On February 28th Benchmark Litigation hosted the first part of it seventh annual US awards in which it recognized the country’s most distinguished litigators and their firms for their work over the past twelve months. 

This year for the first time the brand is having two seperate ceremonies, one on the East coast at Essex House, New York on February 28 and one on the West coast at The St Regis, San Francisco on March 14.

In New York the sold-out audience saw Diane Sullivan of Weil Gotshal & Manges and Max Berger of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman inducted into the Benchmark Litigation Hall of Fame.

Another highlight of the evening saw an impromptu standing ovation for Roberta Kaplan of Kaplan Hecker & Fink and Karen Dunn of Boies Schiller & Flexner for their work on the Charlottesvile residents lawsuit.

Firms from over half of the states plus DC were represented in the room. More firms will be attending the inaugural West Coast ceremony on March 14. Please click the link below to see the shortlist for that ceremony or email jose.zarza@euromoneyny.com for more details.

Benchmark US Awards West Coast Ceremony shortlist


Photographs from the New York award ceremony may be found HERE.


Congratulations to the winners, all of which are listed below:

STATE FIRM AWARDS


Alabama Firm of the Year
Lightfoot Franklin & White

Arkansas Firm of the Year
Quattlebaum Grooms & Tull

Connecticut Firm of the Year
Wiggin and Dana

Delaware Firm of the Year
Abrams & Bayliss

District of Columbia Firm of the Year
Williams & Connolly

Florida Firm of the Year
Akerman

Georgia Firm of the Year
King & Spalding

Illinois Firm of the Year
Kirkland & Ellis

Indiana Firm of the Year
Faegre Baker Daniels

Iowa Firm of the Year
Nyemaster Goode 

Kansas Firm of the Year
Stinson Leonard Street

Kentucky Firm of the Year
Stoll Keenon Ogden

Louisiana Firm of the Year
Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver

Maine Firm of the Year
Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios

Maryland Firm of the Year
Whiteford Taylor & Preston

Massachusetts Firm of the Year
Goodwin

Michigan Firm of the Year
Bodman

Minnesota Firm of the Year
Blackwell Burke

Mississippi Firm of the Year
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings

Missouri Firm of the Year
Polsinelli

New Hampshire Firm of the Year
Nixon Peabody

New Jersey Firm of the Year
Sills Cummis & Gross

New York Firm of the Year
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison

North Carolina Firm of the Year
Brooks Pierce

North Dakota Firm of the Year
Maring Williams Law Office

Ohio Firm of the Year
Ulmer & Berne

Oklahoma Firm of the Year
Crowe & Dunlevy

Pennsylvania Firm of the Year
Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller

Rhode Island Firm of the Year
Adler Pollock & Sheehan

South Carolina Firm of the Year
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough

South Dakota Firm of the Year
Johnson Janklow Abdallah & Reiter 

Tennessee Firm of the Year
Bass Berry & Sims

Texas Firm of the Year
McKool Smith

Vermont Firm of the Year
Gravel & Shea

Virginia Firm of the Year
LeClairRyan

West Virginia Firm of the Year
Bowles Rice

Wisconsin Firm of the Year
Gass Weber Mullins


PRACTICE AREA FIRMS OF THE YEAR


Antitrust Firm of the Year
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Appellate Firm of the Year
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

Bankruptcy Firm of the Year
Kirkland & Ellis

General Commercial Firm of the Year
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison

Insurance Firm of the Year
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Intellectual Property Firm of the Year
Fish & Richardson

International Arbitration Firm of the Year
Debevoise & Plimpton

Product Liability Firm of the Year
Williams & Connolly

Securities Firm of the Year
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

White Collar Crime/Enforcement/Investigations Firm of the Year
Debevoise & Plimpton

Boutique Firm of the Year Firm of the Year
Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz

Plaintiff Firm of the Year
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann


LABOR & EMPLOYMENT AWARDS


Labor & Employment Management Firm of the Year
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

Labor & Employment Management Attorney of the Year
Noah Finkel
Seyfarth Shaw

Labor & Employment Employee Firm of the Year
Outten & Golden

Labor & Employment Employee Attorney of the Year
David Sanford
Sanford Heisler Sharp

Labor & Employment Firm of the Year: District of Columbia
Katz Marshall & Banks

Labor & Employment Attorney of the Year: District of Columbia
Grace Speights
Morgan Lewis & Bockius

Labor & Employment Firm of the Year: Illinois
Seyfarth Shaw

Labor & Employment Attorney of the Year: Illinois
Sari Alamuddin
Morgan Lewis & Bockius

Labor & Employment Firm of the Year: New York
Proskauer Rose

Labor & Employment Attorney of the Year: New York
Jeffrey Klein
Weil Gotshal & Manges

Labor & Employment Firm of the Year: Texas
Norton Rose Fulbright

Labor & Employment Attorney of the Year: Texas
Dennis Duffy
BakerHostetler

 

PRACTICE AREA ATTORNEYS OF THE YEAR


Antitrust Attorney of the Year
Ted Hassi
Debevoise & Plimpton

Appellate Attorney of the Year
Neal Katyal
Hogan Lovells

Bankruptcy Attorney of the Year
Andrew Leblanc
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy

General Commercial Attorney of the Year
Lewis Clayton
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison

Insurance Attorney of the Year
Robin Cohen
McKool Smith

Intellectual Property Attorney of the Year
Frank Scherkenbach
Fish & Richardson

International Arbitration Attorney of the Year
Michael Nolan
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy

Product Liability Attorney of the Year
Lori Cohen
Greenberg Traurig

Securities Attorney of the Year
Adam Hakki
Shearman & Sterling

White Collar Crime/Investigations/Enforcement Attorney of the Year
Jonathan Polkes
Weil Gotshal & Manges

Plaintiff Attorney of the Year
Jeremy Lieberman
Pomerantz

Trial Lawyer of the Year
James Hurst
Kirkland & Ellis

 

HALL OF FAME


Max Berger
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann

Diane Sullivan
Weil Gotshal & Manges


LABOR & EMPLOYMENT IMPACT CASES


Raef Lawson v. Grubhub 
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

Roxana Del Toro Lopez and Ana Median v. Uber Technologies, Collective, Class Action and PAGA 
Outten & Golden

Epic Systems v. Lewis
Hogan Lovells
Seyfarth Shaw


NATIONAL IMPACT CASES


City of Monroe Employees' Retirement System, derivatively on behalf of Twenty-First Century Fox v. Rupert Murdoch et al

Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann

CBS v. National Amusements
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Potter Anderson & Corroon

Fresenius v. Akorn
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison

Flexus Biosciences v. Incyte
Kirkland & Ellis

Uber v. Waymo
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
Susman Godfrey

Charlottesville residents lawsuit
Boies Schiller & Flexner
Kaplan Hecker & Fink

Ohio et al v. American Express Company
Cravath Swaine & Moore

Claymore Holdings, LLC v. Credit Suisse AG, et al
Reid Collins & Tsai

Blackberry v. Qualcomm
Sullivan & Cromwell
Winston & Strawn

In re: Petrobras Securities
Pomerantz

 

Once again, we at Benchmark Litigation extend our congratulations to all of the evening’s winners and attendees and thank our guests for their continuing support of our projects.

The new Benchmark Litigation research cycle is already underway. Firms can register their interest HERE and full guidelines can be found HERE.