District of Columbia

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.”