California

Firm overview

Who We Are: Founded in October 2018, Reichman Jorgensen Lehman & Feldberg LLP (RJLF) boldly entered the market as a trial boutique with a national reach and an ambition to create a new standard for litigation firms. Focusing on high-stakes commercial litigation, intellectual property, and white collar disputes, the firm made national headlines for breaking away from many law firm traditions, including reinventing the practice of law without the billable hour in favor of fee arrangements that align client interests. RJLF also eliminated two other standard law firm features – the partnership track and lockstep compensation – in favor of systems that encourage attorneys to advance as quickly as their skills allow. The firm is committed to attracting and retaining the most elite talent in the legal industry and pays above market.

In another departure from industry norms, RJLF is truly diverse. The firm is majority women-owned, with 30% of its lawyers being racially and/or LGBTQ+ diverse. Since the firm’s launch, RJLF has been recognized in Law360’s annual “Glass Ceiling Report” for having more women equity partners than any other U.S. firm of its size. The firm also scored as the most gender diverse of all U.S. law firms in any size category, according to the percentage of women equity partners. RJLF was named a “Top Trial Boutique” and awarded “Silicon Valley Firm of the Year” for three consecutive years by Benchmark Litigation and recognized as an “Elite Boutique” by The National Law Journal.

Elite Talent Wins Cases: RJLF’s break from industry traditions obviously resonated with the market, as the firm’s size quickly expanded with marquee talent from several esteemed “Big Law” firms such as Finnegan Henderson; Hughes Hubbard & Reed; Allen & Overy; Morgan Lewis, & Bockius; and White & Case LLP, among many others.

Our attorneys are from the most prestigious clerkships, including the Supreme Court, the D.C. Circuit, the Federal Circuit, the 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 11th Circuits, and District Courts around the country, as well as prestigious law schools such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, NYU, and others. The firm’s lawyers have undergraduate and advanced technical degrees in diverse fields including electrical engineering, physics, computer science, computer networks, and biotechnology. RJLF’s lawyers have also been recognized as among the most accomplished trial lawyers by The American College of Trial Lawyers, Chambers USA, The Legal 500, The National Law Journal, Managing IP, and IAM Patent 1000: The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners, among many others.

Recent Achievements: Punching well above its weight, RJLF often goes toe-to-toe with some of the largest law firms in the world, including Skadden Arps, Morrison & Foerster, Gibson Dunn, and Baker Hostetler, among others. Highlights of the firm’s trial prowess and recent significant wins include:

• Commercial Litigation: RJLF secured a precedent-setting victory on behalf of the CRA in the “gas ban on stoves” case against the City of Berkeley. The Ninth Circuit reversed the District Court’s ruling and held that Berkeley’s ban on natural gas hook-ups is preempted by federal law and therefore invalid. The case garnered extensive national attention from major news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Reuters, among others.
• Intellectual Property Litigation: RJLF won a landmark $673 million award for Kove IO in a patent infringement case against Amazon Web Services, which involved cloud storage technology. At the time, this victory was the largest patent win of 2024 and ranked as the ninth highest in the past decade. The court upheld a $525 million verdict and added $148 million in interest during post-trial motions.
• White Collar Litigation: In an ultrarare price-fixing trial against the Department of Justice (DOJ), the RJLF trial team secured a complete defence verdict after two mistrials. The case stemmed from a high-profile grand jury indictment by the DOJ that charged 10 executives, including RJLF client Roger Austin, a former Vice President of Pilgrim’s Pride, alleging a price- fixing scheme in the $28 billion-per-year broiler chicken industry. The trial win earned the team Global Competition Review’s 2023 Behavioural Matter of the Year (Americas).

Pro Bono: RJLF is deeply committed to public interest litigation. We understand that our privilege of being trial lawyers naturally involves representing those in need, whether it’s high-profile impact litigation or a person who will be evicted from an apartment. We also collaborate and work side-by-side with our clients to develop targeted pro bono and community service programs. Our pro bono activities include handling cases involving civil rights, immigration, prison abuse, indigent defence, homelessness, and veterans’ issues, among others.

Other Offices:

New York
400 Madison Avenue, Suite 14D
New York, NY 10017
T: +1 212 381 1965

Washington, D.C.
1909 K Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20006
T: +1 202 894 7310

Atlanta
1201 West Peachtree Street, Suite 2300
Atlanta, GA 30309
T: +1 404 609 1040

Austin
515 Congress Avenue, Suite 1900
Austin, TX 78701
T: + 650 623 1401

Updated Oct 2024

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

Firm overview

Blank Rome is an Am Law 100 firm with 16 offices and more than 750 attorneys and principals, including more than 400 litigators, who provide a full range of legal and advocacy services to clients operating in the United States and around the world. Our professionals are widely recognized for their leading knowledge and experience across a broad spectrum of industries, but what really sets us apart is our investment in client relationships—our unwavering commitment to understanding their businesses, the around-the-clock access we provide, and our nimble and customized delivery of services. We treat your goals, ideas, and objectives as our own and fight fiercely for resolutions that are in your best interest. To learn more, visit www.blankrome.com.

WHAT SETS BLANK ROME APART

• Our attorneys, at all levels, are always accessible and responsive
  
  
• Our combination of legal know-how and business acumen gives us a unique understanding of how to handle all types of matters to maximize positive results for our clients.
  
  
• We treat our client’s business goals, ideas, and objectives as our own, taking a serious and thoughtful approach to crafting pragmatic solutions to best serve their interests.
  
  
• We invest in building real, lasting relationships with our clients—an unwavering commitment to understanding their businesses with a nimble and customized delivery of services.
  
  
• We are a law firm large enough to have the depth of resources needed to serve our clients’ sophisticated requirements, yet small enough to provide individualized service to satisfy its specific requirements.
  
  
• Our proprietary client service and satisfaction program is designed to serve all our clients’ functional needs and requirements.
  
  
• We consider the fee to be secondary to client service and intend to deliver extraordinary value commensurate with a mutually satisfactory fee arrangement.
  
  
• Our unwavering ethical standards and approach as a firm to supporting and working within our communities, including: charitable investments, civic participation, diversity and inclusion, advancement of women’s leadership, required pro bono services, and sustainable practices.

Our Commitment to DEI

At Blank Rome, we value diversity of identities, experiences, and backgrounds, which creates a more vibrant and dynamic work environment. Our firm’s culture is centered around collaboration, collegiality, entrepreneurial and familial spirit, and giving back to our local communities through service.

Blank Rome DEI Affinity Groups include BR Parent, BR Pride, BR Advance (for women of color), BR United (BR Asian, BR Black, BR Latinx, BR MENA), BR Women.

Since its inception in 2017, we have joined Diversity Lab’s Mansfield Rule, which measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered women and attorneys of color for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, and lateral positions.

We are a member of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance since its inception in June 2020.

We are frequently recognized for our DEI initiatives by the legal and business communities.

Pro Bono Policy & Initiatives

Our formal pro bono policy requires each of our attorneys and paralegals to undertake at least 25 hours of pro bono service every year, which has led to more than 99 percent participation in pro bono work from our attorneys since 2015.

In 2023, Blank Rome attorneys and paralegals provided more than 27,000 pro bono hours.

We are frequently recognized for our pro bono work by the legal, business and nonprofit communities.

Updated July 2024

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