Benchmark Litigation

Florida

Review

Dispute resolution
Akerman

With multiple offices from coast to coast, Akerman has a nationwide reach and a range of practices that includes consumer financial services, construction, intellectual property, and bankruptcy. The firm is routinely commended by clients, who point out its strengths in giving advice. One client appreciates the way the team “communicates with their clients,” and goes on to state, “Overall, I was very happy.”

Another client using the firm’s banking and financial services expertise shared several positive points: “[They have] great communication and follow-up on matters, a balanced approach to litigation, reasonable hours and billing, and all-around excellent service.” In the commercial litigation space, another says, “Akerman offers excellent advice and options.”

The firm has a particular concentration of strength in Florida, where the firm originated. In the Jacksonville office, Christian George brings his expertise in bankruptcy and commercial litigation to clients who have expressed their appreciation for his leadership. A client who has tapped George for bankruptcy, commercial, and banking disputes notes that he “understands our model and approach to working out matters and litigation.” The same client commends George’s “excellent communication and follow-up, balanced approach... and good rapport with [the executive management] of our bank.” He is described as having a “great personality.”

The Miami office includes Robert Chaskes, a commercial litigator and co-chair of the distressed-property practice. One client says, “[He has] superb legal knowledge and [a] pragmatic approach to domestic and international business disputes.” Chaskes is described as having “excellent communication skills” and as being a “top-notch legal professional.” Chaskes defended Amicorp in a case that involved the contentious doctrine of conspiracy jurisdiction to assert personal jurisdiction in Florida. Chaskes successfully argued that the plaintiffs did not provide a sufficient basis to exercise personal jurisdiction pertaining to the tortuous activity allegations under either the state’s statute or the US Constitution. The Third Circuit affirmed the ruling, further clarifying the use of the doctrine of conspiracy jurisdiction.

Megan Costa DeLeon, based in the firm’s Orlando office, focuses largely on commercial disputes. However, she also serves as lead counsel in a product-liability case defending ProAmpac against a lawsuit filed by RCBA Nutraceuticals. The trial court allowed the plaintiff to file an amended complaint, which added ProAmpac as a co-defendant based on its acquisition of PolyFirst Packaging. (PolyFirst manufactured the alleged defective packaging.) Costa DeLeon appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which published an opinion agreeing with her arguments that the plaintiff failed to establish personal jurisdiction. Her motion to dismiss was reversed and remanded for further proceedings.

Beyond Florida, Mark Bernstein resolves commercial conflicts and lawsuits predominantly on behalf of clients in the financial and manufacturing industries. Working out of the Chicago office, Bernstein is praised by clients for his industry and practice- area expertise. “Mark is always very timely and provides great insight into construction contracting,” says a client who sought out Bernstein for his commercial knowledge. “Mark has an excellent understanding of our business from both a commercial and operational perspective.” Bernstein is the lead partner representing MG East, which hired Premier Design & Build Group to construct three buildings in Miami Gardens, Florida. Shortly after substantial completion of the buildings, the roof edges and gutter systems began showing signs of rust and corrosion, leaving holes that allowed water to drain directly onto the buildings and the surrounding property. MG East sued Premier for breach of general contract for the failure to properly install the roofing and gutter systems. The claimed damages are more than $2 million. The case is in its initial phases of discovery.

Benjamin Joelson in Akerman’s New York office specializes in commercial litigation and intellectual property. He often represents commercial landlords, tenants, developers, and construction companies over real-estate disputes. He is currently on the team representing a potential joint venture to open a HALAL GUYS restaurant at the American Dream complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was uncovered that Dream Big Holding, LLC’s principal, through a new entity, had secretly opened a restaurant called Falafel Inc. at the American Dream complex. That same location had already been leased to the joint venture. In another pending case, Joelson is part of the team representing Vanderbilt Atlantic Holdings, the ground-floor lessor of a property in Brooklyn, New York, in a lease dispute with its tenant, McDonald’s Corporation.

Boies Schiller Flexner

Boies Schiller & Flexner has crafted itself a pride of place in the legal market since its inception as a litigation-centric “boutique” with a maverick approach. Much of its initial celebrity was, and to an extent still is, largely credited to name partner and founder David Boies, a trailblazing trial lawyer who has been at the forefront of some of the most newsworthy and precedent-setting trials and appeals, as well as many others that haven’t made headlines but have covered a staggering array of disciplines. Boies’ legend still looms large. “At an age when most of his peers have long since retired, David is still active and still a brand name,” marvels one peer. “He seems to have no desire to hang it up – or doesn’t show it, anyway.” Boies and DC partner Hamish Hume served as co-lead counsel in a decade-long litigation for a class of Blue Cross Blue Shield subscribers, which alleged that the trademark licenses used by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association violated antitrust laws by allocating markets among the companies using those trademarks, and by restricting competition in other ways, including by capping the amount of revenue such companies can make from selling insurance under a trademark other than Blue Cross or Blue Shield.  In August 2022, the pair secured $2.67 billion in damages for the class. Individual objectors appealed the settlement and the Boies team successfully defended it on appeal, securing a unanimous decision from the Eleventh Circuit in October 2023.  The objectors then filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the US Supreme Court, and the Boies pair again successfully defended the settlement, securing a denial of cert in June 2024. Hume also led a DC-based trial team that, in October 2023, secured a jury verdict of $612.4 million on behalf of a class of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders who challenged a 2012 agreement, known as the “net worth sweep,” between the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) (as conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and the US. Treasury. Florida-based Stuart Singer led a team that won an important case on behalf of renewable energy producer NextEra Energy that upholds the rights of companies to compete for power transmission projects, which was imperiled by a 2019 Texas law giving incumbent utilities and other existing transmission owners in Texas the exclusive right to build new transmission lines. NextEra had been awarded an important interstate transmission project which the new law would prevent NextEra from building. After the district court dismissed the action, Singer and his team appealed to the Fifth Circuit, scoring a favorable reversal. New York’s litigation group leader Matthew Schwartz is lauded by a peer as “a great lawyer strategic thinker, [who] was in the criminal and civil division of the US Attorney’s office.” Schwartz represents California investor Chris Parker and Red Mango Enterprises in litigation against the founder and former Chairman of Tellurian with claims for breach of contract, fraudulent inducement, promissory estoppel, and unjust enrichment. In 2017, the plaintiffs invested in Tellurian, a liquified natural gas company founded by the defendant. After the share price of Tellurian dropped sharply in the following years, the defendant promised in a series of text messages to indemnify plaintiffs for any losses if they retained their shares, which the plaintiffs did. The defendant then reneged on this agreement. Trial is scheduled to begin in December 2025. 

 

Hunton Andrews Kurth

Hunton Andrews Kurth 

Hunton Andrews Kurth is an international law firm with over 900 lawyers across more than 20 offices in the United States, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. The firm serves a wide range of clients, including Fortune 100 companies, financial institutions, energy companies, utilities, and government entities. One client describes the firm as having “substantive knowledge and strategy, that are great.” as well as having “responsiveness and understanding of our business” which “keeps me coming back.” 

             California-based litigator Shannon Broome is a nationally recognized authority on Clean Air Act and climate change matters, including as part of joint defense groups where she, Virginia-based partner Cassandra Collins, and New York-based partner Shawn Regan serve on the lead counsel team representing Marathon Petroleum Corporation and its affiliated company, as well as Speedway LLC in more than 30 climate-change related cases in jurisdictions across the country. These actions have substantial implications for the global energy supply, as well as overall global economic growth. Fellow California partner Ann Marie Mortimer is currently defending Flurry, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yahoo!, in a putative class action alleging that Flurry conspired to exchange private and confidential information for their own benefit in connection with Flo Health, which owns health and fitness apps. The plaintiff alleges that Flo Health violated their own policy by knowingly giving users’ information to third parties without appropriate user disclosure and consent. Also based out of the Virginia office, Elbert Lin succeeded in restoring a key element of the Alaska public correspondence school program, a program utilized by 22,000 students throughout the state, when the Alaska Supreme Court agreed that a lower court had wrongly struck several statutes as facially unconstitutional. The decision not only restores an important educational program for Alaskan children but also gives critical guidance to Alaska lower courts on the difference between facial and as-applied challenges. Maya Eckstein was co-lead counsel representing the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles in a putative class action involving attorney’s fees, which received a favorable 7-2 ruling from the US Supreme Court in February 2025. Washington DC-partner Neil Gilman is on the counsel team representing Hisamitsu America in a false advertising litigation and related consumer class action stemming from a national litigation campaign related to use of maximum strength for over-the-counter pain-relieving patch products.

 

King & Spalding

King & Spalding is unique in that it is one of the only firms with origins in Atlanta to have achieved its level of national prominence. The firm has, in fact, attained global reach, particularly through its international arbitration team, historically acknowledged as one of the strongest in the US – a position it still claims today. King & Spalding has built upon its deep bench with several star players over the past several years, first with trial ace Randy Mastro [since departed to become First Deputy Mayor of New York City] and then with Dallas-based antitrust star Veronica Moyé, both formerly with Gibson Dunn. The firm also took on Jennifer Recine, a real estate and commercial star formerly with Kasowitz. “They have done very well with recruiting, and were already quite strong,” assesses a peer. Another contemporary (and former opponent) testifies on behalf of individual partners. "They were not unnecessarily combative in ways that made settlement difficult. Their briefs were excellent, and they were true stand-up lawyers. It's always great to have professionals on the other side who fight hard but don't engage in unnecessary back-and-forth that wastes everyone’s time." 
     The Atlanta office is still a dominant presence in the city. “Whether they want to admit it or not, in Atlanta, it’s King & Spalding and then the rest of us,” quips a local peer. “If you’ve got clients like Coca-Cola, you’ve got Atlanta on lockdown.” This office is particularly celebrated for its product liability practice, historically one of the strongest in the US, in which Andy Bayman is a central figure. “Andy is terrific,” declares a peer. “He came up under [since-retired product liability luminary] Chilton Varner, and he is making great use of this.” Bayman and Ursula Henninger represent Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals as national defense counsel for all federal and state claims arising from allegations that Zantac is associated with an increased risk of cancer. The King & Spalding duo secured a ruling disposing of all 50,000 remaining claims in the MDL and defeated the plaintiffs’ efforts to certify nationwide and state class actions and is currently acting as trial counsel in multiple state courts. In May 2024, the duo led the team representing Boehringer in the first Zantac-related trial in state court in Cook County, Illinois. Plaintiffs sought $640 million in damages, and the King & Spalding team secured a defense verdict, with the jurors rejecting the claim that Zantac caused an Illinois woman’s colon cancer. “Considering the ‘judicial hell hole’ that Cook County is for defense [lawyers,] this is a milestone,” remarks a peer. Beyond product liability, Atlanta’s David Balser represents Capital One Bank in multiple class actions concerning allegations of breach of fiduciary duty regarding practices put in place on some of Capital One’s accounts.
     King & Spalding’s New York office is home to some of its most recognized white-collar and enforcement stars. Carmen Lawrence and Bill Johnson represent Archegos Capital Management, LP and the Archegos Fund, LP in connection with the highly publicized multi-agency criminal and civil investigations and resulting enforcement actions conducted by, among others, SEC, CFTC, and New York US Attorney’s Office regarding the circumstances leading up to the $36 billion private investment firm’s March 2021 default on margin calls and ultimate collapse. These investigations have resulted in ongoing enforcement actions against Archegos by the SEC and CFTC, and criminal actions against several former directors. Thus far, Lawrence and Johnson have successfully moved to dismiss the CFTC enforcement action. Mike Stenglein, who works from New York as well as Austin, Texas, demonstrates the firm’s “very deep dedication” to the international arbitration arena. Stenglein led a team that secured $900 million for Reficar in its high-profile dispute with US contractor CB&I over the construction of an oil refinery in Colombia. The King & Spalding team Reficar in both the ICC construction arbitration and the subsequent enforcement proceedings in multiple international jurisdictions. In January 2025, the award was confirmed.

Weil Gotshal & Manges

Weil Gotshal & Manges enjoys a reputation as a firm whose litigation bench is one of the most comprehensive in terms of practice depth. The firm’s national reach is spread among offices on the East Coast in New York and DC, throughout several locations in California, two locations in Texas, one in Boston and a location in Miami. Its practice area portfolio also covers a lot of ground, with product liability, bankruptcy, antitrust, commercial, intellectual property, securities and white-collar crime all playing prominent positions in the overall composition of the firm’s litigation service offerings.
     The firm made a notable augmentation to these services within the past couple of years with the recruits of DC-based Mark Perry and Drew Tulumello, both of whom joined Weil from Gibson Dunn and both of whom provide strategic enhancements to Weil’s appellate capacity. “Weil has really made a significant investment here,” declares a peer in reference to the firm’s development of the appeals practice. “They are now officially a player in that specialty – they went from 0 to 100.” More recently, in July 2025, the firm implemented an investment in the buildout of its intellectual-property capacity with the addition of Doug Lumish, a Bay Area patent-focused star formerly with Latham & Watkins.
     David Lender, the New York-based global head of litigation, continues to remain one of its most visible and active all-purpose trial lawyers. “He continues to impress,” offers a peer, summing up the general consensus. Lender led a team that secured a $55.5 million trial victory on behalf of GoodRx, a provider of drug discount coupons, before the American Arbitration Association in a breach-of-contract dispute against a service provider. The victory, which also included a permanent injunction, followed a week-long arbitration hearing in November 2023. Lender was also recently retained by global energy/chemical company ExxonMobil to serve as lead national trial counsel in defense of numerous high-stakes public-nuisance lawsuits regarding plastics pollution. Currently, there are three cases, with more expected: one filed by the California state Attorney General alleging that ExxonMobil deceptively promoted chemical recycling as a solution for the plastics crisis; another filed by environmental NGO Sierra Club and other entities asserting claims for nuisance and unfair competition, and making similar allegations as the California AG case; and still another recently filed by Ford County, Kansas, seeking to represent a class of counties in Kansas that allegedly have incurred and will continue to incur sanitation costs for plastic waste clean-up and disposal.  These cases, which are in their infancy, will be bellwether cases to watch as states and municipalities seek to hold chemical producers responsible for plastics pollution, even as those states and municipalities have failed to execute viable recycling programs that help combat pollution. Diane Sullivan, another trial veteran who has been celebrated in this capacity for decades, has been retained by Duke Energy as lead trial counsel in a high-stakes antitrust dispute involving wholesale power generation. Duke sued NTE Carolinas for breach of contract, and NTE Carolinas countersued, alleging that Duke, as a competitor, has monopoly power in the wholesale electric power market in the Southeast and used anti-competitive behavior to continue their monopoly. The district court granted Duke’s motion for summary judgment on all antitrust issues, and the parties settled Duke’s breach-of-contract claims. NTE Carolinas appealed the ruling on the antitrust claims, and the Fourth Circuit vacated the judgment. A team composed of David Yohai, Theodore Tsekerides and Adam Hemlock successfully represented long-time client Warner Bros. Discovery, and its subsidiary, Turner Broadcasting (together, WBD) in a high-profile lawsuit against the National Basketball Association. The suit involved the NBA’s attempt to give the rights to broadcast NBA games to Amazon and take them away from TNT. Under its agreement with the NBA, WBD had the right to match any offer that the NBA receives for the right to distribute NBA games for the 2025-2026 season and beyond. In July 2024, Amazon Prime Video made an offer to the NBA for a package of games, which WBD matched. However, the NBA rejected WBD’s match and struck a deal with Amazon. After the court set trial for April 2025, the parties entered into a global settlement resolving the dispute in which WBD and TNT retain the rights to broadcast basketball games.
     Weil’s securities is helmed by New York’s John Neuwirth, who, together with future star Josh Amsel, has been successfully defending long-time client AMC Entertainment in fast-tracked stockholder litigation in Delaware Chancery Court, arising from the global movie theater chain’s planned overhaul of its capital structure. The plaintiffs in the consolidated case allege that AMC’s senior management and board of directors breached their fiduciary duties by diluting common stockholders’ voting power through the creation of a new preferred class of securities and a subsequent planned reverse stock split. Just weeks before a hearing, the Weil team negotiated a settlement, the approval process of which became a highly contested affair, with a number of objections before Weil ultimately secured court approval, affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court in May 2024. 
     Weil is also one of the few “Big Law” firms to house a labor-and-employment litigation group, with New York’s John Barry being its central figure. A peer and former opponent testifies, “I had an ugly knock-down, nasty fight with John – that guy was relentless! But when it came time to settle, we were able to sit down and get it done. I was impressed.”