Illinois

Firm overview

Real challenges. Real answers.

Polsinelli is a full-service, Am Law 100 firm with over 900 attorneys in 21 offices nationwide. The firm’s litigation practice encompasses business disputes, white collar investigations and enforcement, health care, intellectual property, bankruptcy, data privacy, real estate, financial services, products liability and toxic tort, and labor and employment matters. Our reputation for dedicated client service and innovative business solutions is a benchmark for excellence in the legal profession. 

Polsinelli approaches litigation The Polsinelli Way – with our clients and their business goals as the primary focus. The Polsinelli Way sees each dispute as unique and devises a litigation strategy from the outset of the matter that is laser focused on achieving the most efficient and effective resolution for our client. The Polsinelli Way aligns the talent and experience of our transactional lawyers, regulatory experts, industry specialists, and Ph.D. scientists with our litigators and seasoned trial lawyers to design those efficient and effective litigation strategies. Clients seek out our litigation teams for counsel at all stages of their regulatory, enforcement and litigation matters because they know Polsinelli lawyers collaborate across disciplines, geographies and industries. 

Commercial Litigation: Our Commercial Litigation team handle trials, arbitrations, mediations and appeals in all commercial and business fields. Our comprehensive approach integrates a deep understanding of evolving industry and legal trends, varied litigation specialties, skilled practitioners and litigation support capabilities. Beyond our core verticals, the litigation team handles matters in aviation and transportation, cybersecurity, eDiscovery, food and agriculture, insurance, retail and hospitality, business divorces, shareholder disputes, derivative actions and fiduciary claims.

Government Investigations: Comprised of former federal and state prosecutors, Polsinelli’s Government Investigations and White Collar Defense team is highly qualified to quickly and effectively help companies and individuals respond to and defend against civil, criminal, and regulatory government actions.

Knowing that government investigations can become the subject of intense public scrutiny, our team strives to conduct discreet, thorough investigations while simultaneously strengthening compliance structures to avoid future exposure or collateral consequences. 

Health Care Litigation: Polsinelli’s health care litigators devise litigation avoidance and risk management strategies keeping in mind the practicalities of our clients’ operations and business goals. When faced with litigation – whether in the form of a lawsuit, arbitration, administrative hearing, audit or investigation – we effectively and efficiently protect the interests of our clients.

Our team includes lawyers who are well known and respected by health care industry leaders, judges, regulators, arbitrators, and the legal community at large. Members of the 

 group include former Department of Justice lawyers; Fellows in the American College of Trial Lawyers; experienced state Medicaid fraud unit attorneys; and former in-house counsel for both private and publicly traded health care companies.

Intellectual Property, Technology & Patent Litigation: Polsinelli’s Intellectual Property, Technology & Patent Litigation practitioners take creative, strategic, and cost-effective approaches to resolving intellectual property disputes for local, regional, national and global companies and individuals. This group includes Polsinelli’s Hatch-Waxman team, which has experience leading Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) cases and represents some of the world’s largest, best-known, and most influential generic, brand, and specialty pharmaceutical companies.

Our patent litigators practice in the most active jurisdictions throughout the country, and collectively have decades of experience in patent litigation covering hundreds of patent cases. Our experience includes work in every phase of patent litigation, from pre-suit analysis, to initial pleadings, claim construction hearings, summary judgment motions, jury trials and appeals.

Labor & Employment Litigation: Our labor and employment team defends employers before administrative agencies and in jury and bench trials, mediations, arbitrations, and appeals in all types of employment-related actions, including federal, state and local discrimination, retaliation, and harassment claims; wage and hour class and collective actions; wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation claims; FMLA, ERISA, and OSHA actions, and all other federal, state, and local employment matters. Our restrictive covenants team also helps companies with the enforcement and defense of many bet-the-company business interests.

Our clients’ goals and objectives for litigation, as well as the impact on the rest of their workforce, are paramount to each of our litigators. We use creative strategies and all our connections to ensure we provide the highest quality representation. We are well-known and respected nationally by our peers, industry leaders, judges, arbitrators, and government officials. Members of the group include lawyers inducted into the federal College of Labor & Employment Lawyers, and lawyers who successfully appear in all courts throughout the country, including courts of appeal, state supreme courts, and the United States Supreme Court.

Products Liability & Toxic Tort Litigation: Polsinelli’s Products Liability and Mass Tort litigation team defends manufacturers and distributors of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumer products, chemicals, including products that contain asbestos and talc as well as many other products. Our clients benefit from not only our specialized knowledge in these fields, but also our ability to simplify complex issues for judges and juries. In any context or circumstance, our goal is to resolve a client’s case efficiently while also protecting the economic and business sensitivities that affect the bottom line and interests.

The team includes experienced attorneys who have specialized in tort litigation for more than three decades. This includes members who have been invited to become Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers and who have been certified as Appellate Specialists. We have successfully defended thousands of toxic and mass tort cases involving asbestos, hexavalent chromium, lead, perchloroethylene, talc, vinyl chloride, and other chemicals. Named as national and regional defense counsel because of their integrity, insight and client-centered results, our attorneys have coordinated and mounted significant defense efforts on behalf of Fortune 500 clients for decades. 

Updated Aug 2021

Firm overview

Bartlit Beck has achieved an unparalleled record of success in complex litigation. The firm is renowned for delivering extraordinary results to clients in difficult situations. Our successes include trial wins, victories on motions and appeals, and creative settlements across the gamut of commercial litigation, including intellectual property, breach of contract, product liability, antitrust, and shareholder disputes. 

As a result of the firm’s success at trial, Bartlit Beck was named 2020 Trial Firm of the Year by Benchmark and was identified as one of the top nine firms in the United States for “striking the utmost fear into the hearts of seasoned General Counsel and legal decision makers” in a survey conducted by consulting firm BTI of 350 in-house leaders.

The average Bartlit Beck lawyer has more than 17 years of experience and has participated in multiple high-stakes trials. This is a product of our unique structure in which more than three-quarters of our lawyers are experienced partners and fewer than a quarter are associates. Thus, each case team is comprised mainly of experienced partners.

Our trial experience informs our overall approach: we focus on the key facts and issues that will drive the outcome, we make complex things simple, we win by showing the evidence rather than telling why we should win, we use demonstratives to boil down the key concepts to a few memorable images, and we establish ourselves as the reliable source of information. 

Our lawyers intensely focus on a small number of cases at a time, allowing each team member to have command of the entire case. We believe our approach ensures better quality and results for our clients because each team member has a thorough understanding of the client’s goals and the path to success.    

Our success is also due to the way we align our clients’ interests with our own. Our fixed and success-based fee structure is designed to eliminate the usual and often conflicting incentives present in the traditional hourly billing model.   

We have extensive experience partnering with other law firms and service providers as part of a “virtual law firm.” Our highly collaborative approach means that we view in-house counsel and co-counsel as invaluable members of the team.  

The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel. Please contact any of our lawyers using the contact information found at https://www.bartlitbeck.com

Content may include attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Firm overview

McDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. With more than 20 locations on three continents, the team works seamlessly across practices, industries and geographies to deliver highly effective – and often unexpected – solutions that propel success. 

Key capabilities:

Litigation and Dispute Resolution: Our litigation and dispute resolution lawyers are dedicated to providing passionate client advocacy through superior trial skills and incisive industry knowledge. Our litigation lawyers collaborate with colleagues across the Firm, to bring our clients fully developed solutions that make meaningful progress toward their business goals, in and out of the courtroom.

White Collar: Our white-collar team has tried hundreds of cases in courts throughout the United States and internationally, and draws on the unmatched insights of our lawyers who previously served as senior federal prosecutors. We are able to assemble strong, lean teams of seasoned legal counsel, to spot—and mitigate—potential compliance risks, respond quickly to government investigations and provide world-class defense in qui tam actions, criminal charges and parallel proceedings.

Antitrust Litigation: We provide effective, coordinated counsel on US antitrust law, EC competition law, China’s Anti-Monopoly Law and other competition regimes worldwide to help our clients eliminate roadblocks and achieve business goals. Our top-ranked lawyers are deeply familiar with all major US and international regulatory frameworks and dispute-resolution forums. We assist clients with challenges resulting from increasing antitrust activity, cross-jurisdictional government investigations and private litigation.

Intellectual Property Litigation: For business leaders leveraging intellectual property to drive growth or defend market position, we are your secret weapon in the boardroom and the courtroom. We help you respond quickly to changing market dynamics with actionable recommendations designed to capitalize on opportunity and mitigate risk. We work to uncover value at every stage of the IP lifecycle and we marry our business savvy, technical acumen and personal passion to help you benefit from it.

Employment: Pairing deep resources with broad geographic coverage, we meet the rapidly evolving needs of employers in virtually every sector, delivering a complete legal offering covering the full spectrum of employment and labor issues. We help develop and implement effective employment policies, defend clients in government investigations and compliance audits, and bring first-chair trial skills when defending employers in courts around the world.

Our team engages in every aspect of civil, regulatory and commercial defence litigation, including:

• Accountant Defense
• Appellate Law
• Antitrust Litigation
• Class Action
• Commercial Litigation
• Employment Litigation
• ERISA Litigation
• Insurance Litigation & Counseling
• Intellectual Property Litigation
• International Arbitration
• Privacy Litigation & Governmental Investigations
• Product Defense
• Securities Litigation
• Trade Secrets Litigation
• Trust & Estates Controversy

Updated Sep 2021

Firm overview

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is a global law firm with more than 3,000 attorneys representing clients in private equity, M&A and other complex corporate transactions, litigation and dispute resolution/arbitration, restructuring, and intellectual property matters. The Firm has 18 offices around the world: Austin, Bay Area, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Paris, Salt Lake City, Shanghai and Washington, D.C.

Litigation: Kirkland & Ellis is renowned for its experience in complex litigation and arbitration. The Firm believes that the best litigation results occur when the lawyers are fully prepared to try the case through verdict. Because of Kirkland’s trial-ready philosophy and training, the Firm is able to offer clients a deep bench of lawyers who have been taking cases to verdict since the early stages of their careers. Whether in the courtroom, at the bargaining table or helping clients avoid risks without litigation, Kirkland has a long and proven track record of generating successful results for clients in their most high-stakes cases matters.

The Litigation Practice Group comprises approximately 600 attorneys throughout the firm’s worldwide offices. Kirkland represents clients in trial and appellate courts at the federal and state level, before administrative tribunals, and in arbitrations and other dispute resolution proceedings. The Firm also represents clients in connection with proceedings involving government agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, US Attorneys General Offices, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the New York Stock Exchange, the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the US Patent and Trademark Office, the US Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service.

Kirkland litigators have successfully litigated cases in virtually every substantive area and business segment including accountant liability, antitrust and competition, appellate, class action, mass tort and toxic tort, insurance, data privacy, labor and employment, breach of contract and securities litigation.

Kirkland has been recognized by clients and the media for its achievements in litigation:

• For the 11th time, Kirkland was selected as one of the “Fearsome Foursome” in BTI Consulting’s 2022 Litigation Outlook report.
• In 2021, Kirkland ranked #1 in The Lawyer’s “Global Litigation Top 50,” the fourth consecutive year the Firm earned that distinction.
• Kirkland was awarded “Illinois Firm of the Year” at the 2021 Benchmark Litigation US Awards, the eighth straight year the Firm has earned that distinction.
• Law360 named Kirkland among the 2021 “Practice Groups of the Year” for Appellate.
• Kirkland was named “Law Firm of the Year” for Commercial Litigation by U.S. News and World Report and Best Lawyers in their 2022 “Best Law Firms” rankings.
• National Law Journal named Kirkland as a “2020 General Litigation Department of the Year” in Washington, D.C.

Intellectual Property Litigation: Kirkland & Ellis’ Intellectual Property Practice Group is one of the oldest such practices in a full-service firm in the country, having been an integral part of Kirkland since 1925. Kirkland has approximately 200 intellectual property lawyers who are experienced in a variety of technical disciplines and registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office. More than 70 percent of the lawyers are engineers and scientists trained with degrees and professional backgrounds in technical areas.

Kirkland has one of the most respected intellectual property litigation practices in the country, with particular experience in large-scale patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret misappropriation and advertising matters. The work of the group frequently extends to antitrust, securities/compliance, products liability and appellate matters.

Kirkland’s experience in venues where IP cases are most often litigated is extensive. The Firm tries cases before juries, judges and arbitrators in venues across the country including state courts, district courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the International Trade Commission and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Kirkland has one of the most active trial practices in the country. Our success rate at trial is among the best, with only a few of losses over the last 10 years despite handling some of the most challenging litigation cases in history.

The Intellectual Property Practice Group has been recognized by numerous publications for its achievements:

• In Managing Intellectual Property’s 2021 IP Stars, Kirkland was named as a leading firm for Copyright, ITC, Life Sciences, Patent Contentious and Trademark Contentious.
• Kirkland was named to World Trademark Review magazine’s 2022 WTR 1000 list of the world’s top trademark law firms and was recognized as a Tier 1 firm for enforcement and litigation nationally and in New York.
• In 2021, Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) magazine recognized Kirkland in Tier 1 for Litigation: United States - National in its IAM Patent 1000 guide. The firm was also Tier 1 for Litigation in Illinois, New York and Washington, D.C.
• The New York Law Journal named Kirkland as its 2021 “Intellectual Property Litigation Department of the Year.”
• Law360 named Kirkland among the 2020 “Practice Groups of the Year” for Intellectual Property.  
• Managing Intellectual Property named Kirkland “U.S. National Patent Contentious Firm of the Year” and “U.S. Northeast – Trademark Contentious Firm of the Year” at its 2021 Americas Awards.

Please visit our website at www.kirkland.com for additional information about Kirkland and office contact information.

Updated June 2022