District of Columbia

Business litigation boutique Ifrah Law operates out of four locations across the east coast in Washington, DC; Alexandria, VA; Baltimore, MD; and Atlantic City, NJ. The team of 12-legal advocates is collectively praised for their litigation expertise, with one client asserting, “The firm’s litigation strength is outstanding in every respect. You will not find attorneys who will work harder or be more creative. They will leave no stone unturned on behalf of their clients” adding, “These attorneys are all outstanding and can be trusted to handle the most serious of cases.” Founding partner Jeff Ifrah is renowned for his successful trial record in the white-collar crime defense space. One client testifies, “I’ve worked with Jeff Ifrah for years. He is very much considered a thought leader in his field. Whenever I have a white-collar crime question I ask Jeff.” Ifrah serves as lead counsel representing PacNet, a payment processing solution that provided clients with payment processing solutions for their direct mail, eCommerce, and other campaigns. After the US Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that it had designated PacNet, 24 related entities and 12 associated individuals as a transnational criminal organization-a designation previously limited to terrorist and organized crime entities-the firm was hired to further conduct an investigation to stop the effect of such designation, which includes the inability to pay employees, vendors, and general expenses. Ifrah obtained some of the swiftest removals from OFAC’s list, including all of the 12 individuals named. One year after the initial listing, OFAC finally signed an agreement to remove PacNet’s companies, officers and employees from the list.

Robbins Russell Englert Orseck Untereiner & Sauber is a litigation boutique renowned for its “leading industry expertise [and] excellent client service” in antitrust, appellate, and white-collar defense matters. One client describes the firm as “one of the strongest litigation firms in the United States” made up of a skilled lot of “very strong, smart and practical litigators.” Another praises the “excellent, practical lawyers [who provide] smart advice in tricky situations” and are “aggressive, but not needlessly so.” Appellate litigator and co-founder of the firm Roy Englert has experienced tremendous success before the various appellate courts and the Supreme Court. Englert was co-lead counsel in obtaining dismissal of all claims against the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia and Herzegovina arising out of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Plaintiffs claimed that the SHC was a mechanism for funding terrorist activities including the 9/11 attacks. The claims against the SHC had been previously dismissed, but were then reinstated after Congress passed a jurisdictional statute for terror-related cases. After further briefing and argument, the district court again dismissed plaintiffs’ claims against the SHC notwithstanding the new statute. Alison Barnes is a member of the lead counsel terms representing Community Health Systems—a Fortune 500 acute-care hospital company with 126 affiliated hospitals across 20 states—in defending a securities fraud case in which plaintiff is seeking more than $1 billion on behalf of a putative shareholder class. In addition to this case, the team also represented the company in parallel shareholder derivative litigation, which favourably settled in 2017 for a $40 million insurance payment to the client. Barnes and Gary Orseck, a “great manager of cases and outstanding litigator in all areas” are also part of the lead team that obtained a definitive ruling in favor of client Carlyle Capital Corporation’s former independent directors following seven years of litigation and the largest-ever trial held in Guernsey. In September 2017, the Royal Court of Guernsey issued a sweeping 525-page decision, ruling that the defendants acted reasonably and appropriately in the management and governance of the client. It also dismissed each and every allegation of breach made by the plaintiff liquidators, rejected the theory of the case, and criticized the pursuit of unmeritorious claims. The team continues to represent its clients on appeal. Richard Sauber was co-lead counsel representing Las Vegas Sands and its board of directors in state and federal shareholder-derivative suits alleging violations of the For eign Corrupt Practices Act in Macau.

In November 2017, after extensive motion to dismiss briefing, the lead derivative case was dismissed in full, with prejudice, and without appeal. One client praises the firm’s motion practice, stating, “Robbins Russell has prepared some of the best motions and briefs of any firm I have encountered. The exhibit strong legal analysis of facts and issues of matters.” Sauber also co-led a team representing this client in a long-standing dispute over plaintiffs’ claims for hundreds of millions of dollars in payments associated with LVS’s commencement of operations in Macau. The case was first tried in 2013, prevailed in a subsequent appeal, and is preparing to retry the case early 2019.

DC-based Rothwell Figg is a business-oriented, intellectual property law firm that is known for handling a wide range of IP disputes. A client highlights the firm’s “outstanding level of service” describing it as “smart, efficient, [and] responsive”. “We have only good results from the firm so it is an easy decision to continue using them” voices a client. Sharon Davis has ample experience in patent litigation matters that include technical components surrounding internet technology, e-commerce and pharmaceutical patents. Davis is also an expert in Hatch-Waxman litigation. She is described as having “tremendous knowledge” and being “excellent on strategy.” Davis was part of the lead team representing client Fandango before the Federal Circuit where an order was obtained granting the client’s motion to dismiss all infringement claims brought by a plaintiff for lack of patent eligible subject matter. Steve Lieberman is “completely focused on getting cases resolved quickly and efficiently” expressed a client. Lieberman, whose patent litigation practice is acclaimed by many, represented LG Electronics before the US PTO, where a final decision was issued in four inter partes review proceedings challenging claims of four optical disk driver-related patents owned by Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Korea and asserted against LG in the District of Delaware. Lieberman is applauded for his “innovative strategy [and] deep knowledge.”

Formed in February 2016, the boutique Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz, with offices in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, continues to a enjoy a reputation as a trailblazer, boasting composite qualities of diversity, youth, and a culture fostering a work-hard-play-hard ethos that its personnel takes to heart. The firm saw its genesis when revered trial star Beth Wilkinson decamped from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison and teamed up with four other partners to launch a venture that focuses on high-stakes jury trials, a specialty that many would argue has become ever-increasingly a rarity among litigators of recent vintage. Wilkinson Walsh’s other founding partners are former Munger Tolles & Olson partner Sean Eskovitz; ex-Covington & Burling special counsel Brian Stekloff; and former Kirkland & Ellis partner Brant Bishop. “This is the gold standard, the type of shop of all of us want to have,” confides one trial lawyer peer. “And I know for a fact that they have been an inspiration to many other trial lawyers who feel like it’s now or never and have broken free to from big firms to try this model out instead so they can actually try cases without all of the red tape. And they since have.”

Cresting a nearly uninterrupted multi-year wave of wins, Wilkinson triumphed on behalf of Phillip Morris not two months after the firm opened its doors, when, following a three- week trial, a St. Louis jury found that Phillip Morris had not deceived smokers with the marketing of Marlboro Lights, a claim for which the plaintiffs sought more than $1.5 billion in compensatory and punitive damages. Wilkinson is also held in high esteem for her white-collar abilities, and recently has found herself at the forefront of work for the National Football League. More recently, in May 2017, Wilkinson triumphed when a federal jury in New Orleans handed her a defense win in the first bellwether trial over the blood thinner Xarelto. In August, a team consisting of Wilkinson, Walsh and Bishop scored big on behalf of Georgia Pacific, securing dismissal of the client from a class-action case, potentially valued at $12 billion, that alleged that the client and numerous other defendants (most of whom settled) conspired to fix containerboard prices.

Appellate specialist Lori Alvino McGill joined the firm shortly its formation, after putting in her time at two national firms (Latham & Watkins and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, respectively.) While still a partner at the former firm she successfully argued before the Supreme Court in a pro bono matter involving a custody dispute between adoptive and biological parents, and has remained an in-demand appeals counsel since. McGill and Stekloff also were selected to provide lead counsel at trial for Bayer in yet another Xarelto-related matter in Philadelphia. Unsuccessful at this trial, the team ultimately prevailed on appeal.

Williams & Connolly is referred to in reverent tones by a near-unanimous level of peers. Although called “the classic DC firm” as a result of its entrenched position in that jurisdiction’s political and business landscape, the firm attends to high-stakes matters that stretch beyond the District’s borders (and indeed, in some cases, even beyond the US borders.) Attending to strictly litigation, the firm is respected for “having turn loose some of the most celebrated trial lawyers in the nation, and continuing to do so.” The firm is considered “one of the most trial-ready firms around that isn’t of ‘boutique’ status.”

The firm’s most recent crop of talent includes Dane Butswinkas, a trial-tested veteran who acts for a variety of individuals and entities across a broad and novel spectrum of cases. Fresh off of a multi-year streak of wins as trial counsel, Butswinkas was enlisted as lead trial counsel in the only criminal case against an individual in connection with the TARP government bailout program implemented in the wake of the financial crisis, involving Jesse Litvak, a bond trader who was convicted on all 15 counts of securities fraud and other offenses that he faced. In January 2017, a federal jury acquitted Litvak of nine of the 10 counts of securities fraud. When Litvak appealed to the Second Circuit, this time on the sole count of securities fraud on which he was convicted, he was represented by Williams & Connolly’s appellate ace, Kannon Shanmugam. A frequent presence in the Supreme Court, Shanmugam found himself in the nation’s highest court once again, scoring a win on behalf of Santander Consumer in a matter considering whether the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies to financial institutions that purchase consumer debt and then attempt to collect on that debt for their own account. Another trial leader at the firm, Robert Van Kirk, has spent the last several years chipping away at claims against client The Carlyle Group, as well as its founder Bill Conway. Van Kirk recently finally brought this saga to an end when, after a six-month trial, his clients were fully exonerated in a $2 billion action against them in the Royal Court of Guernsey involving the collapse of Carlyle Capital Corporation during the onset of the financial crisis in March 2008. A peer observes, “Bob Van Kirk is a perfect example of a partner at a dominant DC firm who has spent the last few years doing no cases in DC!” Another peer insists, “I like Bob’s style. He has a welcome and refreshing presence among trial lawyers - understated and patient, which has proven to be a winning approach when dealing with litigation that requires playing the long game.” Yet another frequently championed firm trial star Heidi Hubbard, a practitioner with an especially keen acumen in matters concerning pharmaceutical and medical device entities, scored when a Delaware jury returned a complete defense verdict in favor of Alcon Laboratories Holding and Alcon Research. Claiming damages of over $400 million, the plaintiff, a medical device start-up, had pursued multiple claims related to purported misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information, as well as contract claims arising from a stock purchase agreement involving milestone payments. After an Alcon win on summary judgment on the trade secrets claims, Hubbard tried the contract claims to a jury verdict for Alcon. In March 2018, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the victory on appeal.