District of Columbia

Firm overview

Sidley is an elite global law firm. Harnessing 158 years of legal heritage, we provide strong representation on behalf of clients in more than 70 countries. Our lawyers apply a Built to Win^SM client service model to their legal strategies, ensuring the best possible outcomes in complex transactional, restructuring, regulatory, and litigation matters. With 21 offices strategically situated in key commercial and financial hubs across the world, our perspective and our reach are truly global. Our 2,300 lawyers, fluent in more than 80 languages, possess the cultural awareness and cross-border legal acumen needed to bring clarity to a dynamic business landscape.

Follow Sidley on Twitter @SidleyLaw.

Appellate: Sidley is widely recognized as one of the premier appellate firms in the country, and as a trailblazer — regularly addressing intricate, precedent-setting issues in federal and state law in the Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, as well as state appellate and supreme courts across the nation. Since the inception of the practice in 1985, the team, including more than 20 former Supreme Court clerks, has briefed over 220 cases on the merits and argued more than 150 cases before the Court.

Bankruptcy: Sidley’s global Restructuring group is regularly involved in the largest restructurings throughout the world. The team represents companies facing in-court or out-of-court restructurings, official and ad hoc committees of creditors, agent lenders, and participants in distressed M&A processes. Sidley prides itself on the group’s ability to use innovative, bespoke approaches to obtain the best results in complex situations.

Commercial: Clients repeatedly turn to Sidley’s Commercial Litigation team when their most important disputes must be tried. Sidley’s track record of successes is unparalleled in high-stakes, mission-critical cases against well-regarded opponents, no matter the forum. The team’s full-service litigation capabilities are relied upon by leading global companies with household names.

Competition/Antitrust: As a part of the firm’s global antitrust offering, Sidley has a strong and well-respected litigation practice. Sidley lawyers represent clients in their most complex cases, including matters involving antitrust enforcement, merger clearances, claims of collusion, and other alleged antitrust violations. The team has represented domestic and international corporations, trade associations, government entities, professional societies, and individuals in the full range of civil and criminal trials.

Insurance: Sidley’s Insurance Disputes practice advises on significant insurance litigation nationwide across a variety of areas, including regulatory compliance, insurance class actions, reinsurance disputes, ERISA litigation, general commercial litigation, securities and shareholder litigation, and Supreme Court and appellate courts, among other areas.

Intellectual Property: Sidley boasts one of the most distinguished and highly regarded Intellectual Property litigation practices in the U.S., with approximately 80 lawyers and a deep bench of trial lawyers. Handling matters for innovation-driven clients ranging from global Fortune 500 companies to groundbreaking startups, the team develops winning strategies for high-stakes IP litigation involving patents, trade secret and unfair competition, false advertising, copyright infringement, and trademarks.

International Arbitration: Sidley’s Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy practice exemplifies a superior depth of knowledge of the law, regulatory challenges, and culture of the jurisdictions in which the team practices. Operating from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, the team works as a tightly integrated team of practitioners with different cultural and legal backgrounds and broad language capabilities.

Labor and Employment: Sidley is at the forefront of representing employers in major high-profile class and collective action litigation against many of the biggest and most aggressive plaintiffs’ firms in the country. The team is known for winning bet-the-company cases and deftly handling high-value discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, executive disputes, whistle-blower claims, restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation, and investigations involving matters of the utmost importance to companies.

Product Liability and Recall: Sidley’s Product Liability and Mass Torts practice has played key roles in many of the most significant product liability litigations. The team has decades of experience handling claims associated with products, the facilities that manufacture them, and the companies that sell them. We defend clients in state and federal courts and are typically lead counsel in multidistrict litigations and state coordinated proceedings.

Securities: Sidley’s Securities and Shareholder Litigation team stands out for the strength of its work, winning complex securities matters at the trial level and on appeal across a variety of sectors. The team’s deep bench and extensive experience allows Sidley to represent a wide range of clients. This includes major corporations and private companies, boards of directors and board committees, senior executives, financial advisers, investment banks, and auditors.

White Collar Crime: Sidley lawyers have handled investigations in more than 130 countries, collaborating seamlessly across borders and practice groups to offer a cohesive approach to white collar crime and corporate investigations matters. The firm can mobilize teams quickly to swiftly deploy the critical legal support needed to manage sensitive, high-profile investigations and litigation.

Updated Sep 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

Founded in 1920, Akerman is recognized as one of the country’s premier law firms, with more than 700 lawyers in 25 offices throughout the United States..

Commercial Litigation: Akerman offers a leading trial team that includes litigators across the United States. We represent a diverse range of clients across numerous sectors, with particular strength in the financial services, private equity, insurance, real estate, construction, health and life sciences, and energy sectors. Akerman lawyers regularly appear before judges and arbitrators in class actions, securities, white-collar, fraud and recovery, product liability, intellectual property, employment, bankruptcy, and general business matters.

Appellate: With a bench that includes many former appellate and trial court judges, Akerman’s appellate practice is a national powerhouse with demonstrated success in handling appeals related to complex commercial litigation. Akerman's appellate team frequently assist trial lawyers during all phases of litigation, preserving errors for appeal, drafting motions and responses, and providing strategic advice on the best approach for seeking relief on appeal. They handle numerous matters before appellate courts nationwide in various commercial cases and class actions. We also have experience in administrative appeals involving high profile issues before state agencies. Additionally, Akerman's appellate lawyers represent industry associations as amicus curiae in appellate proceedings when our clients are not a party to an appeal but have a substantial interest in the outcome.

International Litigation & Arbitration: Akerman has a long record of accomplishment in resolving complex multijurisdictional disputes. Our team represents multinational, foreign, and domestic corporations and individuals before U.S. federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings before a wide range of international arbitral bodies in multiple jurisdictions. Akerman litigators help clients successfully address conflicts in a broad range of sectors, including general commercial disputes, power and energy, construction and engineering, and banking and finance, among many others. Our highly responsive, multilingual team works in tandem with experienced local counsel to provide seamless resolution to disputes throughout Latin America, as well as in Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East.

Employment Litigation: Akerman’s national, multidisciplinary team helps clients navigate claims brought before state and federal agencies and boards as well as trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. Our lawyers regularly defend employers in all types of employment litigation, including complex class-action discrimination cases and collective action wage and hour matters. We also represent employers in connection with administrative charges and audits, and have successfully negotiated and supervised numerous settlements with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Updated Sep 2024

Firm overview

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a leading international law firm, consistently ranks among the world’s top law firms in industry surveys and major publications. The firm is distinctively positioned in today’s global marketplace with more than 1,800 lawyers and 21 offices.

Litigation Practice: Acclaimed as a litigation powerhouse, Gibson Dunn and the members of the Litigation practice have a long record of outstanding successes. The American Lawyer named Gibson Dunn a Finalist in its 2022 Litigation Department of the Year competition, noting that “when news breaks and the pressure rises, clients call Gibson Dunn’s litigators to regain control.” This award follows the firm’s unprecedented four wins in this biennial competition.

The members of our litigation practice group are not just litigators, they are first-rate trial lawyers. Each year, we try numerous cases to verdicts before juries, judges and arbitrators. Our clients have trusted us to try their most significant disputes to verdict.

We have tried cases and argued appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court and state supreme courts in addition to federal and state courts across the United States involving almost every foreseeable area of controversy. We also handle disputes before a wide variety of nonjudicial forums, from federal and state agencies to international arbitrations.

Antitrust & Trade Regulation: Gibson Dunn serves clients in virtually every significant area of antitrust and trade regulation law, including cartel and government civil investigations, class action treble damage litigation, private antitrust litigation, government review of mergers and acquisitions, and trade regulation matters.

Appellate: Gibson Dunn has one of the nation’s leading appellate practices with broad experience in complex appellate litigation at all levels of the state and federal court systems. The practice has been involved in matters covering an array of constitutional, statutory, regulatory and common-law issues. Our lawyers have presented arguments in front of the Supreme Court of the United States nearly 160 times.

Business Restructuring & Reorganization: The firm has extensive experience in both US and multinational insolvencies. Its lawyers regularly represent and counsel official creditors’ committees, ad hoc creditor groups, secured lenders, investors and companies (including DIP and exit financing) in out-of-court work-outs and Chapter 11 cases.

Commercial Litigation & Arbitration: Gibson Dunn’s approach emphasizes the full spectrum of services for our clients. Our litigators are trained to evaluate actual and potential cases at the earliest stages, to first determine if litigation can be avoided, or, if it is filed, whether the matter can be resolved quickly and economically. We pride ourselves on handling our litigation matters as efficiently as possible. Gibson Dunn lawyers are fully familiar with a wide array of alternative dispute resolution techniques, including arbitration, mediation, “mini-trials” and the like. 

Intellectual Property: Gibson Dunn’s deep bench of trial lawyers with technical backgrounds, advanced degrees and industry experience provides the necessary insight to develop and defend against sophisticated claims in a wide range of industries and complex technologies. Our litigators are recognized throughout the industry as leaders in prosecuting, defending and trying IP claims in federal and state courts, before administrative bodies including the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as well as before arbitration panels.

Labor & Employment: Gibson Dunn is known for our unsurpassed ability to help the world’s preeminent companies tackle their most challenging labor and employment matters. We have prevailed in what are believed to be the largest class actions under several different U.S. employment laws, including Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the wage and hour laws. Gibson Dunn has also worked on high-profile ERISA cases, nationally recognized Sarbanes-Oxley ‘whistleblower’ cases and aggressive advocacy on OSHA issues. 

Securities Litigation, Regulation & Corporate Governance: A recognized leader in the defense of securities class actions, derivative litigation and SEC enforcement actions, the firm advises companies on disclosure, accounting and regulatory issues for domestic and foreign regulatory bodies. The partners include nationally recognized securities class action defense counsel and a number of former senior officials with the SEC, NASD and DOJ.

Transnational Litigation: Gibson Dunn’s Transnational Litigation practice specializes in protecting clients against claims in U.S. and other courts stemming from overseas activities, as well as reducing and eliminating the risks posed by foreign litigation that, if unchecked, threaten company-wide implications. Our uniquely skilled, creative and experienced transnational team is equipped to manage all aspects of cross-border litigation, including devising, coordinating and implementing offensive and defensive global strategies and has represented clients in some of the highest-profile cases around the world. Gibson Dunn’s international team consists of US, English, French, Spanish and German-qualified lawyers, many of whom are dual qualified.

White Collar Defense & Investigations: The firm defends prominent companies and executives against federal and state prosecutions and has conducted numerous sensitive internal investigations in areas including anti-money laundering; computer and IP crimes; environmental violations and compliance; FCPA matters; forfeiture (civil and criminal); health care fraud; privacy; procurement fraud; securities, financial institution and accounting fraud; and tax offenses. The practice group includes numerous former federal and state prosecutors and officials, many of whom served at high levels within the DOJ, SEC and other key investigative arms of the government.