Benchmark Litigation

Georgia (State)

Review

Dispute resolution
Greenberg Traurig

Greenberg Traurig’s Lori Cohen has the distinct honor of consistently ranking as a litigation star who also enjoys a multi-year run as one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation as well as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in the US. Domiciled in the firm’s Atlanta office but recognized on a coast-to-coast basis for her appearance in matters of national magnitude, Cohen has wowed both peers and clients from a diverse range of industries and jurisdictions. An all-purpose trial lawyer by training and temperament, Cohen’s aptitude and gravitas has been particularly evident in the product liability capacity, where, often appearing as lead trial counsel, she has displayed an enviable streak of wins on behalf of clients in the pharmaceutical and medical device field concerning products ranging from pelvic mesh to contact lenses. Cohen is national trial counsel, coordinating counsel, and settlement counsel for all claims concerning pelvic mesh against C. R. Bard. Over the last year, she has solidified two significant victories as well as other additional dismissals in what has been described as one of the largest and most complex mass torts in history. Cohen is also a member of Novartis’ PF3.0 panel counsel program, which includes representation of subsidiaries Sandoz, Eon Labs, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Cohen is national counsel for Sandoz and its subsidiary Eon in the national amiodarone litigation. She also represents Bausch Health subsidiary Bausch + Lomb in product liability litigation relating to the Trulign Toric intraocular lens, a Class III medical device approved by FDA pursuant to the Premarket Approval process. In March 2020, she secured the complete dismissal of all of plaintiffs’ claims in a closely watched case in the District of Connecticut.

King & Spalding

Internationally regarded for the breadth and depth of its global network, King & Spalding balances its force across 22 offices worldwide, giving the firm a strong presence in the markets in which it operates. The firm is nationally recognized in the US, especially for its litigation capabilities. The firm is most well-known for its expertise in international arbitration, product liability, and environmental litigation. One peer that brought the firm on a case describes them as “specialists in emissions regulations.”  

    One of the firm’s acclaimed environmental experts is Houston-based trial lawyer Robert Meadows, who holds a National Practice Area Star title for his work in commercial litigation. The Houston office also features two of the firm’s distinguished international arbitration lawyers who are nationally recognized in Benchmark Litigation. Doak Bishop focuses on handling matters for Latin American companies, particularly in the energy industry. He has recently represented: Reficar in a multi-billion-dollar International Chamber of Commerce arbitration arising from the construction of the Cartagena oil refinery in Colombia; Chevron and Texaco before the Court of Appeals at The Hague, which dismissed a renewed bid to overturn a treaty award against Ecuador; and Gente Oil in a separate case against Ecuador that resulted in a $10.7 million tribunal award. Craig Ledet is another international arbitration star with a focus on construction and environmental litigation. He has handled AAA and CPR arbitrations and has also been before the Dispute Adjudication Board in London, among many other venues. He also represents clients in federal and state courts.  

    The firm’s Atlanta office houses the product liability team’s authorities. Adam Spicer is a new addition to the firm’s list of litigation stars. A peer in the practice area considers Spicer to be one of the “dream people to try a case with.” He has represented medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson in product liability cases and is especially wellversed in handling State Attorney General actions. Richard “Doc” Schneider is one of several national practice area stars for product liability litigation. As a trial lawyer, Schneider is trusted to handle clients’ largest high-profile cases, including acting as lead counsel in one of the e-cigarette products putative class actions challenging their labeling. Andrew Bayman is another product liability expert who is nationally recognized for his work in the practice area. He is seasoned in representing clients in multi-district litigation (MDL), predominantly in the life sciences and healthcare industries. Outside of those areas, he is also involved in an MDL pending in the Northern District of California representing a Fortune 500 company in a matter related to the marketing and selling of defective e-cigarette products. The firm’s strength does not stop at product liability litigation. Joseph Akrotirianakis is a commercial litigator with a wealth of trial experience. Hecontinues to represent NSO Group in a matter of first impression filed by Facebook and WhatsApp under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and its California analogue, the Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act. The team has petitioned for writ of certiorari at the US Supreme Court, which is still pending. San Francisco’s Kenneth Steinthal is an intellectual property litigator lauded for his work in copyright-related issues. He represents internationally known industryleaders such as Google and Amazon. He represents the former in Copyright Royalty Board proceedings and the latter in five copyright infringement lawsuits filed in the Western District of Washington and the Southern District of New York.  

    The firm is recognized nationally as a top-tier resource for white-collar crime and investigations expertise, and the D.C. office has an established group of lawyers specializing in the practice area. Many have previously held government positions, including Rod Rosenstein, who is a former Deputy Attorney General and US Attorney for Maryland and now handles government investigations, cybersecurity and national security issues, and related litigation. Chair of the government matters group, Wick Sollers navigates high-profile investigations and litigation for clients in the public eye. Across the country in New York, Andrew Hruska specializes in white-collar crime and investigations along with Carmen Lawrence and William Johnson, who both mix white-collar crime and investigations and securities litigation in their practices. Lawrence has represented major financial institutions and C-suite executives in Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice investigations, as well as investigations by international commissions and entities. Johnson is also involved in securities-related investigations and has experience with cybersecurity-related government investigations. The firm has also recently expanded to include white-collar crime and investigations lawyer Matthew Biben, deepening its experience in the New York office.  

    The office also features co-head of the international arbitration practice Edward Kehoe, who represents clients in matters against republics globally, including the Republic of Ecuador, Republic of Peru, and Republic of Egypt. He handles commercial arbitration as well as investment-related disputes and is experienced in International Centre for Dispute Resolution AAA proceedings. Gerald Flattmann and Bruce Baber are intellectual property litigation authorities who are seasoned in both their specialties. Flattmann is the global chair of the life sciences patent litigation group and handles everything from abbreviated new drug application and Hatch-Waxman litigation to matters before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Baber is the founding partner of the IP, patent and trademark litigation group, and while he has handled all types of IP litigation, he is most known for his trademark expertise.  

   In addition, the firm has also brought on Miami-based securities litigator Brian Miller and Chicago-based trial lawyer Lazar Raynal, who focuses on commercial disputes.  

Polsinelli

Polsinelli has grown beyond its Kansas City roots to inhabit various strategic locations throughout the country, often attracting local talent in the surrounding area. The firm’s aggressive expansion over the years has equipped it with breadth and depth in many areas of litigation.  
     Bouncing between Seattle and Chicago, Gary Hood maintains an intellectual practice touches on all facets of patent, trademark and trade dress IP litigation. Chicago’s Mary Clare Bonaccorsi serves as Polsinelli’s Cross-Department Litigation Chair. She is entrusted to map the overall litigation strategy for the firm.  Bonaccorsi’s practice mainly focuses on the healthcare industry, routinely leading high-stakes corporate internal investigations for clients in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, her casework often involves false claims act litigation before judges and juries in both state and federal courts throughout the country and she has several high-profile cases under her belt. New additions from the Chicago office include Thomas Gemmell and Daniel Reinberg. Gemmell’s practice mixes IP and business litigation. He leads several industry-specific practices, serving as lead of the unmanned systems and advanced robotics practice and co-lead of both the aviation practice and the transportation and logistics practice. Reinberg like Bonaccorsi concentrates his practice on the healthcare industry. He represents organizations, corporations, and providers in a variety of cases, including civil and criminal matters, healthcare and securities fraud, and lawsuits arising under the False Claims Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.  
     John Peterson, a new addition to this year’s rankings, bridges a geographic and practice divide. Based in Nashville but also operating out of Chattanooga as well as Los Angeles, Peterson is a commercial litigator with vast experience in securities as well as real estate, and he is yet another Polsinelli partner devoted to healthcare litigation, an industry essential to Tennessee's economy. In Atlanta, Brian McEvoy’s white-collar practice is dedicated to fraud and abuse in the healthcare industry.  Farah Nicol operates out of the firm’s Raleigh and Los Angeles offices and serves chair of the firm’s litigation department -- the first leader to not be based in Kansas City, the firm’s mainstay. Nicol’s primary focus is on product liability and toxic tort litigation.  

Thompson Hine

Full-service law firm Thompson Hine is equipped with a team of litigators who routinely represent clients in some of the most complex product liability and business disputes. With offices in Georgia, Illinois, DC, and New York, along with a significant footprint in Ohio via four distinct locations, Thompson Hine has developed a reputation of obtaining favorable results throughout the region. 

Cleveland-based product liability litigator Elizabeth ‘Missy’ Wright is national counsel for a major commercial food equipment manufacturer, a major power tool manufacturer, an aviation component manufacturer, and an automotive manufacturer, and also serves as national lead trial counsel for a pharmaceutical manufacturer in hormone replacement therapy litigation. Timothy Coughlin is a fellow Cleveland partner who chairs the mass & toxic tort group and leads chemical industry group. He is lead counsel to BASF Corporation in a product liability litigation related to a railcar release of a chemical compound toluene diisocyanate, allegedly causing pulmonary issues in a claim brought by a vendor employee. New to the litigation star list is Jennifer Roach who, along with Robert Ware, make up the lead counsel team representing a manufacturing company in a business litigation originally filed back in November 2020 in Delaware.  

Dayton-based Christine Haaker serves as the vice-chair of the group for the office. Haaker serves as defense counsel to several high-profile entities in numerous business disputes. Fellow Dayton partner Scott King focuses on representing financial corporations and institutions in a wide range of actions. He most recently represents a private investment company in an ongoing consumer finance dispute that has garnered national attention. 

In the group’s DC office, Eric Heyer has emerged as one of that office’s brightest younger stars. Heyer represented Vapor Technology Association, for whom Heyer triumphed in obtaining a temporary restraining order after, in September 2019, New York then-Governor Cuomo directed his Department of Public Health to publish an emergency rule banning the possession and sale of flavored vaping products. The restraining order was granted one day before the ban was due to take effect and was entered in January 2020. 

Labor and employment
Sanford Heisler Sharp

Active in a variety of labor and employment regards, Sanford Heisler Sharp continues to distinguish itself in the market, garnering the praises of competitors across the nation. One notes that the firm’s team “certainly knows the area [of] wage and hour [litigation].” Another considers the firm a leader in the market, stating, “I look at what they’re doing – I think that they bring a lot of really interesting cases – sets a tone for what the new issues are going to be.” The firm achieves widespread, national recognition in part through its strategic dispersal ofits labor and employment potency between jurisdictions around the country, boasting New York, Maryland, and DC offices, as well as California, Georgia, and Tennessee outfits.  

     The re-emergence of the esteemed Nancy Rafuse into private practice is marked both by her joining the firm as its Atlanta managing partner and firmwide litigation head, as well as by the pivoting of her focus away from the sphere of labor and employment defense towards that of plaintiff representation. Rafuse's roster of wins on both sides of the "v" has gained her a spot on this year's list of the Top 20 Labor & Employment Litigators. 

     Based in New York, Alexandra Harwin serves as executive chair of Sanford Heisler Sharp’s discrimination and harassment group. Harwin currently serves as counsel to a plaintiff who brings forth a complaint detailing several claims against Hollywood mainstay Robert De Niro and his corporate holding Canal Productions, alleging that she has been subjected to a workplace environment characterized by unsolicited physical contact, untoward sexual commentary, verbal toxicity, pervasive stereotyping, and various other gender-based transgressions. The plaintiff seeks from De Niro restitution of an amount in excess of $12 million. Joining Harwin on the matter in auxiliary roles are firm co-founders Jeremy Heisler, who additionally serves in the role of co-vice chairman, and Top 20 Labor & Employment Litigator David Sanford, serving as chairman. Harwin, Sanford, and Heisler are also litigating against another well-known name – Giorgio Armani Corporation. The team represents the former General Counsel of the company who was terminated following complaints of discrimination and his cancer diagnosis announcement. The client alleges national origin and disability discrimination, as well as retaliation claims.  

     Michael Palmer and Andrew Melzer are co-chairs of the wage and hour practice group at the firm. Palmer currently represents a former Juul Labs senior vice president in a retaliation dispute and is also litigating a lawsuit filed against Oracle under PAGA. The suit involves commissions and alleges California Labor Code violations. Melzer secured a settlement of over $2 million, approved by the California Superior Court in September 2021, in a PAGA lawsuit on behalf of a former Chief Nursing Officer against Signature Healthcare Services, the operator of the acute psychiatric hospital where she was employed.  

     Partner in the firm’s Palo Alto and San Francisco offices, and one of the firm’s discrimination and harassment co-chairs, Danielle Fuschetti is newly recognized by Benchmark Labor & Employment for her employment litigation practice. She currently leads the firm in its representation of Indradevi Sabrina Joseph,who – bringing forth numerous claims including but not limited to gender wage equity and discrimination claims, hostile work environment, wrongful dismissal, andtheft of IP materials– filed suit against her former employer, the semiconductor manufacturing market leader Xilinx. Joseph seeks more than $300 million in putative, unjust enrichment, and other damages. Also involved in the matter are Sanford and Edward Chapin. San Francisco’s Felicia Gilbert is actively litigating on behalf of a former engineer in a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against her former employer Honeywell International. 

     Out of DC, H. Vincent McKnight obtained over $11 billion for the Relator, a former Contract Director, who filed a complaint on behalf of himself and the US Government, alleging that his former employer, Navistar, violated the False Claims Act related to forged and fraudulent documents produced during negotiations for US Defense Department contracts. DC’s managing partner and co-chair of discrimination and harassment Kate Mueting recently secured a $10 billion settlement on behalf of women who alleged systemic pay and promotion and gender discrimination claims against KPMG.