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Recommended
Highly Recommended
Bartlit Beck is celebrated among peers for forging a template of what many aspire to; the firm’s name is one of the most frequently referenced by maverick litigators who calve off of larger “Big Law” institutions and forge their own shops. One peer declares, “They set the standard for litigation boutiques in the US. Most people setting up litigation shops owe at least some debt to Bartlit Beck, whether they know it or not.” Ironically, the runaway success that the firm has experienced with its business model has caused it to outgrow its “boutique” status; the firm now has more than 40 partners practicing in its offices in Chicago and Denver. “Bartlit Beck has its offices in two great epicenters, but they’re barely doing any work that’s confined to either of these locales,” declares a peer. “They’re just an elite litigation shop that’s gone national, and their lawyers are on the road constantly. Wherever there are big trials, they will be there.” The firm continues its staggering run as being recognized as one of Benchmark’s Top 20 Trial Firms every year since 2015 with yet another appearance in 20215.
Bartlit Beck also logs another candidate to Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers with the addition of
Sean Gallagher this year. Gallagher’s addition is considered long overdue by some, and is enhanced by a raft of peer and client commendations. One client sums Gallagher up as “a highly skilled first-chair trial lawyer, a great listener, a very clear communicator. The best trial lawyer at a firm of great trial lawyers. [He is] Among the best in America.” Another raves, “[Sean is the] dictionary definition of the perfect lawyer: incredibly smart, [a] tremendous leader of his team, [with a] deep understanding of all aspects (legal and commercial) of a circumstance, [and with] creative solutions. And a gem of a human being.” Based in the Chicago office, Gallagher is lead trial counsel for Pratt & Whitney in environmental tort cases involving more than $1 billion in alleged property damage and personal-injury claims arising out of the declaration of a "cancer cluster" by the Florida Department of Health in a neighborhood near Pratt & Whitney's West Palm Beach facility. Claims involve complex allegations of water and soil contamination with radionuclides and other contaminants. Several hundred property owners sued individually and on behalf of a putative class of many thousands of plaintiffs.
Andrew McNally, another Chicago partner, acts with Gallagher on this case. McNally is another favorite of clients, with one addressing him as “one of the smartest and hardest working lawyers I've worked with, and he really grasps complex scientific and medical issues quickly and thoroughly.” Another client testifies, “Andrew has an uncanny ability not only to find the ‘devil in the details’ of the evidentiary record, but also to communicate those details in a way that is easy for the client (or the court) to understand. He has done an exceptional job managing his team.” Rebecca Weinstein Bacon, also based in Chicago, has also been a steady mention on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and on the Top 250 Women Litigators in the US. “Rebecca is a pleasure to work with,” confirms a client. “She's responsive, thoughtful, brilliant, warm, and very client focused.” Bacon, along with Adam Hoeflich,
is representing Walmart in putative class-action lawsuits claiming that Walmart is violating consumer protection statutes in various jurisdictions due alleged discrepancies between the prices posted on Walmart's shelves and the prices actually charged at the register. Plaintiffs claim these discrepancies add up to hundreds of millions of dollars (or more) each year.
The Denver office boasts its own stacked deck of stars. Glen Summers and
Karma Giulianellirepresent a class of California residents who used mobile devices with the Android operating system who allege that Google has designed the Android operating system to constantly take information from plaintiffs’ phones without regard to whether they are on WiFi or cellular connections. Unbeknownst to people who use Android devices, this constant surveillance, and the transmission of information to Google consumes plaintiffs’ cellular data – data that they purchased, and that Google has consumed without permission. Trial is scheduled for June 2025 in Superior Court of California. Giulianelli, an “antitrust rockstar,” also works with
Sundeep “Rob” Addy as counsel for a group of large corporations, including American Airlines, who have brought state and federal price-fixing claims against over 50 generic drug manufacturers for engaging in a wide-ranging conspiracy to fix the price of hundreds of generic medications since at least May 2009. These agreements are claimed to have led to staggering price increases for critical medications and forced consumers and their health plans to shoulder the cost.
Kat Hacker serves as lead national coordinating counsel on the fraudulent transfer claims for three DuPont entities in over 6,000 cases pending across the country related to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In these cases, plaintiffs allege that DuPont engaged in a series of corporate transactions to try to fraudulently transfer assets to avoid paying potential judgments. “She is an excellent oral advocate and can distill complex issues in a very simple way to appeal to a jury,” declares a client on Hacker’s behalf. “She has expertise in trial graphics that and has quite the depth of knowledge and experience in studying the best graphics for jury trials.”
Andrew Baak represents UnitedHealth Group in a dispute under the False Claims Act brought by the US DoJ and a purported whistleblower to recover treble damages and civil penalties. Plaintiffs are seeking damages for amounts they claim were unlawfully retained from the federal Medicare program by UnitedHealth Group and its affiliates involved in the Medicare Advantage Program. Plaintiffs allege that UnitedHealth submitted invalid diagnostic data related to the health status of patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Joseph Doman, a Denver partner making his debut as a future star in this edition, is championed by a client as “a wonderful litigator that understands how to weave a story and [provides] great client service.”
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 NS’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.
A full-service firm with a national – and global – footprint, Loeb & Loeb provides a wide array of legal services through its six offices in the US and two in China. In litigation specifically, the firm has deep ties to the entertainment industry. “It’s really time to take a closer look at Loeb & Loeb,” says one contemporary. “For entertainment litigation, they are really quite dominant. They have some strong connections there, some very high-profile clients.”
Not surprisingly, much of this is serviced by practitioners in its Los Angeles office. A team of Loeb litigators, led by partner Jim Curry, represents CBS in litigation relating to the popular daytime television program “Judge Judy,” including defending CBS against first-of-their-kind cases involving claims that a sale of a television library should trigger a “buy-out” of the profit participant’s interest. The Loeb team also previously defended CBS against a related case where a former agent and profit participant sought a declaration that Judge Judy’s salary is too high and should not be deducted as a profit participation. Curry and his team won the case on appeal of the granting of summary judgment to CBS.
LA partners John Gatti and Lauren Fried represent Miramax and its related licensees, including Amazon and Walmart, among others, in a suit brought by a photographer that claimed to own the rights to an iconic photograph of Uma Thurman used in a poster for the movie “Pulp Fiction,” which Miramax produced. After decades of Miramax licensing the image, the photographer claimed for the first time in his 2020 lawsuit that he owned the photograph, that Miramax had no right to exploit the photo in any way, and that Miramax and each of its licensees were liable for copyright infringement. The Loeb team successfully secured an order that the photographer was late in filing any copyright registration, thereby limiting the alleged damages. Gatti and Fried also represent singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman in a copyright-infringement case based on rapper and songwriter Nicki Minaj’s sampling of Chapman’s works without permission. On summary judgment, the district court found triable issues of fact as to whether Minaj could be held liable on Chapman’s distribution claim and set a date for trial. Minaj subsequently agreed to pay Chapman the full amount of damages sought and judgment was entered in the federal court case in Chapman’s favor for nearly half a million dollars.
Operating from the firm’s New York office, Barry Slotnick and Tal Dickstein represent a group of six music publishers in a copyright-infringement action against the owners and operators of the website Wolfgangs.com, an online collection of recordings of thousands of live concert performances. The collections consisted primarily of audio and audiovisual recordings of concert performances from the 1960s to the 2000s by artists such as the Rolling Stones, The Who and the Grateful Dead. Defendants acquired the concert recordings primarily from the concert promoters and concert venues that recorded the concerts. Defendants converted those recordings to digital format and made them available for streaming or download to subscribers of their websites. The music publishers asserted that defendants’ exploitation of the recordings constituted copyright infringement of more than 200 works to which they owned the copyrights. Dickstein and Slotnick also defended UMG Recordings, PeerMusic and Warner Records, the publishers and record labels for the hit song “You Raise Me Up,” which was initially released by the Irish band Secret Garden in 2001, and then released by the US performing artist Josh Groban in 2003. The plaintiff, an Icelandic songwriter, claims “You Raise Me Up” infringes an Icelandic song titled “Soknudur.”
Whether inadvertently or by design (most opinions favor the latter) Quinn Emanuel has developed into the firm virtually all members of the litigation community are talking about; few conversations are had with fellow litigators without the foregone conclusion of Quinn Emanuel’s name being dropped somewhere. The firm has had unparalleled success in building a litigation-only empire that is unrivalled in its size and scope, growing from its Los Angeles roots to make inroads into dozens of other jurisdictions nationally and globally. The firm has also developed a well earned reputation for hard-fought, trial-tested litigation. “If we’re up against someone like Quinn, it’s going to be a much harder fight,” confides a peer. “They take a similarly aggressive, tactical approach.”
Quinn’s national footprint and bench strength got a significant boost over the past year when its Chicago office, referenced as “quite small” before, lured in a host of partners from another global juggernaut, Kirkland & Ellis, a firm headquartered in Chicago and a name brand in the city. A local peer marvels, “This is MAJOR! Quinn has been trying to establish themselves in the Chicago market – and doing the whole ‘Quinn thing’ of ‘We’re going to move in and dominate’ – for years. And they weren’t failing, but they weren’t wildly succeeding, either. That’s changed now – they took some real heavy hitters from Kirkland, some of their biggest rainmakers! So I suspect we’ll see them a lot more now.” Another elaborates, “Quinn’s play for Chicago was a big one, and it paid off. But to be clear, Quinn remains a national firm, and these people are national. They won’t just be trying cases in Chicago.” The firm is also now a noted player in Wilmington, Delaware. “Quinn has a big pipeline of work coming into Delaware through their network,” confirms a peer. Another concurs, “Quinn has just done a ton down in Delaware. I don’t know exactly who but they’re just always there! They just have a big market share.” Another peer addresses the “who” question: “They got
Mike Barlow (formerly with celebrated Delaware boutique Abrams & Bayliss), who is terrific, a solid guy, and has always had a relationship with Quinn even at his former firm. He is outstanding, and he’s probably working around the clock right now, poor guy.” Another peer quips, “I don’t mind Quinn being in Delaware, because they’re going to bring big cases to town!” The firm also benefited from the addition of
Michael Swartz, a securities litigator and a particular authority in the crypto space formerly with Schulte Roth & Zabel, to its New York office.
New York’s Mike Carlinsky has long been one of the most ubiquitous commercial litigation names at Quinn and in the market generally. “We’re always up against Mike Carlinsky,” confirms a frequent opponent. “He is still very prolific.” A team composed of Carlinsky, Chris Kercher, Barlow and DC white-collar star William Burck
secured a landmark trial victory for 3D-printing innovator Desktop Metal, obtaining an order of specific performance requiring Nano Dimension to complete its $300 million acquisition, which it agreed to in July 2024, despite an activist investor's attempt to derail the deal upon seizing control of the board in December. Following a two-day trial, Nano was directed to sign the required regulatory agreement within 48 hours and close the transaction. Nano did not appeal, and the $300 million merger closed in April 2025. In another matter, Burck represented Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin in a lawsuit against the IRS regarding the unlawful disclosure to ProPublica of a trove of “Secret IRS Files” that included confidential tax information from thousands of America’s wealthiest taxpayers. From the inception of the case, the IRS refused to take any responsibility for the data breach, initially suggesting that the confidential data was not stolen from the IRS, and even seeking dismissal of the lawsuit by arguing that the data could have come from a “hostile foreign actor.” The Government sought a stay of discovery, fought subject matter jurisdiction, and moved to dismiss the theory of liability to hold it accountable for the actions of an admitted contractor – all unsuccessfully. Then, as part of the resolution of the case, the IRS issued a rare public apology to Griffin. Carlinsky and Burck have enjoyed long successive runs as two of Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers. A new addition to that list in this edition, New York’s Alex Spiro receives widespread support for his inclusion. “Alex is out there and deserves to be mentioned,” insists a peer. “He is young and brash, and lives for litigation. He gets involved in every celebrity case, which his approach is perfect for. Want to see his book of business? Read the entertainment news!” Spiro has represented actor Alec Baldwin in civil and criminal proceedings related to the accidental shooting of two people on a movie set, for which the State of New Mexico announced criminal charges against Baldwin. Beyond the entertainment sphere, peers attest, "Alex Spiro’s been doing strong work on high-profile sexual misconduct and employment-related cases." Another peer insists, “I want to put in a word for
Luke Nikas. Although I had a very contentious relationship with him, I did respect his intellect and his ability to fight hard but also be collegial.”
Another famed trial lawyer, San Francisco’s William Price led a team that was retained as trial counsel in a high-stakes antitrust case in the Northern District of California. The Quinn Emanuel team parachuted in to try the case with co-counsel at Cohen Millstein just months before trial. After 12 days of trial, a jury reached a unanimous verdict in November 2024 awarding client Pacific Steel Group $110 million. The dispute arose when a Texas-based competitor purchased and shut down California’s only rebar mill, creating a regional monopoly in the rebar market. Pacific Steel planned to disrupt this monopoly by building a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly steel mill using advanced Itechnology. The competitior allegedly pressured the supplier to block Pacific Steel from accessing the necessary technology by creating a 500-mile radius “exclusivity” zone around the steel mill they bought and shut down.
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.”
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.
Barack Ferrazzano is a Chicago-based law firm whose Litigation Group is regularly entrusted by some of the world's most prominent companies to handle their highest-stakes legal disputes. Founded in 1984 on a model built around lean, efficient teams rather than the traditional mega-firm approach, the firm has grown into a sophisticated practice serving a global client roster while retaining the responsiveness and cost-discipline that has defined it from the start.
The Litigation Group is built on seasoned partners paired with well-trained associates and litigation support teams, allowing the firm to staff even its largest matters efficiently. Rather than pursuing prolonged, expensive discovery as a default strategy, the group's attorneys are prepared to try cases when necessary but focus on achieving practical business resolutions as early and economically as possible. That efficiency is reinforced by the firm's in-house discovery technology and use of artificial intelligence to manage large volumes of data without inflating case teams.
The group's client base spans some of the most recognizable names in luxury goods, financial services, telecommunications, real estate investment trusts, motor vehicle manufacturing, private equity, and consumer goods. Its attorneys litigate in state and federal courts nationwide, at both the trial and appellate levels, and regularly draw on colleagues from the firm's corporate, real estate, and bankruptcy practices to build interdisciplinary teams for complex disputes — from shareholder rights litigation to takeover battles.
Key practice strengths include antitrust and commercial competition, biometric information privacy (including Illinois's BIPA), business litigation, class action defense, financial institutions litigation, insurance coverage disputes, intellectual property litigation, real estate disputes, and white collar defense and regulatory enforcement. The group also maintains a robust alternative dispute resolution practice, handling mediations, arbitrations, and settlement negotiations, alongside proactive strategic counseling aimed at minimizing clients' litigation exposure before disputes arise.
Recent successes reflect the breadth of that experience. The firm secured a full dismissal for Louis Vuitton and Loro Piana in a putative antitrust class action alleging wage-fixing among luxury retail employees, and won a Florida appellate reversal on behalf of Porsche. It also obtained dismissal of a BIPA class action against Christian Dior on statutory exemption grounds, and served as lead counsel for Audi and Volkswagen in a multi-year dealership rights dispute, prevailing across three separate appeals.
This track record has translated into sustained industry recognition. The Litigation Group holds an Illinois Band ranking from Chambers USA, national and Chicago-level recognition in Best Lawyers' "Best Law Firms," and has been named a Benchmark Litigation "Highly Recommended Firm," with a shortlist nod for Illinois Litigation Firm of the Year for multiple years. Individual partners have also appeared on Benchmark Litigation's 40 & Under list in multiple recent years, underscoring the depth of talent behind the group's senior leadership.
Fortune 500 and other market‑leading businesses turn to the elite trial teams and C‑Suite advisors of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP (RSHC) to handle their most pressing challenges.
Noted by the Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards as “a true diversity and inclusion pioneer for the profession,” the firm draws from its authentic diversity to assemble bespoke teams for each engagement, incorporating multiple perspectives to craft legal strategies and deliver business insights that create success in both the courtroom and boardroom. RSHC attorneys are united by a culture of excellence that is relentlessly client‑focused, dynamically innovative, and passionately committed to winning.
Our lawyers are regularly retained to resolve some of the most challenging, complex, and high‑stakes legal issues that our clients face. Our litigators handle the full range of investigation and advocacy, from whistleblower allegations to government investigations, from pre‑litigation demands to full‑blown multi‑district litigation, and from discrete internal disputes to substantial and public corporate crises.
Our transactional attorneys are called on by clients to structure and negotiate sophisticated transactions. Whether it is a syndicated construction financing, an airport concessions joint venture, a private equity acquisition, or an asset disposition, our deal attorneys have closed significant transactions across the nation.
Our trial lawyers have tried hundreds of civil and criminal cases to verdicts in state and federal courts across more than two dozen states. Our class actions team has defended against complex claims in more than 30 states. Our appellate lawyers have appeared in most federal Courts of Appeal and the United States Supreme Court.
We have deep and broad experience dealing with government at many levels. Our lawyers have served as Assistant United States Attorneys and others have experience as state court prosecutors. One was an Illinois state judge. Another was First Deputy Chief of Staff and Public Safety for the City of Chicago. Another served as General Counsel to the Governor of Illinois, and Deputy Corporation Counsel in charge of all City of Chicago litigation. We have judiciously exercised the power of the government, and we have defended our clients against it.
All our attorneys see themselves as counselors to their clients. Several served in top roles in the legal departments of household name companies, handling the panoply of matters that confront 21st century business: governance, regulatory, risk, expansion, competition, employment, compliance, intellectual property, transaction, and securities issues. We are skilled at dealing with the press. We have balanced the competing constituencies that our clients serve: customers, employees, investors, and regulators. We know how to help our clients get to the other side of a crisis. We also know that the best lawsuit is the one that is never filed.
Updated Oct 2025
Husch Blackwell’s litigators are active coast to coast, asserting and defending client interests in virtually all types of litigation. We feature more than 400 litigators across more than 20 offices across the United States and are capable of taking on the most complex matters, ranging from bet-the-company cases to large portfolios of litigation spread across multiple jurisdictions. Clients around the world trust us to understand their businesses, their objectives, and their unique ways of working and to develop solutions that are practical, efficient and comprehensive in scope.
The efficiency and effectiveness of our case management capabilities are well attested. Both in 2017, 2018, and 2022, our firm’s Litigation Department was honored by the Association of Corporate Counsel with its prestigious Value Champion award, an accolade that recognizes collaborations that delivered substantial value to client organizations by cutting spending, improving predictability and achieving better legal results. Again in 2020, Husch Blackwell was recognized for its litigation teams’ innovation and design excellence in legal operations by the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC), which chose the firm as a showcase firm for the 2020 Legal Innovation in Operations (LIO) Project designees. Husch Blackwell received the recognition on the basis of its management of a large portfolio of asbestos-related litigation for a client. In the ten months our team handled the portfolio, we posted results that vastly outperformed the client’s prior efforts, including over a 30 percent reduction in legal costs.
Area of practice:
- Antitrust & Competition
- Appellate
- Banking & Finance
- Capital Markets
- Class Action Defense
- Commercial Contracting
- Construction
- Consumer Financial Services
- Corporate
- Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Education
- Energy & Natural Resources
- Environmental
- ERISA & Employee Benefits
- Food Systems
- Government Contracts
- Healthcare Regulatory
- Insolvency & Commercial Bankruptcy
- Insurance
- Intellectual Property
- International Trade & Supply Chain
- Labor & Employment
- Life Sciences
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Political Ethics & Election Law
- Private Equity
- Product Liability & Toxic Torts
- Real Estate & Development
- Securities & Corporate Governance
- Tax
- Tax Credits
- Trusts & Estates
- White Collar, Internal Investigations & Compliance
Other offices:
- Austin, TX
- Boston
- Chattanooga, TN
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Denver
- Houston
- Jefferson City, MO
- Los Angeles
- Madison, WI
- Milwaukee
- Minneapolis
- Oakland, CA
- Nashville, TN
- Omaha, NE
- Phoenix
- Providence, RI
- St. Louis
- The Link Virtual Office
- Washington, D.C.
Updated Sep 2024
Benchmark Litigation Profile
UB Greensfelder LLP is a full-service super-regional law firm focused on exceeding client expectations and delivering superior, customized legal solutions. The firm’s 265 attorneys advise regional, national, and global businesses on a wide range of legal matters across more than 25 specialized practice and industry groups. Created in 2024 through the merger of Ulmer & Berne LLP and Greensfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C., UB Greensfelder has nine primary office locations.
Our clients’ businesses depend upon our ability to provide timely, practical, and effective legal counsel tailored to their unique circumstances and objectives, and we work tirelessly to meet their needs and exceed expectations. We are dedicated to providing top-notch client service, quick response times, and innovative legal solutions, while never losing sight of our clients’ goals.
Litigation Overview: UB Greensfelder’s Litigation Department has a strong tradition of solving problems and delivering excellent results for a diverse group of clients. Our litigators have extensive experience handling matters in trial and appellate courts, as well as alternative dispute resolution forums nationwide. With trial experience and industry knowledge, we reduce or eliminate the learning curve, enabling us to zealously defend our clients with cost-effective results.
Business Litigation: Our business litigators are problem solvers and accomplished trial lawyers adept at handling complex commercial cases and litigation arising out of business disputes of all kinds, including M&A, shareholder, and investor issues; contracts; business torts; business ownership; accountant and attorney malpractice; property disagreements; and restrictive covenants.
Construction Litigation: Our construction litigation team understands our clients’ visions for success and draws on its significant experience within the industry to turn those visions into reality. We partner with owners, architects, engineers, contractors, and developers to create practical and wise solutions to complex problems. We assist clients with various claims, such as construction defect, delay, and lien claims, and defend against construction site accidents and workers’ compensation claims.
Employment and Labor Litigation: Our employment litigators assist clients with the array of challenges facing their organizations, ranging from strategic counseling to defending complex litigation matters, including claims involving employee discipline and termination, unlawful discrimination, unfair labor practices, wage and hour issues, employment contracts, collective bargaining, and other related matters.
Energy Litigation: UB Greensfelder has a long history of working with large energy industry clients to resolve their disputes and litigation with the most favorable outcome possible. Our team has extensive first-chair courtroom experience and has tried cases for energy clients nationwide. We excel at collaborating with clients and co-counsel, bringing deep industry knowledge and experience to the table. We often lead energy litigation in partnership with local or national counsel, and we guide clients through disputes if a relationship breaks down.
Financial Services and Securities Litigation: We have the deep knowledge required to guide clients safely through an evolving regulatory and economic landscape. We represent financial institutions of all sizes in complex court and arbitration actions and in investigations and enforcement proceedings brought by regulatory agencies, including FINRA and the SEC. We routinely litigate claims involving breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, consumer violations, lending violations, churning, and other securities claims.
Franchise Litigation: Our practical experience derived from daily involvement with franchisors and distributors informs our aggressive representation of clients’ interests during litigation. In addition to negotiating state franchise, relationship, or sales representative disputes and dealing with federal and state administrative agencies, we litigate industry-specific matters such as those involving state franchise relationship and disclosure laws, state motor vehicle franchise practices statutes, the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act and state motor fuel marketing laws, and state consumer protection statutes. In addition to statutory claims, we also have significant experience handling claims that arise frequently in franchise/distribution litigation.
Immigration Litigation: We are dedicated to the representation of immigrants facing deportation and have represented countless individuals charged with serious immigration violations before the Executive Office for Immigration Review and federal district and appellate courts. We are experienced in all phases of immigration enforcement, including trials, administrative appeals, and federal court litigation.
Intellectual Property Litigation: We know industry disputes involving business-critical technology can threaten the viability of businesses. Our attorneys have diverse technical backgrounds and advise on cases involving a wide variety of technologies and scientific processes. We provide core IP litigation services involving patent infringement, ownership, and validity; copyright, trademark, and trade dress infringement; unfair competition and false advertising; trade secrets; and software and licensing.
Product Liability Defense: We are an authority in defending class action, multidistrict, and mass tort litigation involving drugs, medical devices, dietary supplements, manufactured products, consumer goods, and other technologies. We also represent clients in matters involving toxic tort and exposure claims. We have served as lead national defense counsel in high-impact litigation involving everything from antidepressants, contraceptives, and pain medications to cardiovascular and diabetes management devices and biologic products. Our practice is strengthened by its many attorneys with degrees in various scientific disciplines.
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP specializes in complex litigation representing plaintiffs in securities fraud, antitrust, breach of fiduciary duty, consumer fraud, and privacy cases. The Firm’s unparalleled experience and capabilities in these fields are based on the talents of its attorneys, who have successfully prosecuted thousands of class action lawsuits. Robbins Geller has achieved success across several different, entirely distinct practice areas in a way that few firms have in any one practice area– from antitrust to consumer protection to shareholder litigation.
The Firm is widely recognized as a leading law firm worldwide. Judges have described Robbins Geller as one of the most formidable securities law firms in the country. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices nationwide, the Firm has the resources, experience, and tenacity to achieve superior results.
The Firm’s attorneys have obtained many of the largest recoveries in history: the largest consumer class action recovery ($17+ billion in Volkswagen); the largest securities class action recovery ($7.2 billion in Enron); the largest antitrust class action recovery ($5.5 billion in Visa/Mastercard); the largest securities class action recovery following trial ($1.575 billion in HSBC/Household International); the largest pharmaceutical securities class action recovery ($1.21 billion in Valeant Pharmaceuticals); the largest cash recovery in a stockholder merger & acquisition case in the Delaware Court of Chancery ($1 billion in Dell Technologies); the largest stock option backdating recovery ($925 million in UnitedHealth Group); the largest securities fraud class action recovery in the Ninth Circuit in the last decade ($809.5 million in Twitter); the largest opt-out (non-class) securities action recovery ($657 million in WorldCom); the largest biometric class action settlement ($650 million in Facebook); the largest RMBS purchaser class action recovery ($500 million in Countrywide); and the largest personal contributions by individual defendants in a securities class action recovery ($237.5 million of $1.025 billion total recovery in American Realty Capital Properties).
Our Firm has been ranked #1 in the ISS Securities Class Action Services rankings for four out of the last five years for securing the most monetary relief for investors. In 2024, we recovered over $2.5 billion for investors in securities-related class action cases – more than the next five law firms combined, according to ISS.
Robbins Geller attorneys represent consumers around the country in a variety of important and unprecedented complex class actions. The Firm was one of the originators of the national opioid litigation, filing among the earliest complaints against the opioid industry defendants. Robbins Geller partners served in leadership positions on multiple multidistrict litigations related to the opioid crisis. The litigations have resulted in settlements disbursing more than $50 billion for affected communities nationwide.
Robbins Geller’s Delaware Practice Group specializes in shareholder challenges against corporate fraud, abuse, self-dealing, and recklessness in Delaware courts. Not only have the Firm’s cases changed the law, they have recovered billions for shareholders and secured corporate reforms to strengthen good corporate governance. The Firm regularly represents investors in challenges to corporate mergers and acquisitions that shortchange shareholders while enriching corporate insiders.
Updated Sep 2025
Saul Ewing’s Litigation Department features approximately 200 attorneys across 18 offices, including our newest locations in Los Angeles and Irvine, California. We handle a wide range of matters including complex business and commercial disputes, bet-the-company legal proceedings, and high-profile cases in state and federal courts and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) forums across the nation. We represent local, regional, national and international organizations as well as individuals across a diverse array of industries, including but not limited to higher education, energy and environmental, manufacturing, financial and other professional services, construction, insurance, health care, food/beverage/agribusiness, life sciences, cannabis, sports/entertainment and real estate.
Our deep bench of litigators work to protect the interests of our clients and mitigate the impact of litigation on business operations in all phases of litigation, including investigation, pleadings, motions, fact and expert discovery and depositions, hearings, trials, appeals, settlement negotiations, and enforcement of judgments. Among our ranks are seasoned trial lawyers and former government officials and prosecutors, whose insight and strategic judgment are a valuable resource to our entire team.
Our core areas of focus include:
Consumer Financial Services Litigation
Employee Benefits & ERISA Litigation
Environmental Civil Litigation
Insurance Litigation & Arbitration
Intellectual Property Litigation
Title Claims & Coverage Litigation
White Collar & Government Enforcement
Within these core areas of focus, we have extensive experience representing clients in pursuing and defending claims of breach of contract, tortious interference with contracts and business relationships, fraud and misrepresentation, lender liability, property liability, negligence, unfair competition, unfair trade practices, antitrust violations, conspiracy, RICO violations, breach of fiduciary duty, defamation, trade disparagement, false advertising, malicious prosecution, theft of trade secrets, intellectual property infringement, trespass, conversion, trust and estate controversies, partnership and corporate dissolutions and claims arising in shareholder and partner derivative actions, among others.
Our Approach: We start by tailoring a strategy to meet our clients’ objectives and risk management priorities, whether those focus on litigation avoidance, early settlement, resolution through dispositive motions, or pursuing a case through adjudication at trial. Using early case assessment tools, we develop a detailed roadmap for each case. We recognize that litigation can be expensive, distracting and time-consuming, and that our clients need cost predictability. Depending on client needs, we are able to create customized litigation plans and budgets at the matter, phase and/or task levels. Our project management team carefully monitors work volume and billing metrics to help ensure that our services align with project scope and needs, and to maximize proactive communication with clients about changes in cost, scope and/or strategy.
eDiscovery: For cases requiring electronic discovery, we rely on our in-house Litigation Support Services (LSS) team, which is driven by members with sophisticated technical knowledge and credentialing by the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists. With extensive experience managing complex eDiscovery collection, processing, review and production, our LSS team leverages advanced analytics and technology-assisted review to quickly identify and locate relevant information, process and analyze data efficiently, and help reduce overall litigation costs.
Updated Sep 2025
Polsinelli is an Am Law 100 firm with more than 1,200 attorneys in over 25 offices nationwide. Recognized by legal research firm BTI Consulting as one of the top firms for excellent client service and client relationships, Polsinelli attorneys provide value through practical legal counsel infused with business insight and focus on health care, real estate, finance, technology, private equity and corporate transactions.
Updated Sep 2025
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
In today’s legal and regulatory environment, litigation can threaten a company’s very existence. Skadden’s lawyers have extensive experience with such complex, “bet-the-company” litigation matters, and we are widely recognized for our ability to handle our clients’ most critical litigation issues. The firm can rapidly assemble a focused, integrated and efficient team to address all important aspects of a client’s problem and to handle numerous cases in multiple jurisdictions and forums. We have handled some of the largest and most high-profile cases in recent years, earning a reputation as a go-to firm for litigation, and we are responsible for numerous decisions, from the trial courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, that have shaped various areas of law.
Our Litigation Group comprises approximately 600 attorneys throughout the firm’s offices worldwide, and Skadden attorneys are admitted to practice throughout the United States as well as in more than 30 other countries and territories. In particular, our New York- based attorneys have extensively litigated in New York state and federal courts. Moreover, Skadden was the first national law firm to establish a presence in Delaware more than 40 years ago, and our Delaware litigation attorneys have a wealth of experience in the renowned Court of Chancery. Our California-based offices, in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, as well as our Washington D.C., Chicago, Boston and Houston offices, round out our national presence, allowing us to effectively handle complex disputes that may arise in any U.S. jurisdiction, or several jurisdictions at once. Our international experience, through offices in Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America, and our numerous multilingual attorneys, further enable us to seamlessly represent clients globally and to successfully handle disputes of an international nature.
We represent clients in all stages of litigation, from applying cutting edge e-discovery capabilities to trials. Indeed, Skadden is recognized as having a leading national trial practice, and our attorneys score groundbreaking precedent-setting trial wins that are highly favorable to our clients’ bottom line. Our trial lawyers often inherit cases from other firms when trial is imminent, and we offer the capabilities to quickly pull together crisis teams to confront challenges wherever our clients face them. Moreover, our attorneys are no strangers to appellate state and federal courts throughout the country. We also frequently appear in arbitral forums, including the American Arbitration Association, JAMS, FINRA, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution and other domestic and international dispute resolution tribunals.
Our team represents clients in proceedings involving numerous government agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the New York Stock Exchange, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service. We also serve in an advisory capacity, striving to achieve results that best align with our clients’ business goals.
Our attorneys have significant experience litigating all types of complex commercial claims, including contract disputes; fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and tortious interference claims; non-compete litigation; merger-related litigation and control disputes; joint venture and partnership disputes; bankruptcy and restructuring-related issues; and statutory claims. Our renowned securities litigation practice frequently handles some of the most challenging, high-stakes securities litigation matters, and we have served as lead counsel in several of the largest securities class actions in U.S. history. Our experience in these and other complex litigation claims spans numerous industries, including banking, energy, financial services, insurance, health care, manufacturing, mortgage, pharmaceutical, real estate, retail, technology and telecommunications.
In addition to handling some of the largest, most complex litigations, Skadden attorneys represent clients in a wide variety of pro bono matters, from trials to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Updated Sep 2024
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
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
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
Bartlit Beck has achieved an unparalleled record of success in complex litigation.
The firm is renowned for delivering extraordinary results to clients in difficult situations. Our successes include trial wins, victories on motions and appeals, and creative settlements across the gamut of commercial litigation, including intellectual property, breach of contract, product liability, antitrust, and shareholder disputes.
As a result of the firm’s success at trial, Bartlit Beck was named 2020 Trial Firm of the Year by Benchmark and was identified as one of the top nine firms in the United States for “striking the utmost fear into the hearts of seasoned General Counsel and legal decision makers” in a survey conducted by consulting firm BTI of 350 in-house leaders.
The average Bartlit Beck lawyer has more than 18 years of experience and has participated in multiple high-stakes trials. This is a product of our unique structure in which more than three-quarters of our lawyers are experienced partners and fewer than a quarter are associates. Thus, each case team is comprised mainly of experienced partners.
Our trial experience informs our overall approach: we focus on the key facts and issues that will drive the outcome, we make complex things simple, we win by showing the evidence rather than telling why we should win, we use demonstratives to boil down the key concepts to a few memorable images, and we establish ourselves as the reliable source of information.
Our lawyers intensely focus on a small number of cases at a time, allowing each team member to have command of the entire case. We believe our approach ensures better quality and results for our clients because each team member has a thorough understanding of the client’s goals and the path to success.
Our success is also due to the way we align our clients’ interests with our own. Our fixed and success-based fee structure is designed to eliminate the usual and often conflicting incentives present in the traditional hourly billing model.
We have extensive experience partnering with other law firms and service providers as part of a “virtual law firm.” Our highly collaborative approach means that we view in-house counsel and co-counsel as invaluable members of the team.
The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel. Please contact any of our lawyers using the contact information found at bartlitbeck.com
Content may include attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
DiCello Levitt was founded in 2017 as a new kind of law firm—one that is organized around the basic premise that everyone at the firm is a vital team member with a voice and talents that add value in any situation. Boasting best-in-class teams across a wide array of practice areas, DiCello Levitt cultivates a diverse roster of skilled litigators to advance the cause of justice for individuals, businesses, and government clients through class action, business-to-business, public client, whistleblower, personal injury, civil rights, and mass tort litigation.
The firm’s attorneys are highly respected for their ability to litigate and win cases, resulting in billions of dollars in recoveries for their clients and other class members. They are regularly appointed to leadership positions in headline-grabbing, high-stakes cases, including groundbreaking climate change litigation, some of the largest environmental contamination cases of our time, landmark privacy and data breach cases, some of the most significant private antitrust litigation over the past several decades, and numerous historic product liability multidistrict litigations.
Composing some of the most diverse leadership teams in multidistrict litigation history, DiCello Levitt’s attorneys continually achieve landmark victories across the firm’s practice areas, earning accolades and recognition for their innovative approaches to complex matters and tireless advocacy on behalf of their clients. Built on a strong foundation of integrity and experience and driven by results, DiCello Levitt has helped raise the bar for corporate conduct, governmental responsibility, and civil and human rights, paving the way for a more just and equitable world.
Venture Partners With Clients
DiCello Levitt has forged a reputation for success in complex litigation and arbitration, and the firm delivers results in innovative ways by venturing cases with its clients as partners, aligning its collective interests and enhancing its clients’ management of litigation risk. Because of these close venture partnerships, the firm’s clients are confident that DiCello Levitt will pursue their matters with unmatched tenacity and assess their mission-critical needs as the firm would for its own business. In case analysis and preparation, DiCello Levitt focuses on the end result—a successful settlement or trial verdict. The firm’s singular focus delivers cohesive and compelling thematic and evidentiary foundations. DiCello Levitt doesn’t use a set playbook; rather, its attorneys adapt their broad toolkit to each client’s unique goals and needs. Correspondingly, the firm’s flexible billing arrangements demonstrate its commitment to every client’s particular circumstances, creating opportunities to litigate the most challenging of cases to a successful resolution.
Innovation in Trial Science
Through its trial-first approach, DiCello Levitt crafts practical and effective legal and business solutions for its clients. At the heart of that approach is the DiCello Levitt Trial Center.
The Trial Center is founded on a proprietary, scientific system that reveals the nuances of a jury’s mindset and enables the pursuit of truth with clear insights into what persuades, connects, and wins. The center’s seasoned team leads high-stakes trials for clients, wielding the firm’s advanced strategies to gain an edge over adversaries who cling to traditional trial methods. The Trial Center team also trains lawyers to achieve a higher-level performance in their trial strategies, case preparation, and courtroom presentations.
DiCello Levitt has led more than 500 focus groups in the last ten years, including comprehensive studies about a myriad of issues. The Trial Center’s attorneys are among the nation’s most sought-after trial lawyers because of their knowledge of and experience in the art and science of modern courtroom advocacy. They are frequently called on to teach workshops and speak about the art of courtroom messaging and the neuroscience of communication to help other attorneys develop and shape how they convey critical concepts to judges and juries.
The insights and strategies that DiCello Levitt has developed through the Trial Center have materially enhanced the firm’s productivity and effectiveness. By researching and testing the biases, schemas, and prejudices of thousands of mock jurors, DiCello Levitt attorneys have sculpted their arguments to achieve successful outcomes in litigations concerning AndroGel, General Motors engine defects, and a host of other matters, including an opiate overprescription case, police misconduct litigation, and the largest individual civil rights verdict in U.S. history. This hard work resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements—and that doesn’t even account for the Trial Center’s contributions to victories by other firms across the United States.
Taken as a whole, the Trial Center’s success, support, and research efforts continue to set DiCello Levitt apart as a truly unique and cutting-edge firm.
Steadfast Consumer Advocates
DiCello Levitt has a strong reputation as one of the foremost consumer advocacy firms in the country, having secured more than $20 billion in recoveries since our founding. The firm’s attorneys have successfully led—and are presently leading—many large class actions and other multidistrict litigations, including against industry titans such as Abbott Laboratories, Apple, BNY Mellon, Coca-Cola, Ford, Equifax, General Motors, Google, Honda, Intel, JP Morgan, L’Oréal, Marriott, and Meta, and they represent businesses and investors in litigation and arbitration in multiple courts across the United States and internationally. In addition to their extensive expertise in matters including product liability, financial services, environmental law, biotechnology, and cybersecurity, DiCello Levitt’s attorneys have decades of experience representing plaintiffs in cases involving defective products, unfair competition, insurance fraud, faulty pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and other instances of corporate misconduct.
Areas of Practice
- Agriculture and Biotechnology
- Antitrust and Competition Litigation
- Civil and Human Rights Litigation
- Class Action Litigation
- Commercial Litigation
- Environmental Litigation
- Labor and Employment Litigation
- Mass Tort Litigation
- Personal Injury
- Privacy, Technology, and Cybersecurity
- Product Liability
- Public Client
- Securities and Financial Products Litigation
- Whistleblower Representation
Updated Sep 2024
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
