Connecticut - Jurisdiction Review | Benchmark Litigation

Wiggin and Dana

Firm overview

Wiggin and Dana is a full-service law firm of highly talented, creative and experienced lawyers dedicated to exceeding our clients’ expectations every day. With offices in Connecticut, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Palm Beach, we represent clients throughout the United States and globally on a wide range of sophisticated and complex matters. From defending a Fortune 500 institution in “bet-the-company” litigation, to helping the next generation of inventors bring a new technology to market, to preserving the wealth that a family business has worked so hard to create, we pride ourselves in offering value driven solutions and results.

Litigation Overview: As a nationally recognized litigation law firm, Wiggin and Dana prides itself on the talent, drive, and integrity of its litigators. The firm’s deep bench includes leaders of the bar who have been honored with a fellowship in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American College of Appellate Lawyers, membership in the Product Liability Advisory Council and recognized in Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation, as well as in The Best Lawyers in America, Guide to the World’s Leading Litigation Lawyers, and The International Who’s Who of Commercial Litigation Lawyers. Most recently, Benchmark Litigation selected our department as the 2023 Connecticut Litigation Department of the Year, and our appellate and white-collar practices have recently been recognized as stand-out practices in Connecticut.

We work collaboratively with our clients to provide efficient and cost-effective legal services and encourage mutually beneficial alternative fee arrangements where feasible. And we keep our litigation teams lean and responsive. We know from experience that a limited number of knowledgeable and responsible people produces the best results, while keeping costs contained. How do we do this? It’s simple, we invest time in our clients and associates. We make it our business to know your business through our cross-disciplinary industry or client-specific practice teams. And we train our associates: for example, we have an annual nuts and bolts trial training program, an annual mock jury trial, and a writing program comprised of seminars and one-on-one instruction.

Our lawyers give the same dedication to pro bono clients as to the major institutions on our client roster. For example, in the past two years, Wiggin and Dana litigators prevailed at trial in a Section 1983 civil rights action, and settled another Section 1983 action on the eve of trial. In a Criminal Justice Act case we achieved two successive appellate victories in the Second Circuit on behalf of a prisoner convicted of Espionage Act violations. In 2014 alone the department represented 49 clients on a pro bono basis, and received awards from Connecticut Legal Services and New Haven Legal Assistance, the two largest legal aid organizations in Connecticut.

Wiggin and Dana recruits and cultivates talented associates, who come from highly ranked law schools, clerkships (our litigators have had over 30 clerkships), and from top national and international law firms. Our litigators have had distinguished careers as federal prosecutors, and collectively have well over 100 years of law enforcement and government experience. We encourage you to review the profiles of our litigation attorneys on our website.

Updated Sep 2024

Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider

Firm overview

Incisive. Inclusive. Invested. We’re Axinn.

Experienced, tenacious, and always trial-ready, we are committed to understanding complex legal challenges that impact the future of our clients’ businesses, globally.

Focusing on antitrust, intellectual property, and high-stakes litigation, our extensive teams in the U.S. possess deep knowledge and client-side experience across a range of sectors, including technology, healthcare, life sciences, and consumer products.

With a strong culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion, we build relationships with our clients and colleagues alike, helping communities and acting with purpose. Our client service, entrepreneurialism, and inquisitive nature sit at the heart of the firm, enabling us to prioritize client goals and achieve successful outcomes.

Updated Oct 2024

Review

Dispute resolution

Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider

Axinn, strongly established in the Northeast with offices in New York, Hartford, and Washington, DC, also has a location in San Francisco. The firm has carved out a niche by specializing in the overlap of intellectual property and antitrust litigation. Not limited by these specialties, Axinn is also proficient in complex commercial litigation. Clients routinely point out the diversity of the firm’s teams as well as its casework.

While the firm has expanded beyond its Connecticut roots, the Hartford headquarters continues to be a dominant force in litigation. The Hartford office has one of the firm’s top intellectual property litigators, Matt Becker who represents Norwich Pharmaceuticals in a patent- infringement action filed by Salix Pharmaceuticals. Norwich is seeking approval to market rifaximin, a generic version of the Salix product Xifaxan, for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and hepatic encephalopathy (HE). A trial was held, and the District of Delaware issued an opinion allowing rifaximin to be marketed for IBS treatment but upheld the claims on HE. The case is currently on appeal. Another important member of the team is Aziz Burgy. He is one of the top life-sciences litigators from the Washington, DC office.

The firm’s DC office features antitrust specialist Rachel Adcox. Adcox represents Alvogen in an antitrust case. She has led the team in defending the company against allegations that it participated in an industry-wide conspiracy to raise the prices of generic medications. The case is ongoing. Bradley Justus is a rising star in the DC office. Focusing on antitrust litigation, he is on the team defending Tyson Foods in a multitude of class actions alleging industry-wide price manipulation. Also, on the team representing Tyson Foods is Tiffany Rider. She heads the firm’s antitrust investigations and cartels practice and has represented companies in domestic and cross-border antitrust matters before the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

Adcox joined the New York antitrust litigator Denise Plunkett as a lead counsel defending Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP) in a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to prevent the plaintiff, Pharmacychecker.com, from accessing platforms to promote the importation of pharmaceuticals outside the US. Adcox and Plunkett secured early summary judgment in favor of ASOP. Plunkett teamed up with fellow New York litigator Craig Reiser in a high-profile case representing World Chess Champion and grandmaster Magnus Carlsen in an antitrust lawsuit. The pair successfully defended Carlsen against claims brought by another grandmaster, Hans Niemann, who filed defamation claims and violations of the Sherman Act.

Wiggin and Dana

Wiggin and Dana is routinely referenced as “arguably the strongest and deepest firm in Connecticut.” While the firm certainly has a foothold on the Nutmeg State – with six offices (New Haven, Hartford, Stamford, Greenwich, Westport and Madison) here alone – it is also has a more expansive footprint that encompasses Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC and Florida, housing a total of approximately 71 litigators. The firm is also recognized outside the state’s boundaries for its work, with appellate work on a national level and even incorporating international aspects. “Wiggin and Dana are big in the insurance world,” testifies one peer. “They represent the Hartford nationwide and they also do some work for Zurich.” Another insists, “You’ve got to respect Wiggin and Dana. They even have close ties with Cravath [Swaine and Moore]! You don’t get that kind of alliance unless you’ve got the goods.” Clients are equally taken; one testifies, “Wiggin and Dana has represented us in a major consumer class action; a series of multi-plaintiff medical injury cases; a False Claims Act investigation; a corporate governance litigation; and various art law-related disputes. They have a very talented bench of litigators. They're very good writers. They know our business very well. They're efficient.”
In addition to having national ambitions with its office expansion, the firm’s reputation is taking on these proportions as well. “Their appellate practice s nationwide,” insists a peer. Wiggin and Dana lays claim to having one of the biggest reversals and one of the biggest preservations of a judgment at the appeals level. This matter, an art law case led by New Haven’s Jonathan Freiman, could also ostensibly bring the firm’s appellate acuity to international attention. The firm provided sole counsel to Germany and its Berlin museums by plaintiffs descended from members of a consortium of German Jewish art dealers who sold a large collection of medieval German art known to the German state of Prussia in 1935. The plaintiffs claim that the sale was not voluntary, but the result of duress owing to discrimination against German Jews in the early years of the Nazi regime. The Supreme Court granted the firm’s petition for certiorari, and Freiman argued the case. In 2021, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed an earlier DC Circuit ruling and remanded the matter for further consideration of an additional argument. Freiman ultimately prevailed in the DC Circuit in July 2023 on a renewed motion to dismiss. “Jonathan is an excellent lawyer, on par with the best litigators in the country,” asserts a client. “He offers very good strategic advice. He's an excellent, efficient writer. He's also an exemplary advocate at oral argument. I wish he had more hours in the day.” Benamin Diessel, also based in New Haven, works as co-counsel with the aforementioned Cravath representing Epic Games, the maker of the popular videogame Fortnite, against Apple in what has been called “the World War III of antitrust” regarding the availability of Fortnite on Apple’s app store. James Glasser, the New Haven-based chair of litigation, represented FIH in pending and fiercely contested litigation involving two consolidated cases in the Connecticut Superior Court’s Complex Litigation Docket, resulting in a verdict completely in favor of Wiggin and Dana’s clients in both cases. In the first case, FIH alleged that it was wrongfully induced to invest nearly $7 million into Foundation Capital Partners LLC, a now-defunct hedge fund. In the second case, one of Foundation’s managing principals asserted 19 causes of action against FIH and its affiliates principally based on allegations that FIH attempted to steal the principal’s relationship with non-party Fortress Credit Corp. After a two-week bench trial, the court found in FIH’s favor in all respects, awarding FIH over $10 million.

Labor and employment

Pullman & Comley

Pullman & Comley is a full-service firm with five offices serving the state of Connecticut The firm has a strong reputation in litigation, including a solid labor and employment practice. A local peer gives credence to this: “Pullman is really good. I think they’re solid.” Employment litigation at the firm involves all types of claims, as well as single-plaintiff and multi-plaintiff disputes. Joshua Hawks-Ladds is co-chair of the labor, employment law and employee benefits department at the firm. Over the last year, he has assisted several clients in litigation regarding terminations of high-level management. He represented a major social media company following the termination of its CFO as well as a major hedge fund in the termination of its CEO. In addition to private clients, he also recently assisted a police department that terminated an officer for violations.