District of Columbia

Firm overview

With over 3,600 lawyers in 14 countries and fluency in 60+ languages, Latham & Watkins offers an unmatched global platform to quickly mobilize the best-suited teams. Our lawyers collaborate across practices and offices to provide proactive, efficient, and commercially savvy counsel, helping clients avoid costly regulatory issues and effectively resolve the most complex disputes.

The Litigation & Trial Department leverages a global platform to provide unmatched legal services. With over 1,100 top-tier litigators, including more than 30 former U.S. federal prosecutors, 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 elite team features highly qualified lawyers skilled in local and international antitrust and competition issues. We counsel on merger clearance, cartel investigations, competition-related litigation, IP antitrust, and compliance training. Our team delivers top client service in cases involving monopolization challenges, fast-moving merger litigation, and novel bet-the-company 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 U.S. federal and state courts and arbitration panels. Our team includes over 350 former federal law clerks and more than 30 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: Latham's litigators have unparalleled experience in IP disputes, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade dress, and trade secrets. We engage in multijurisdictional litigation worldwide, including in over 45 U.S. district courts and before the Federal Circuit, ITC, and PTAB. Our team includes 105+ technically trained lawyers, 9 technical analysts, and 17 IP paralegals, handling cases in semiconductors, software, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, electric motors, engines, cloud computing and networking, packaging, building products, and banking technologies, among others.

Securities Litigation & Professional Liability: Our Securities Litigation team has unparalleled experience in complex securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. From 2021 onward, we have defended more federal securities lawsuits than any other U.S. firm (Lex Machina). Named Securities Group of the Year by Law360 in 4 of the past 5 years, and consistently ranked #1 by Chambers and The Legal 500, our team includes top 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, achieving high-profile, precedent-setting wins. 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: Latham 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 2024

Firm overview

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is a global law firm with more than 3,500 attorneys representing clients in private equity, M&A and other complex corporate transactions, litigation and dispute resolution/arbitration, restructuring, and intellectual property matters. The Firm has offices in 20 cities around the world: Austin, Bay Area, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Munich, New York, Paris, Riyadh, Salt Lake City, Shanghai and Washington, D.C.

Litigation:
Kirkland & Ellis is renowned for its experience in complex litigation and arbitration. The Firm believes that the best litigation results occur when the lawyers are fully prepared to try the case through verdict. Because of Kirkland’s trial-ready philosophy and training, the Firm is able to offer clients a deep bench of lawyers who have been taking cases to verdict since the early stages of their careers. Whether in the courtroom, at the bargaining table or helping clients avoid risks without litigation, Kirkland has a long and proven track record of generating successful results for clients in their most high-stakes cases matters.

The Litigation Practice Group comprises approximately 625 attorneys throughout the firm’s worldwide offices. Kirkland represents clients in trial and appellate courts at the federal and state level, before administrative tribunals, and in arbitrations and other dispute resolution proceedings. The Firm also represents clients in connection with proceedings involving government agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, US Attorneys General Offices, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the New York Stock Exchange, the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the US Patent and Trademark Office, the US Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service.

Kirkland litigators have successfully litigated cases in virtually every substantive area and business segment including accountant liability, antitrust and competition, appellate, class action, mass tort and toxic tort, insurance, data privacy, labor and employment, breach of contract and securities litigation.

Kirkland has been recognized by clients and the media for its achievements in litigation:

• For the 13th time, Kirkland was selected as one of the “Fearsome Foursome” in BTI Consulting’s 2024 Litigation Outlook report.
• Chambers & Partners named Kirkland & Ellis “Commercial Litigation Law Firm of the Year” at the 2023 Chambers USA Awards.
• In 2023, Kirkland ranked #1 in The Lawyer’s “Global Litigation Top 50,” the sixth consecutive year the Firm earned that distinction.
• Kirkland was named “Law Firm of the Year” for Commercial Litigation by U.S. News and World Report and Best Lawyers in their 2022 “Best Law Firms” rankings.

Intellectual Property Litigation:
Kirkland & Ellis’ Intellectual Property Practice Group is one of the oldest such practices in a full-service firm in the country, having been an integral part of Kirkland since 1925. Kirkland has approximately 200 intellectual property lawyers who are experienced in a variety of technical disciplines and registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office. More than 70 percent of the lawyers are engineers and scientists trained with degrees and professional backgrounds in technical areas. Kirkland has one of the most respected intellectual property litigation practices in the country, with particular experience in large-scale patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret misappropriation and advertising matters. The work of the group frequently extends to antitrust, securities/compliance, products liability and appellate matters. Kirkland’s experience in venues where IP cases are most often litigated is extensive. The Firm tries cases before juries, judges and arbitrators in venues across the country including state courts, district courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the International Trade Commission and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Kirkland has one of the most active trial practices in the country. Our success rate at trial is among the best, with only a few of losses over the last 10 years despite handling some of the most challenging litigation cases in history.

The Intellectual Property Practice Group has been recognized by numerous publications for its achievements:

• In Managing Intellectual Property’s 2024 IP Stars, Kirkland was named as a Tier 1 firm for Copyright, ITC, Life Sciences, Patent Contentious and Trademark Contentious and was recognized in the U.S. for IP transactions and PTAB litigation.
• Kirkland was named to World Trademark Review magazine’s 2024 WTR 1000
list of the world’s top trademark law firms and was recognized as a Tier 1 firm for enforcement and litigation nationally and in New York.
• In 2024, Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine recognized Kirkland in Tier 1 for Litigation, International Trade Commission and Trade Secrets for United States -National in its IAM Patent 1000 guide. The firm was also Tier 1 for Litigation in Illinois, New York and Washington, D.C., as well as Transactions in Illinois.
• World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) recognized Kirkland & Ellis as a Tier 1 firm in its 2022 “Global Trade Secrets Rankings.”

Please visit our website at www.kirkland.com for additional information about Kirkland and office contact information.

Updated July 2024

Firm overview

Ifrah Law’s practice focuses on government investigations and complex litigation on behalf of companies operating at the intersection of business and the cutting edge of online and mobile technology, whom we defend against government claims and investigations, and in complex commercial disputes.

A trusted business advisor to emerging industry clients conducting business online or through mobile technology, the firm represents companies and their senior executives in criminal and civil matters throughout the United States. As the government expands the scope of statutes like RICO, The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and The Money Laundering Control Act in its investigations and prosecutions and ramps up enforcement actions by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Justice (DOJ) and other agencies, white collar defendants face higher monetary penalties and added jail time. Clients turn to the White Collar Defense Lawyers at Ifrah Law to defend their products and practices, and, wherever possible, negotiate positive settlements which allow them to pursue their innovative lines of business and resume their lives.

Online Gaming and Gambling: Ifrah Law has formed symbiotic partnerships that transcend traditional legal support, resulting in game-changing collaborations, groundbreaking agreements, and alliances that drive innovation. The firm has represented online gaming clients since the inception of the industry and has been instrumental in the creation of the legislative and regulatory frameworks in many states which currently permit or are considering legalizing online gaming and sports betting and has longstanding relationships with legislative and regulatory bodies that govern the industry. The firm now represents many of the largest iGaming companies and industry associations around the world including online casino operators, sports betting operators, poker and fantasy sports sites, and payment processors in class action lawsuits, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, vendor and supplier issues, government investigations, and criminal matters.

Federal Agency Investigations: The business and public relations fallout from a government investigation can be fatal. Ifrah Law helps clients manage and conclude inquiries by federal and state agencies so that they can resume business. We assist in responding to investigations, requests for information, and government subpoenas from federal agencies, as well as U.S. Attorney’s Offices, District Attorney’s Offices, state attorneys general, and state regulatory agencies, on matters ranging from AML/KYC to data privacy to tax disputes, to name a few. Our attorneys’ backgrounds in government, private practice, and academia have yielded established relationships and credibility with federal prosecutors and investigators across all the main federal agencies. Ifrah Law has a strong record defending against claims by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau(CFPB).

Commercial Litigation and Class Action Defense: Ifrah Law has successfully represented clients in commercial litigation matters, including class actions and multidistrict litigation, on issues ranging from breach of contract, copyright and trademark, data security and cybersecurity, employment law and licensing, corporate governance disputes, commercial fraud and alter ego, in industries like gaming, payment processing, financial services, and mobile telecommunications.  The firm has tried federal cases across key federal agencies as well as numerous U.S. Attorney’s Offices, District Attorney’s Offices, and state regulatory agencies throughout the country. In the securities area, we represent directors, officers, and corporations in class actions challenging corporate actions based on federal and state law, including claims arising from criminal investigations, regulatory investigations, and corporate transactions. We have also represented domestic and international companies facing claims under The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), in addition to tax, privacy, and employment statutes.

White Collar Defense: As the government expands the scope of statutes like RICO, The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and The Money Laundering Control Act in its investigations and prosecutions, white collar defendants are increasingly subject to higher monetary penalties and added jail time. Clients at the top of their fields come to Ifrah Law because of our ability to successfully manage, navigate, and negotiate high profile federal investigations. With a focus on government investigations, complex litigation, and white collar defense, Ifrah Law operates on the leading edge of matters involving the intersection of business and the internet. The firm represents companies and their senior executives in criminal and civil matters throughout the United States and also serves as a trusted business advisor to emerging industry clients doing business online. Our attorneys include a former Chief of the Organized Crime and Gang Section at the Department of Justice and a former assistant U.S. Attorney, a former special assistant U.S. Attorney, and a number of highly trained veterans from some of the nation’s largest and most respected law firms. Our collective experience includes the litigation and resolution of disputes across a broad array of industries on issues ranging from cybersecurity and computer fraud to money laundering and asset forfeiture. As a result, we have established relationships and credibility with federal prosecutors and investigators in such agencies as the Justice Department, the FTC, SEC, and DOD, among others.

iGaming Litigation: As companies seek wider markets for their products and services by offering them online, they become increasingly vulnerable to claims that challenge the integrity of their processes and endanger their business. Federal or state allegations of illegal gambling, false advertising, deceptive loan practices, or data breaches can be devastating to the revenue, growth prospects, and brand reputation of established companies and startups. Rooted firmly in the nation’s Capital with strong relationships and credibility across many branches of government. With a niche focus on representing clients at the cutting edge of internet business, finance, and technology, we have a strong track record of success defending clients against claims by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Finance and M&A: Ifrah Law offers clients both legal and strategic advice regarding relevant opportunities, risks, and ways to mitigate those risks. Our lawyers negotiate and close complex transactions with an eye on industry-specific considerations, like antitrust issues, cross-border implications, representations and warranties, talent and founder acquisition and retention, and SEC compliance. For clients seeking to develop expansion and exit strategies, Ifrah Law can provide a realistic assessment of business operations and cost-benefit analysis, along with evaluating potential partnerships and investor options. Furthermore, our attorneys can provide regular updates on evolving regulation and legislation and review policies with an eye toward compliance. 

Licensing and Compliance: Ifrah Law has successfully helped numerous companies enter the online gaming market in each state where online betting and/or fantasy sports are currently legal and has prepared many companies to launch in jurisdictions where legalization is imminent. We also have extensive experience assisting foreign clients in navigating their initial entry into the U.S. gaming market. We work diligently to ensure the application process goes smoothly and prepare for any challenges that may arise. Once a license has been secured, we continue to safeguard our clients’ interests by offering ongoing counsel on compliance with licensing requirements and foreign, federal, and state laws so that they may continue to operate and scale. 

Data Privacy and Cybersecurity: With extensive experience in data privacy and cybersecurity law, Ifrah attorneys regularly advise organizations on developing industry-appropriate protocols, preparing for and responding to data breaches, and drafting privacy policies. Our team also provides counsel to businesses and individuals on information storage, along with rights of retrieval and deletion. Our clients span numerous industries, including gaming, fintech, healthcare, non-profit organizations, and social media influencers. We help these businesses ensure that their practices comply with evolving privacy and data security requirements, including substantial new state regulations.

Payment Processing & Finance: Ifrah Law represents businesses and individuals in payment processing relationships, including merchants in disputes with payment processors, ISOs and acquiring banks, MATCH and Terminated Merchant File listings, and payment processing agreements. The firm has gained a strong track record for trying and winning cases across venues and for successfully concluding matters with private litigants, the Department of Justice, the CFPB, the FTC, the SEC, and the CFTC.

Internet Advertising and Marketing: Ifrah Law represents online advertisers, affiliate networks, publishers, advertising agencies, payment processors, and other marketing solution providers in state and federal investigations, enforcement actions, private litigation instituted by self-regulatory agencies, consumer class actions, contract negotiations, and compliance matters regarding all legal facets of internet and mobile marketing, eCommerce, telemarketing, electronic payment processing, and interactive gaming.

Cryptocurrency & Blockchain: Ever since the debut of Bitcoin, Ifrah Law has been at the forefront of the cryptocurrency movement, counseling companies on the best ways to utilize the digital revolution of blockchain in their own business models. Representing pioneers in the interactive entertainment and financial services industries, the firm has deep experience shaping programs for companies to enhance their products and their bottom line while staying within the bounds of the still-evolving regulatory landscape.

Firm overview

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP provides the highest quality legal advice and representation to clients around the world. The results the firm achieves have set it apart for more than 140 years and have become a model for the modern practice of law. Today, S&C is a leader in each of its core practice areas and in each of its geographic markets. The firm advises a diverse range of clients on major domestic and cross-border M&A and corporate finance transactions, high-stakes litigation and corporate investigations and complex regulatory, tax and estate planning matters. Headquartered in New York, S&C comprises more than 875 lawyers who serve clients around the world through a network of 13 offices, located in leading financial centers in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States.

Main Areas of Practice:

Antitrust: Sullivan & Cromwell represents clients across a broad array of industries and in multiple jurisdictions in merger clearances, criminal antitrust investigations and civil litigation. The firm handles merger clearances for some of the largest and most complex M&A transactions in the world. 

Capital Markets: S&C leads global rankings in both volume and value of offerings and on its ability to structure novel and effective transactions in the representation of issuers, underwriters, selling and controlling shareholders, and other market participants globally.

Corporate Governance: S&C’s corporate governance practice draws from across the firm’s preeminent practice areas for a thorough understanding of evolving corporate governance requirements and practices. 

Estates & Personal: S&C provides comprehensive and customized service to individuals, families, trustees and charitable institutions on a range of sensitive business and personal affairs. The practice includes all aspects of non-US and US transactional matters, and cross-border trusts and estates litigation.

Executive Compensation/ERISA: S&C advises on a full range of corporate, securities, tax and employment law matters. The firm’s lawyers represent many of the largest global companies on employment arrangements, corporate governance, succession matters and incentive compensation plan design, as well as senior executives in negotiations.

Financial Services: S&C remains the leading global law firm on transactional, regulatory, enforcement and other matters affecting financial institutions. The firm’s expertise extends to clients in the banking; broker-dealer; commodities; futures and derivatives; insurance; and investment management sectors. 

Intellectual Property & Technology: S&C assists clients globally with the full spectrum of intellectual property and technology issues, including in significant M&A transactions, complex patent and other IP disputes, as well as in licensing matters.

Investment Management: S&C combines a traditional investment management and an alternative investment management practice to provide expertise in transactional, structuring, trading, advisory and regulatory matters. 

Litigation: S&C’s litigators take a global, multidisciplinary approach to every aspect of litigation and regulatory matters, making it the go-to firm for cross-border litigation, a practice strengthened by S&C’s stellar reputation as a corporate, financial and transactional firm.

Mergers & Acquisitions: S&C mobilizes teams of lawyers worldwide for clients
on their largest and most important domestic and cross-border M&A transactions.
A perennial leader in M&A, S&C ranks first by value among law firms over the last 20 years, having acted in over $9 trillion in announced transactions worldwide.

Private Equity: S&C’s private equity practice draws upon the integrated resources and efforts of S&C offices around the world, taking advantage of the firm’s preeminent global capabilities to advise private equity firms, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and other investors of private capital on their most important and complex acquisitions, strategic investments and exits, across a broad range of industries.

Project Development & Finance; Infrastructure: S&C is a leader in project and infrastructure development and finance. The firm has advised on many of the most transformative and complex projects and financings in both developed and emerging markets, including advising clients in joint venture arrangements, M&A, restructurings and public-private partnerships.

Real Estate: S&C’s real estate group combines public/private market expertise and innovative deal-making skills to assist clients in purchasing, selling, developing and financing real estate companies and assets worldwide, and represents clients in restructuring real estate and other assets to facilitate generational transition and/or resolve disputes. 

Restructuring & Bankruptcy: S&C is unique in its ability to handle all elements of a corporate restructuring—whether or not an insolvency proceeding is used as a tool.

Tax: S&C’s tax group has a global reputation for innovative tax planning, the successful resolution of tax controversies and providing pivotal tax advice on corporate transactions.

Updated September 2024