seven years, and perhaps the most consequential matter in decades involving municipal and territorial restructurings.
- Secured a complete defense verdict victory for Sanderson Farms in a case alleging a nationwide conspiracy to reduce the supply of broiler chicken. Thirteen other defendants settled for hundreds of millions; our client Sanderson was the sole defendant to go to trial. Following a six-week trial, an Illinois jury delivered a full defense verdict, rejecting claims that our client participated in a supply reduction conspiracy with other producers in the industry. The Proskauer team defeated a damages claim totaling more than $7 billion, which – had the jury ruled against Sanderson – would have been automatically tripled by statute to $21 billion.
- Lead trial counsel for Netflix, director/writer Ava DuVernay, and writer Attica Locke in a defamation case in federal court in New York brought by Linda Fairstein, former head of the Manhattan DA's sex crimes unit. The matter related to the defendants’ series “When They See Us,” which recounts the wrongful convictions of the Central Park 5. The plaintiff alleged that the series’ portrayal of her by actress Felicity Huffman depicted her in a false and defamatory light. We obtained an extremely successful resolution when the plaintiff decided to walk away from the case on the eve of trial, settling with no payment to her or her lawyers and no confidentiality provision related to the settlement. Netflix agreed to move one sentence of the existing disclaimer from the end credits to the opening credits as part of the settlement and will voluntarily donate $1 million to the Innocence Project.
- Lead trial counsel for Gilead Sciences in various California state and federal product liability actions brought by ~20,000 plaintiffs related to Gilead's HIV prevention and treatment drugs, alleging either that Gilead was negligent in its development of TAF drugs, or that its TDF drugs were defectively designed and failed adequately to warn about the increased risk of potential kidney disease and bone injury that could result from use of its highly effective and FDA-approved HIV medications. The first federal bellwether trial was set for April 2024, but the plaintiff dismissed the case after Gilead prevailed on its motion to exclude the testimony of the primary plaintiff expert witness on the ground that the proposed testimony presented questionable scientific evidence.
- Lead counsel for the National Football League in actions filed by apparel distributors and NFL merchandise purchasers in federal court in New York alleging that the NFL’s agreements with Fanatics, Inc., a manufacturer, supplier and distributor of licensed sportswear and merchandise, violate state and federal antitrust laws.
- Defense of Major League Soccer against a federal lawsuit brought by the North American Soccer League against MLS and the US Soccer Federation following US Soccer’s decision not to sanction NASL as a Division II professional league for the 2018 season. NASL alleges that MLS and U.S. Soccer are engaged in an antitrust conspiracy to ensure that MLS is the sole Division I soccer league in the United States, and further alleges that MLS is an illegal monopoly in violation of the Sherman Act.
- Counsel to Bright Data Ltd. in two cases of first impression addressing whether social media platforms can use their terms of service and other state and federal law to prohibit public search and scraping of public information by non-account holders. In a case against meta, the Court granted Bright Data's summary judgment motion on Meta's breach of contract claim, after which Meta voluntarily dismissed its remaining tortious interference claim and waived its right to appeal, securing Bright Data’s right to engage in public search. In a case against X (formerly Twitter), the court completely dismissed the complaint, ruling that X failed to allege a claim based on access to its public site, and any claim based on copying public data was pre-empted by the Copyright Act. The dismissal creates a significant precedent that social media companies cannot unilaterally restrict public access to information they do not own but have made publicly available.
- Defense of Sandoz and its subsidiary, Fougera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in In re: Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation, which includes dozens of cases consolidated in an MDL pending in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as well as actions brought by a State AGs in the District of Connecticut, alleging that pharmaceutical manufacturers conspired to fix the prices of and/or allocate markets and customers for certain generic pharmaceutical products.
Updated Oct 2024
Hausfeld is a leading antitrust and disputes law firm with 12 offices in the US (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, DC), the UK (London), and continental Europe (Amsterdam, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Paris and Stockholm). Our global reach means we can litigate in jurisdictions that suit our clients best. We are also experienced in mediation and arbitration.
Hausfeld brings a visionary approach to resolving claims, whether that is for a single client or a group working collectively. As a leader in pioneering legal actions for damages, Hausfeld innovates by pushing further - the firm tenaciously focuses on results and achieves pragmatic conclusions. Hausfeld lawyers have achieved some of the largest landmark settlements and judgments in our areas of practice, often after hard-fought litigation against the biggest names in the legal industry. Socially minded and a champion for the best corporate governance, our lawyers are at the forefront of the legal profession in improving access to justice for both individuals and businesses. That makes for a profoundly different law firm.
The Hausfeld team is comprised of highly experienced litigators with a proven track record in claimant disputes in the areas of:
- Antitrust/Competition
- Commercial & Financial Disputes
- Environmental Law
- Human Rights
- Product Liability & Consumer Protection
- Technology & Data Breach
Hausfeld’s clients include some of the world’s largest corporations in myriad industries, including current clients listed on the Fortune Global 500 and Forbes Global 2000. Hausfeld is reputed for its claimant-friendly, dynamic, entrepreneurial, and pioneering approach to dispute resolution. For more information about the firm, including recent trial victories and landmark settlements, please visit www.hausfeld.com.
US Offices:
Boston
One Marina Park Drive, Suite 1410
Boston, MA 02210
T: +1 617 207 0600
F: +1 617 830 8312
New York
33 Whitehall Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10004
T: +1 646 357 1100
F: +1 212 202 4322
Philadelphia
325 Chestnut Street, Suite 900
Philadelphia, PA 19106
T: +1 215 985 3270
F: +1 215 985 3271
San Francisco
580 California Street, 12th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94101
T: +1 415 633 1908
F: +1 415 633 4980
Europe Offices:
Amsterdam
Sarphatikade 14
Amsterdam 1017 WV, Netherlands
T: +31 20 520 7565
Berlin
Walter-Benjamin-Platz 6
Berlin 10629, Germany
T: +49 30 322903001
Dusseldorf
Speditionstraße 21-23
Düsseldorf 40221, Germany
T: +49 211 81999 200
Hamburg
Großer Grasbrook 9
Hamburg 20457, Germany
T: +49 40 22 8985 110
London
12 Gough Square
London EC4A 3DW, United Kingdom
T: +44 20 7665 5000
Paris
59 Avenue Marceau
Paris 75116 France
Stockholm
Strandvägen 7A
Stockholm 114 51, Sweden
T: +46 8 586 10 719
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP provides the highest quality legal advice and representation to clients around the world. The results the firm achieves have set it apart for more than 140 years and have become a model for the modern practice of law. Today, S&C is a leader in each of its core practice areas and in each of its geographic markets. The firm advises a diverse range of clients on major domestic and cross-border M&A and corporate finance transactions, high-stakes litigation and corporate investigations and complex regulatory, tax and estate planning matters. Headquartered in New York, S&C comprises more than 875 lawyers who serve clients around the world through a network of 13 offices, located in leading financial centers in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States.
Main Areas of Practice:
Antitrust: Sullivan & Cromwell represents clients across a broad array of industries and in multiple jurisdictions in merger clearances, criminal antitrust investigations and civil litigation. The firm handles merger clearances for some of the largest and most complex M&A transactions in the world.
Capital Markets: S&C leads global rankings in both volume and value of offerings and on its ability to structure novel and effective transactions in the representation of issuers, underwriters, selling and controlling shareholders, and other market participants globally.
Corporate Governance: S&C’s corporate governance practice draws from across the firm’s preeminent practice areas for a thorough understanding of evolving corporate governance requirements and practices.
Estates & Personal: S&C provides comprehensive and customized service to individuals, families, trustees and charitable institutions on a range of sensitive business and personal affairs. The practice includes all aspects of non-US and US transactional matters, and cross-border trusts and estates litigation.
Executive Compensation/ERISA: S&C advises on a full range of corporate, securities, tax and employment law matters. The firm’s lawyers represent many of the largest global companies on employment arrangements, corporate governance, succession matters and incentive compensation plan design, as well as senior executives in negotiations.
Financial Services: S&C remains the leading global law firm on transactional, regulatory, enforcement and other matters affecting financial institutions. The firm’s expertise extends to clients in the banking; broker-dealer; commodities; futures and derivatives; insurance; and investment management sectors.
Intellectual Property & Technology: S&C assists clients globally with the full spectrum of intellectual property and technology issues, including in significant M&A transactions, complex patent and other IP disputes, as well as in licensing matters.
Investment Management: S&C combines a traditional investment management and an alternative investment management practice to provide expertise in transactional, structuring, trading, advisory and regulatory matters.
Litigation: S&C’s litigators take a global, multidisciplinary approach to every aspect of litigation and regulatory matters, making it the go-to firm for cross-border litigation, a practice strengthened by S&C’s stellar reputation as a corporate, financial and transactional firm.
Mergers & Acquisitions: S&C mobilizes teams of lawyers worldwide for clients
on their largest and most important domestic and cross-border M&A transactions.
A perennial leader in M&A, S&C ranks first by value among law firms over the last 20 years, having acted in over $9 trillion in announced transactions worldwide.
Private Equity: S&C’s private equity practice draws upon the integrated resources and efforts of S&C offices around the world, taking advantage of the firm’s preeminent global capabilities to advise private equity firms, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and other investors of private capital on their most important and complex acquisitions, strategic investments and exits, across a broad range of industries.
Project Development & Finance; Infrastructure: S&C is a leader in project and infrastructure development and finance. The firm has advised on many of the most transformative and complex projects and financings in both developed and emerging markets, including advising clients in joint venture arrangements, M&A, restructurings and public-private partnerships.
Real Estate: S&C’s real estate group combines public/private market expertise and innovative deal-making skills to assist clients in purchasing, selling, developing and financing real estate companies and assets worldwide, and represents clients in restructuring real estate and other assets to facilitate generational transition and/or resolve disputes.
Restructuring & Bankruptcy: S&C is unique in its ability to handle all elements of a corporate restructuring—whether or not an insolvency proceeding is used as a tool.
Tax: S&C’s tax group has a global reputation for innovative tax planning, the successful resolution of tax controversies and providing pivotal tax advice on corporate transactions.
Updated September 2024
Ifrah Law’s practice focuses on government investigations and complex litigation on behalf of companies operating at the intersection of business and the cutting edge of online and mobile technology, whom we defend against government claims and investigations, and in complex commercial disputes.
A trusted business advisor to emerging industry clients conducting business online or through mobile technology, the firm represents companies and their senior executives in criminal and civil matters throughout the United States. As the government expands the scope of statutes like RICO, The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and The Money Laundering Control Act in its investigations and prosecutions and ramps up enforcement actions by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Justice (DOJ) and other agencies, white collar defendants face higher monetary penalties and added jail time. Clients turn to the White Collar Defense Lawyers at Ifrah Law to defend their products and practices, and, wherever possible, negotiate positive settlements which allow them to pursue their innovative lines of business and resume their lives.
Online Gaming and Gambling: Ifrah Law has formed symbiotic partnerships that transcend traditional legal support, resulting in game-changing collaborations, groundbreaking agreements, and alliances that drive innovation. The firm has represented online gaming clients since the inception of the industry and has been instrumental in the creation of the legislative and regulatory frameworks in many states which currently permit or are considering legalizing online gaming and sports betting and has longstanding relationships with legislative and regulatory bodies that govern the industry. The firm now represents many of the largest iGaming companies and industry associations around the world including online casino operators, sports betting operators, poker and fantasy sports sites, and payment processors in class action lawsuits, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, vendor and supplier issues, government investigations, and criminal matters.
Federal Agency Investigations: The business and public relations fallout from a government investigation can be fatal. Ifrah Law helps clients manage and conclude inquiries by federal and state agencies so that they can resume business. We assist in responding to investigations, requests for information, and government subpoenas from federal agencies, as well as U.S. Attorney’s Offices, District Attorney’s Offices, state attorneys general, and state regulatory agencies, on matters ranging from AML/KYC to data privacy to tax disputes, to name a few. Our attorneys’ backgrounds in government, private practice, and academia have yielded established relationships and credibility with federal prosecutors and investigators across all the main federal agencies. Ifrah Law has a strong record defending against claims by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau(CFPB).
Commercial Litigation and Class Action Defense: Ifrah Law has successfully represented clients in commercial litigation matters, including class actions and multidistrict litigation, on issues ranging from breach of contract, copyright and trademark, data security and cybersecurity, employment law and licensing, corporate governance disputes, commercial fraud and alter ego, in industries like gaming, payment processing, financial services, and mobile telecommunications. The firm has tried federal cases across key federal agencies as well as numerous U.S. Attorney’s Offices, District Attorney’s Offices, and state regulatory agencies throughout the country. In the securities area, we represent directors, officers, and corporations in class actions challenging corporate actions based on federal and state law, including claims arising from criminal investigations, regulatory investigations, and corporate transactions. We have also represented domestic and international companies facing claims under The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), in addition to tax, privacy, and employment statutes.
White Collar Defense: As the government expands the scope of statutes like RICO, The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and The Money Laundering Control Act in its investigations and prosecutions, white collar defendants are increasingly subject to higher monetary penalties and added jail time. Clients at the top of their fields come to Ifrah Law because of our ability to successfully manage, navigate, and negotiate high profile federal investigations. With a focus on government investigations, complex litigation, and white collar defense, Ifrah Law operates on the leading edge of matters involving the intersection of business and the internet. The firm represents companies and their senior executives in criminal and civil matters throughout the United States and also serves as a trusted business advisor to emerging industry clients doing business online. Our attorneys include a former Chief of the Organized Crime and Gang Section at the Department of Justice and a former assistant U.S. Attorney, a former special assistant U.S. Attorney, and a number of highly trained veterans from some of the nation’s largest and most respected law firms. Our collective experience includes the litigation and resolution of disputes across a broad array of industries on issues ranging from cybersecurity and computer fraud to money laundering and asset forfeiture. As a result, we have established relationships and credibility with federal prosecutors and investigators in such agencies as the Justice Department, the FTC, SEC, and DOD, among others.
iGaming Litigation: As companies seek wider markets for their products and services by offering them online, they become increasingly vulnerable to claims that challenge the integrity of their processes and endanger their business. Federal or state allegations of illegal gambling, false advertising, deceptive loan practices, or data breaches can be devastating to the revenue, growth prospects, and brand reputation of established companies and startups. Rooted firmly in the nation’s Capital with strong relationships and credibility across many branches of government. With a niche focus on representing clients at the cutting edge of internet business, finance, and technology, we have a strong track record of success defending clients against claims by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Finance and M&A: Ifrah Law offers clients both legal and strategic advice regarding relevant opportunities, risks, and ways to mitigate those risks. Our lawyers negotiate and close complex transactions with an eye on industry-specific considerations, like antitrust issues, cross-border implications, representations and warranties, talent and founder acquisition and retention, and SEC compliance. For clients seeking to develop expansion and exit strategies, Ifrah Law can provide a realistic assessment of business operations and cost-benefit analysis, along with evaluating potential partnerships and investor options. Furthermore, our attorneys can provide regular updates on evolving regulation and legislation and review policies with an eye toward compliance.
Licensing and Compliance: Ifrah Law has successfully helped numerous companies enter the online gaming market in each state where online betting and/or fantasy sports are currently legal and has prepared many companies to launch in jurisdictions where legalization is imminent. We also have extensive experience assisting foreign clients in navigating their initial entry into the U.S. gaming market. We work diligently to ensure the application process goes smoothly and prepare for any challenges that may arise. Once a license has been secured, we continue to safeguard our clients’ interests by offering ongoing counsel on compliance with licensing requirements and foreign, federal, and state laws so that they may continue to operate and scale.
Data Privacy and Cybersecurity: With extensive experience in data privacy and cybersecurity law, Ifrah attorneys regularly advise organizations on developing industry-appropriate protocols, preparing for and responding to data breaches, and drafting privacy policies. Our team also provides counsel to businesses and individuals on information storage, along with rights of retrieval and deletion. Our clients span numerous industries, including gaming, fintech, healthcare, non-profit organizations, and social media influencers. We help these businesses ensure that their practices comply with evolving privacy and data security requirements, including substantial new state regulations.
Payment Processing & Finance: Ifrah Law represents businesses and individuals in payment processing relationships, including merchants in disputes with payment processors, ISOs and acquiring banks, MATCH and Terminated Merchant File listings, and payment processing agreements. The firm has gained a strong track record for trying and winning cases across venues and for successfully concluding matters with private litigants, the Department of Justice, the CFPB, the FTC, the SEC, and the CFTC.
Internet Advertising and Marketing: Ifrah Law represents online advertisers, affiliate networks, publishers, advertising agencies, payment processors, and other marketing solution providers in state and federal investigations, enforcement actions, private litigation instituted by self-regulatory agencies, consumer class actions, contract negotiations, and compliance matters regarding all legal facets of internet and mobile marketing, eCommerce, telemarketing, electronic payment processing, and interactive gaming.
Cryptocurrency & Blockchain: Ever since the debut of Bitcoin, Ifrah Law has been at the forefront of the cryptocurrency movement, counseling companies on the best ways to utilize the digital revolution of blockchain in their own business models. Representing pioneers in the interactive entertainment and financial services industries, the firm has deep experience shaping programs for companies to enhance their products and their bottom line while staying within the bounds of the still-evolving regulatory landscape.
Milbank LLP is a leading international law firm with over 1000 lawyers providing innovative legal solutions for more than 150 years across multiple disciplines and practice areas. We are headquartered in New York and have offices in London, Frankfurt, Munich, Hong Kong, Singapore, São Paulo, Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
Our litigators handle a broad range of litigation, arbitration, regulatory matters, and investigations for sophisticated entities. We are known for deploying teams of exceptional lawyers supported by the latest litigation technology to deliver best-in-class service and strategic, innovative, cost-effective, and practical legal advice to clients. Our attorneys thrive on complex, challenging and “bet the company” cases.
They represent clients in a wide range of areas, including:
Antitrust: Milbank’s global antitrust team advises on the full spectrum of antitrust issues in the US, EU, and other significant antitrust jurisdictions throughout the world. Our antitrust litigators regularly handle multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil investigations and follow-on private litigation asserting antitrust price-fixing conspiracy, monopolization/abuse of dominance and market manipulation claims. Our attorneys have held senior positions at US federal agencies and regularly provide counseling to clients in these and other industries on a wide variety of antitrust topics.
Bankruptcy and Restructuring: Milbank is a global industry leader for creditor representations. We regularly represent official and ad hoc committees, individual creditors, companies, investors, boards, underwriters, and other parties in interest in corporate and restructuring transactions throughout the world. Milbank has successfully represented official and ad hoc creditor committees (often composed of members with divergent interests) in many of the largest and most high-profile restructurings over the past two decades.
General Commercial: Milbank is highly diversified in its complex commercial litigation practice, with matters including breaches of contract; business torts such as fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with prospective business relations; and regulatory matters involving state and federal statutory law.
Intellectual Property: Milbank’s New York team provides comprehensive and sophisticated IP services to the world’s leading businesses. In addition to litigation, Milbank provides pre-litigation counselling, cutting-edge finance and transactional IP representation (including restructurings), and assistance with alternative dispute resolution and settlement negotiations. Milbank’s IP lawyers have extensive experience in both the “tech” and life sciences sectors.
International Arbitration: Our lawyers act as counsel and arbitrators in international arbitrations under all of the major international arbitration rules and before all major arbitral institutions. We also handle subsequent or ancillary litigation that may arise in different jurisdictions, including in connection with efforts to confirm, vacate, correct and/or clarify arbitral awards.
Securities: Milbank has one of the leading securities litigation practices in the United States, representing clients in some of the most influential, high-stakes, and high-profile cases ever brought under federal and state securities laws. Our securities litigators are backed by one of the nation’s leading white-collar crime and SEC enforcement teams driven by partners who are former Assistant US Attorneys from the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, as well as the former co-director of enforcement at the SEC. Our team has served as lead counsel in some of the largest and highest-profile securities litigation matters in the world.
White-Collar and Government Investigations: Milbank’s White-Collar Defense and Investigations lawyers, many of whom are former federal prosecutors and SEC attorneys, combine substantial government experience with in-depth knowledge of the legal landscape applicable to the financial services industry and corporate clients, and a strong grasp of criminal and regulatory enforcement issues faced by companies across many industries and jurisdictions. Milbank represents institutions and individuals in some of the most high-profile and complex investigations or prosecutions by law enforcement authorities, both in the United States and internationally.
Updated Nov 2025
MoloLamken is a law firm focused exclusively on representing clients in complex disputes. It handles civil, criminal, and regulatory matters, as well as appeals, across the United States. The firm’s clients span the globe. MoloLamken is involved in some of the most significant disputes of the day.
The firm’s founding partners, Steven Molo and Jeffrey Lamken, developed national reputations based on their courtroom successes while partners at large full-service firms where they held leadership positions. With an abiding belief that complex disputes are most effectively handled by smaller teams comprised of smart, highly experienced lawyers focused on results rather than process, they formed the firm.
MoloLamken provides experienced advocacy – for claimants as well as defendants – before judges, juries, arbitral forums, and courts of appeals, including the Supreme Court of the United States. The firm also represents clients in regulatory and criminal investigations and conducts internal investigations.
Main Areas of Practice:
- Appeals
- Arbitration
- Bankruptcy, Insolvency and Restructuring Litigation
- Complex Business Litigation
- Intellectual Property and Technology
- Internal Investigations
- Regulatory
- Securities Litigation
- Supreme Court
- White Collar Defense and Investigations
