In business for over 130 years, King Spalding has experienced a substantial expansion from roots in Atlanta, Georgia to its present network of 19 offices worldwide. Speaking to the firm’s international reach, one competitor observes, “King & Spalding have one of the most entrenched global presences out of any of the homegrown [US] firms.” The firm has established a strategy of focusing on six primary areas: intellectual property, government investigations, global disputes, energy, life sciences and health care. One competitor confirms, “King & Spalding are very deep in the life sciences world, and in energy – forget it. No other big national firm can touch them on the litigation side, and there have been plenty that have tried.” The firm is also said to “the best in the WORLD when it comes to representing the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms.”
In the firm’s flagship Atlanta office, Chilton Varner is considered an established veteran of both the regional and national stages. A peer quips, “Chilton is one of the finest lawyers in Atlanta, but she’s rarely ever here! She tries cases nationally.” While Varner’s steadfast representation of pharmaceutical mainstays GlaxoSmithKline and Merck has earned her a well deserved calling card for product liability law, it is noted that “Chilton is very much in the English barrister style – she gets into cases after discovery and can try the hell out of them. And she can try anything, be it pharmaceutical cases or commercial cases.” Another frequent mention, Ray Persons, who focuses his practice on complex litigation, including class actions, mass torts and product liability, is identified as “one of the finest lawyers in Atlanta, hands-down, who has tried over 60 jury trials. Others can litigate, but Ray can really try cases.” Elizabeth “Beth” Tanis is reported by peers to be “really representative of the future of that firm.” Tanis, a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers, focuses her practice on general litigation matters, with an emphasis on class actions, securities litigation, and professional liability, including representation of all of the Big Four accounting firms. In a recent matter, Tanis represented PwC, the former auditor of collapsed and disgraced broker-dealer MF Global, against a class of plaintiffs with $1.6 billion in claims of negligence with respect to the client’s audits of MF’s internal controls over customer funds. After triumphing at two lower appeals court levels, Tanis scored again when the plaintiffs’ petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court in November 2015. Tanis also, along with another Atlanta partner and ACTL member John Chandler, is at the forefront of a 2016 pro bono suit that aims to compel the US Department of Veteran’s Affairs to expedite the lengthy delays in decisions on veterans’ disability claims.
Speaking to the firm’s coveted energy and international presence, a peer explains, “King & Spalding were historically thought of as the dominant Southeast firm, but nobody in the energy market knew who they were.” This market perception, and the firm’s practice focus as a whole, changed with the pivotal recruit of Doak Bishop. “Doak grew up as an oil and gas litigator and had a ton of trial experience, but he eventually transitioned into international arbitration. This was still a very small niche practice, nothing like it is today, but Doak – and the firm – was way ahead of the curve in exploiting the energy-driven possibilities of a non-obvious international arbitration market. Boy, do they ever have that niche now!” In perhaps the most visible and hotly contested example, Bishop and New York international arbitration star Edward Kehoe have been representing Chevron, energy company that absorbed former firm client Texaco, in a massive arbitration concerning the previous entity’s dealings in Ecuador, which, upon concluding, were to have seen the client released from liability for public environmental harm by a government-supported agreement. The arbitration was filed against the government Ecuador for allegedly violating that agreement by supporting plaintiffs in pursuing a controversial and prolonged litigation against Chevron for damages. The firm’s Chevron work is largely credit to “high-end Houston lawyer,” Bobby Meadows, who is said to have carved out a specialty of mass tort defense matters. “Bobby was representing Chevron when King & Spalding hired him.” In another matter for Chevron, as well as other clients including the Dow Chemical Company and Shell, Houston’s Tracie Renfroe attends to lawsuits filed throughout the country in which plaintiffs allege that certain chemicals manufactured by the clients have contaminated water supply wells or interfered with projects such as redevelopment. Brought by water purveyors or municipal entities, these cases involve the intersection of traditional tort theories, such as product defect or failure to warn, and environmental statutes. Plaintiffs have sought damages and injunctive relief ranging from millions to hundreds of millions of dollars. New York’s Richard Marooney scored an August 2016 win for KBR when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a judgment in excess of $465 million for COMMISA, a subsidiary of the client, against Mexico’s state-owned energy entity PEMEX Exploracion y Produccion (PEP). This positive result follows a decade of litigation involving two offshore natural gas treatment, processing and reinjection platforms which COMMISA built for PEP, platforms which have been working and in use by PEP since 2004 but for which COMMISA was never fully compensated. “This is big-time,” asserts a peer, “and it illustrates the serious headway that King & Spalding is making in New York, where it has not historically been a force, and also displays its outward-looking international gravitas.”
The firm’s white-collar/enforcement strength was bolstered further with the 2014 recruitment of William Johnson, Carmen Lawrence (in New York), and Dixie Johnson (in DC) to its ranks from Fried Frank, as well as its 2015 hire of Bobby Burchfield, formerly the head of litigation at McDermott Will & Emery. A celebrated “all-purpose” litigator, Burchfield is noted for his prowess at the trial level as well as with arbitrations and appeals, and peers also stress, “Bobby gives a shot in the arm to that office of the firm – he fills that vacuum of conservative ‘star power’ that was left when [appellate superstar and current Bancroft alumni] Paul Clement departed the firm several years ago.” The white-collar and investigations team also benefits from Andrew Hruska, who, although based in New York, is said by peers based there to “fly under the radar a bit.” One competitor elaborates, “Andrew doesn’t just do the usual ‘New York’ white-collar thing – not to say that there’s anything ‘ho-hum’ or ‘cookie-cutter’ about that work! – but Andrew’s practice is just different. It’s not provincial, it’s international, and it’s fairly mysterious – I’m sure he doesn’t want us talking too much about it, and he probably doesn’t want to discuss it either!”
