Weil Gotshal & Manges enjoys a reputation as a firm whose litigation bench is one of the most comprehensive in terms of practice depth. “They have all the bases covered,” confirms a peer. “A nice wide spectrum. And they have the depth and breadth in their personnel to cover it.” The firm’s national reach is spread among offices on the East Coast in New York and DC, throughout several locations in California, two locations in Texas, one in Boston and a location in Miami. Its practice area portfolio also covers a lot of ground, with product liability, bankruptcy, antitrust, commercial, intellectual property, securities and white-collar crime all playing prominent positions in the overall composition of the firm’s litigation service offerings.
The firm made a notable augmentation to these services within the past couple of years with
with the recruits of DC-based Mark Perry and
Drew Tulumello, both of whom joined Weil from Gibson Dunn and both of whom provide strategic enhancements to Weil’s appellate capacity. “Weil has really made a significant investment here,” declares a peer in reference to the firm’s development of the appeals practice. “They are now officially a player in that specialty – they went from 0 to 100.” This practice is not limited to more established seniors;
Robert Niles-Weed, a young New York-based star [featured in Benchmark’s 40 and Under list and also profiled in a special feature in this edition] whose practice also encompasses other strata of commercial litigation and antitrust, has also carved out a name for himself in the appellate space. Niles-Weed acted with Perry as co-counsel for Comcast, who was sued for allegedly infringing a patent concerning an interactive program guide that integrated both linear cable channels and other content sources. Niles-Weed also worked with Tulumello serving as appellate counsel to BNSF Railway in what is purported to be the first case ever to go to trial under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. Following trial, where BNSF was represented by trial counsel from a different law firm, the jury returned a $228 million verdict in favor of the plaintiffs. The Weil duo represented BNSF in its efforts to obtain a new trial or reduction of the verdict. In September 2023, the parties entered into a settlement. Perry also acts with two other younger stars, New York’s Luna Barrington and Silicon Valley’s
Bambo Obaro, representing national grocery retailer Kroger in connection with its pending $20+ billion merger with Albertsons and concurrent divestiture of hundreds of stores. Federal and state regulators have filed three separate suits in Federal Court in Oregon, and State court in Washington and Colorado seeking to enjoin the merger, and Weil is working with co-counsel to defend against these suits.
The firm has had an equally impressive run in the intellectual property capacity, with New York’s
Elizabeth Weiswasser garnering a pronounced level of praise on the strength of her increased visibility and demonstrated acuity in the patent arena. “Liz is a great IP lawyer but she’s actually a phenomenal trial lawyer,” elaborates one patent-oriented peer. “It’s easy to get bogged down in details in these types of cases but Liz cuts through all that and just shines in the courtroom.” Weil’s IP bench is equally revered on the West Coast, where Silicon Valley-based
Ed Reines generates “a lot of respect on the life sciences side,” according to peers. One contemporary declares, “The practice that Ed has built in the Bay Area for life sciences is really just remarkable, and he’s trying cases as well. [He is] very impressive.”
Securities has been another calling card for Weil, and specifically for New York’s
Jonathan Polkes, whose practice balances civil and criminal work and who stands out to peers in the bar as “one of the rare breed of securities lawyers who is ready to try cases anytime if need be.” Polkes led a team, which included
Caroline Zalka and Theodore Tsekerides, that triumphed for Warner Brothers and Discovery in February 2024 in a securities case that was brought following a stock drop after the $43 billion merger of the two entities. Polkes and Zalka also have been leading the defense of numerous securities class actions filed against longtime client Walgreens in courts around the country. These cases arise out of the company’s failed 2017 merger with Rite Aid, and feature allegations that Walgreens misled investors about the likelihood the Federal Trade Commission would approve the deal. Another New York securities star (and head of the firm’s national practice)
John Neuwirth successfully defended another longtime client, AMC Entertainment, in fast-tracked stockholder litigation in Delaware Chancery Court arising from its planned overhaul of its capital structure. Plaintiffs alleged that AMC’s senior management and board of directors breached their fiduciary duties by diluting common stockholders’ voting power through the creation of a new preferred class of securities and a subsequent planned reverse stock split.
New York’s David Lender, an all-purpose commercial trial lawyer, remains a peer favorite. One enthuses, “I keep saying he’s the lawyer I want to be when I grow up, but he’s younger than me! He’s just in another league.” Lender led a cross-section commercial/antitrust team that included Greg Silbert and
Eric Hochstadt in the successful representation of the Tri-City ValleyCats and the Norwich Sea Unicorns in two separate but related disputes against Major League Baseball (MLB), in one alleging that MLB’s Restructuring and contraction of minor-league baseball violates the US antitrust laws.
