District of Columbia

Firm overview

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP is a premier firm of more than 1,000 lawyers with diverse backgrounds, personalities, ideas and interests who provide innovative and effective solutions to our clients’ most complex legal and business challenges. With 11 offices across North America, Europe and Asia, and a robust international network, the firm represents many of the world’s largest and most important asset managers, public and private corporations, and financial institutions, as well as clients in need of pro bono assistance. We consistently earn high praise for our collaborative, commercial approach, providing novel and efficient solutions to otherwise intractable situations.

The firm is widely recognized as having market-leading practices in private equity, public company M&A, litigation, white collar and regulatory defense, and restructuring. Within these broad practices, we also offer numerous elite specialized practices, including finance, capital markets, investment funds, antitrust, tax and executive compensation, among others.

Litigation:

No other law firm can approach Paul, Weiss’s experience and record of success in the most complex, high-stakes litigation in U.S. federal and state courts. Our renowned trial team is a particularly powerful advantage, both in the courtroom and at the settlement table.

With a deep bench that includes many of the country’s most accomplished trial lawyers and former senior government officials, our Litigation Department is uniquely positioned to handle multifaceted crises, from sprawling cross-border, multi-regulator enforcement actions to parallel private litigation. We are regularly entrusted with fast-moving, franchise-threatening matters because of our ability to develop and execute a winning strategy, no matter the problem or adversary, and to see the matter through to the ultimate resolution, whether at trial or before the Supreme Court.

The Litigation Department includes dozens of former federal prosecutors and senior U.S. government officials, including a former U.S. Attorney General; former U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern District of New York and the Northern District of California; a former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; former senior leaders in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division; numerous senior counsel from the SEC, the CFPB, the FTC and other key U.S. regulatory agencies; and former senior members of the White House Counsel’s office.

White Collar & Regulatory Defense:

Clients facing white collar and regulatory enforcement challenges look to Paul, Weiss to protect their businesses and reputations and manage the behind-the-scenes interplay among competing regulatory and enforcement agencies. We have experience handling a vast range of regulatory and enforcement inquiries and internal investigations, including involving multiple jurisdictions. Our lawyers are adept at conducting internal investigations on behalf of companies, boards, audit committees and special litigation committees. Within the litigation and white collar and regulatory defense practices, we are widely recognized for our expertise in many specialized areas, including:

• Antitrust
• Anti-Corruption & Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
• Anti-Money Laundering
• Artificial Intelligence
• Bankruptcy Litigation
• Congressional Investigations
• Crisis Management
• Cryptocurrency & Blockchain
• Cybersecurity & Data Protection
• DEI Strategic Advisory
• Digital Technology
• E-Discovery
• Employment, Workplace Investigations & Trade Secrets
• ERISA, Pension & Benefits Litigation
• False Claims Act & Qui Tam Litigation
• Financial Services Litigation & Investigations
• Insurance Litigation
• Intellectual Property Litigation
• Internal Investigations
• International Arbitration
• Investigations
• Investment Management Litigation
• Mergers & Acquisitions Litigation
• National Security, CFIUS & FARA
• Product Liability & Mass Torts
• Civil Rights & Racial Equity Audits
• Sanctions
• Securities Litigation
• Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation
• Sustainability & ESG Advisory

Updated Sep 2024

Firm overview

Clients from global brands and household names to cutting-edge startups and individuals trust Loeb litigators to resolve their thorniest legal disputes, whether that’s litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country; investigations and enforcement actions before government agencies; or mediation, arbitration and regulatory agency proceedings.

Loeb litigators deliver practical and strategic counsel with a consistent focus on our clients’ business objectives and a steady determination not only to achieve the best possible outcome — in or out of the courtroom — but also to minimize risk, protect their brands and secure their competitive advantages in their markets and industries. Our lawyers have deep fluency in the law, courtroom-proven skills and well-earned reputations for effective advocacy based on decades of experience working with — and across the table from — clients, opposing counsel, judges and government regulators.

We approach every case as if trial is inevitable, and we are ready to go when the courtroom is the right answer, as we have in hundreds of cases and arbitrations. We know that this trial-focused approach is the best way to present a formidable case to a judge or jury — and to avoid a costly trial through a favorable settlement or quick disposition.

Our decades of litigation experience also enable us to provide valuable counsel to clients on risk avoidance, and our litigators often work closely with colleagues from practices across the firm to help identify and avoid potential disputes and areas of exposure that could turn contentious down the road.

Loeb litigators handle disputes across a wide range of services, including:

Practices:

• Antitrust
• Bankruptcy, Restructuring & Creditors’ Rights
• Consumer Class Action & Regulatory Defense
• Employment & Labor
• IP & Patents
• Insurance Coverage & Defense
• Privacy
• Securities
• Tax
• Trust & Estates
• White Collar

Industries:

• Advertising & Media
• Energy
• Entertainment, Music & Sports
• Family Office
• Financial Services
• Life Sciences
• Nonprofit
• Professional Services
• Public Sector
• Real Estate
• Retail & Consumer Brands
• Technology

Updated Sep 2023

Firm overview

Wilkinson Stekloff is the leading trial litigation boutique in the country, demonstrating a depth of talent and skill unmatched by firms of any size. Described by The American Lawyer as “the legal equivalent of an elite special ops unit,” Wilkinson Stekloff is at the forefront of today’s most significant litigation moving the needle in the legal industry, from landmark, precedent-setting antitrust cases to bellwether products liability trials. Fortune 500 chief executives and general counsel turn to Wilkinson Stekloff attorneys for their strategic guidance, courtroom expertise, and unparalleled track record on the most high- profile, high-stakes disputes. The firm’s clients have included heavy-hitters in a wide range of industries, such as Allergan, Altria Group Inc., Amazon, Bayer, Cargill, Facebook, FedEx, Georgia-Pacific, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals USA, Medtronic, Microsoft, Monsanto, the NCAA, the NFL, Pfizer, Plaid, 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.

What makes Wilkinson Stekloff unique?

The firm’s innovative business model and mission set Beth Wilkinson, Brian Stekloff, and their team apart from other trial practice groups. The firm offers fixed-fee arrangements for all cases, giving 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 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 prides itself on providing pro bono representation to clients facing trials. The range of the firm’s pro bono practice is unmatched, covering appeals, class actions, and strategic counseling. Wilkinson Stekloff has handled more than 100 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.

Latest Results

Recently, the firm achieved headline-making results for Microsoft in the second-largest merger trial in history — and the biggest involving a technology company — over its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The firm defeated the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the transaction after a five-day trial that began less than two weeks after the FTC filed its federal court complaint. The firm directed all aspects of litigation strategy from the time the acquisition was announced in January 2022, positioning the case for a federal court victory on an unprecedented timeline. This trial marked Wilkinson Stekloff ’s second major win against an antitrust challenge by the FTC, the first being its win for Altria in a challenge to the company’s $12.8 billion minority investment in JUUL Labs, Inc. Wilkinson Stekloff won in front of the FTC’s Administrative Law Judge, and the FTC subsequently dismissed the case.

Other recent results include obtaining full judgment for the NFL in post-trial proceedings in a $21 billion challenge to the NFL’s media model, as well as the firm’s negotiation of the groundbreaking and highly publicized settlement of major antitrust lawsuits filed against the NCAA and its five athletic conferences by current and former student-athletes pertaining to use of their name, image, and likeness.

Other representative matters include:

• Clark v. Monsanto Company, et al. After just a day of deliberation, won the first-ever jury verdict for Monsanto in litigation over claims that the herbicide Roundup causes Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Clark was the fourth case in this mass tort to go to trial, with the three previous trials resulting in verdicts against Monsanto ranging from $81 million to over $2 billion.
• Farar et al. v. Bayer AG et al. Won an outright defense verdict in a multi-state class action trial involving One A Day vitamins. Plaintiffs alleged that Bayer made false, misleading, and deceptive statements about One A Day. Before trial,
  Wilkinson Stekloff ’s motions practice reduced the potential damages by hundreds of millions of dollars. At trial, based on devastating cross-examinations by Wilkinson Stekloff ’s attorneys, the defense rested without calling a single witness. After just over an hour of deliberation, the jury returned a complete defense verdict.
• In the Matter of Altria Group, Inc. and JUUL Labs, Inc. Secured an unprecedented FTC dismissal on behalf of Altria following a month-long administrative trial before the FTC over Altria’s minority investment in JUUL. A February 2022 ruling by the Chief Administrative Law Judge dismissed in their entirety claims by the FTC that Altria and JUUL violated antitrust laws. The matter was on appeal within the FTC, but on June 30, 2023, the FTC dismissed its complaint against Altria.
• In re Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) Products Liability Litigation. Won bellwether trials on behalf of Bayer in mass tort proceedings involving the blood thinner Xarelto. Plaintiffs claimed that Bayer had failed to provide adequate warnings to doctors about risks associated with Xarelto. In the first two federal trials in New Orleans, Wilkinson Stekloff secured unanimous defense verdicts within two hours of closing arguments. Then, in the first three state court trials in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Wilkinson Stekloff secured two defense verdicts and a judgment notwithstanding an adverse verdict in a third case.

Accolades

Achieving this many successes with a firm of just 40 attorneys has led to multiple accolades for Wilkinson Stekloff and its attorneys, including being nationally ranked by leading publications Benchmark Litigation, Chambers, Legal 500, The American Lawyer, and The National Law Journal. Most recently, Wilkinson Stekloff was selected as “Trial Firm of the Year” by Benchmark and “Practice Group of the Year: Antitrust” by Law360, and received “Matter of the Year” awards for the Microsoft/Activision deal from both Benchmark and Global Competition Review.

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 Sep 2024

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