Wilkinson Stekloff is the leading trial litigation boutique in the country, demonstrating a depth of talent and skill unmatched by firms of any size. Since its founding in 2016, the 35-lawyer firm has tried over 20 cases to verdict, winning the vast majority. Through 2021, that intensity continued, with a series of significant victories in challenging and high-stakes cases across the country.
What makes Wilkinson Stekloff unique?
The firm’s business model and mission set Beth Wilkinson, Brian Stekloff, and their team apart from other trial practice groups. The firm’s innovative business model, offering fixed-fee arrangements for all cases, gives clients certainty around their budgets even in the most contentious trials. And because clients know they will pay the same fee no matter the size of the team, the firm can employ its depth of talent in all key events — depositions, strategy sessions, and court hearings — without affecting the clients’ bottom line.
The firm views it as critical not just to hire outstanding attorneys, but to give them meaningful trial experience and client exposure. This is deliberate, as it supports the firm’s overall mission—to develop the next generation of trial lawyers. And this mission sets Wilkinson Stekloff apart from all trial practice groups. At Wilkinson Stekloff, the vast majority of associates have worked on at least one trial, and those who have been with the firm for years are veterans of many trials in jurisdictions across the country.
The firm’s clients have included heavy-hitters in a wide range of industries, such as Allergan, Altria Group Inc., Bayer, Facebook, FedEx, Georgia Pacific, Glenmark, Medtronic, Monsanto, the NCAA, the NFL, Pfizer, and Philip Morris USA — all of which have come to rely on Wilkinson Stekloff as a go-to trial firm that can handle their toughest cases.
Despite the impact of the pandemic, which shuttered courthouses across the country, Wilkinson Stekloff continued to provide excellent outcomes for its clients. Most recently, the firm achieved headline-making results in two high-stakes matters, securing a complete dismissal of FTC antitrust allegations on behalf of Altria Group and earning the first-ever jury verdict win for Monsanto in litigation over whether the herbicide Roundup causes Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
In addition to serving as lead trial counsel in the administrative proceeding before the FTC, Wilkinson Stekloff also represents Altria in three separate consolidated private antitrust cases pending in the Northern District of California and in an MDL involving RICO and state-law claims in the same court. The firm is counsel for the NCAA in a putative antitrust class action lawsuit brought by current and former student-athletes challenging rules that prohibit or limit student-athletes from receiving compensation for the commercial use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) under the Sherman Act. Wilkinson Stekloff represents the NFL in a putative class action lawsuit challenging the NFL’s multibillion-dollar exclusive distributorship arrangement with DIRECTV for Sunday Ticket. Wilkinson Stekloff also oversees trial strategy for Medtronic in cases related to its hernia mesh product, and has secured multiple pre-trial victories in these cases.
As a trial boutique, the firm prides itself on providing pro bono representation to clients facing trials, which can be particularly confusing or intimidating to individuals unfamiliar with the legal system. But the range of the firm’s pro bono litigation practice is unmatched, covering appeals, class actions, and strategic counseling. Wilkinson Stekloff has handled more than 80 pro bono matters since its founding in 2016, with nearly all of the firm’s attorneys devoting significant time to those matters and the firm’s brightest young talent winning trials in leadership roles. In just the last year, the firm’s pro bono teams secured three major immigration victories, as well as a win on appeal in a complex and contentious divorce and custody case involving domestic violence.
Achieving this many successes with a firm of just under 35 attorneys has led to multiple accolades for Wilkinson Stekloff and its attorneys, including being shortlisted as a 2022 Outstanding Firm for Pro Bono by Chambers and recognized as a 2021 Top Boutique, Top 20 Trial Firm, and Tier 1 Commercial firm by Benchmark Litigation.
The firm’s deep bench of go-to litigators includes Beth Wilkinson, chosen for Benchmark Litigation’s elite group of the 10 leading women litigators who stand out from its iconic Top 250 Women in Litigation List, as well as the Top 100 Trial Lawyers; Brian Stekloff, ranked by Chambers as a nationally prominent products liability trial lawyer and named a 2022 Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation; James Rosenthal, noted as a “Winning Litigator” by the National Law Journal; Kosta Stojilkovic and Rakesh Kilaru designated as 2022 Benchmark Litigation Future Stars; and Kieran Gostin and Moira Penza named to Benchmark Litigation’s 2022 40 & Under List.
Clients, colleagues, and competitors acknowledge that, lawyer for lawyer and matter for matter, Wilkinson Stekloff is a litigation juggernaut poised to continue its success for years to come.
Updated Aug 2022
