Illinois

Bartlit Beck is celebrated among peers for forging a template of what many aspire to; the firm’s name is one of the most frequently referenced by maverick litigators who calve off of larger “Big Law” institutions and forge their own shops. One peer declares, “They set the standard for litigation boutiques in the US. Most people setting up litigation shops owe at least some debt to Bartlit Beck, whether they know it or not.” Ironically, the runaway success that the firm has experienced with its business model has caused it to outgrow its “boutique” status; the firm now has more than 40 partners practicing in its offices in Chicago and Denver. “Bartlit Beck has its offices in two great epicenters, but they’re barely doing any work that’s confined to either of these locales,” declares a peer. “They’re just an elite litigation shop that’s gone national, and their lawyers are on the road constantly. Wherever there are big trials, they will be there.” The firm continues its staggering run as being recognized as one of Benchmark’s Top 20 Trial Firms every year since 2015 with yet another appearance in 20215.
     Bartlit Beck also logs another candidate to Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers with the addition of Sean Gallagher this year. Gallagher’s addition is considered long overdue by some, and is enhanced by a raft of peer and client commendations. One client sums Gallagher up as “a highly skilled first-chair trial lawyer, a great listener, a very clear communicator.  The best trial lawyer at a firm of great trial lawyers.  [He is] Among the best in America.” Another raves, “[Sean is the] dictionary definition of the perfect lawyer: incredibly smart, [a] tremendous leader of his team, [with a] deep understanding of all aspects (legal and commercial) of a circumstance, [and with] creative solutions. And a gem of a human being.” Based in the Chicago office, Gallagher is lead trial counsel for Pratt & Whitney in environmental tort cases involving more than $1 billion in alleged property damage and personal-injury claims arising out of the declaration of a "cancer cluster" by the Florida Department of Health in a neighborhood near Pratt & Whitney's West Palm Beach facility. Claims involve complex allegations of water and soil contamination with radionuclides and other contaminants. Several hundred property owners sued individually and on behalf of a putative class of many thousands of plaintiffs. Andrew McNally, another Chicago partner, acts with Gallagher on this case. McNally is another favorite of clients, with one addressing him as “one of the smartest and hardest working lawyers I've worked with, and he really grasps complex scientific and medical issues quickly and thoroughly.” Another client testifies, “Andrew has an uncanny ability not only to find the ‘devil in the details’ of the evidentiary record, but also to communicate those details in a way that is easy for the client (or the court) to understand. He has done an exceptional job managing his team.” Rebecca Weinstein Bacon, also based in Chicago, has also been a steady mention on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers and on the Top 250 Women Litigators in the US. “Rebecca is a pleasure to work with,” confirms a client. “She's responsive, thoughtful, brilliant, warm, and very client focused.” Bacon, along with Adam Hoeflich, is representing Walmart in putative class-action lawsuits claiming that Walmart is violating consumer protection statutes in various jurisdictions due alleged discrepancies between the prices posted on Walmart's shelves and the prices actually charged at the register. Plaintiffs claim these discrepancies add up to hundreds of millions of dollars (or more) each year.
     The Denver office boasts its own stacked deck of stars. Glen Summers and Karma Giulianellirepresent a class of California residents who used mobile devices with the Android operating system who allege that Google has designed the Android operating system to constantly take information from plaintiffs’ phones without regard to whether they are on WiFi or cellular connections. Unbeknownst to people who use Android devices, this constant surveillance, and the transmission of information to Google consumes plaintiffs’ cellular data – data that they purchased, and that Google has consumed without permission.  Trial is scheduled for June 2025 in Superior Court of California. Giulianelli, an “antitrust rockstar,” also works with Sundeep “Rob” Addy as counsel for a group of large corporations, including American Airlines, who have brought state and federal price-fixing claims against over 50 generic drug manufacturers for engaging in a wide-ranging conspiracy to fix the price of hundreds of generic medications since at least May 2009. These agreements are claimed to have led to staggering price increases for critical medications and forced consumers and their health plans to shoulder the cost.  Kat Hacker serves as lead national coordinating counsel on the fraudulent transfer claims for three DuPont entities in over 6,000 cases pending across the country related to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In these cases, plaintiffs allege that DuPont engaged in a series of corporate transactions to try to fraudulently transfer assets to avoid paying potential judgments. “She is an excellent oral advocate and can distill complex issues in a very simple way to appeal to a jury,” declares a client on Hacker’s behalf. “She has expertise in trial graphics that and has quite the depth of knowledge and experience in studying the best graphics for jury trials.” Andrew Baak represents UnitedHealth Group in a dispute under the False Claims Act brought by the US DoJ and a purported whistleblower to recover treble damages and civil penalties. Plaintiffs are seeking damages for amounts they claim were unlawfully retained from the federal Medicare program by UnitedHealth Group and its affiliates involved in the Medicare Advantage Program. Plaintiffs allege that UnitedHealth submitted invalid diagnostic data related to the health status of patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. Joseph Doman, a Denver partner making his debut as a future star in this edition, is championed by a client as “a wonderful litigator that understands how to weave a story and [provides] great client service.”

Kirkland & Ellis has steadily risen from its roots in Chicago (where it remains a dominant brand) to become an international powerhouse. “Kirkland is a very formidable firm – [they have] a lot of talent. They have a lot of really solid people. There’s just something ‘cool and tough’ about them that you just can’t touch.” One of the larger and more comprehensive litigation capacities, Kirkland stands out as a firm that that boasts bench strength and high-level appointments in virtually every area of practice it offers, which include (but are not limited to) securities, antitrust, product liability, appeals, intellectual property, white-collar and investigations, commercial litigation, and bankruptcy, with the last being an area in which the firm is particularly dominant. “In bankruptcy, it’s Kirkland every day – they have to be at the top,” insists one peer, himself a leader in this practice. “I would specifically point to Mike Slade as a leader here – he takes some of the hardest bankruptcy cases around.”

     Kirkland is also noted for housing several leaders in the trial law specialty. To that end, perhaps the biggest news is the 2023 return to Kirkland of James Hurst, a famed and prolific Chicago-based trial luminary noted for prodigious courtroom acumen who took a multi-year hiatus. Hurst represented Abbott Laboratories and its affiliate, Abbott Molecular., in a lawsuit alleging gender and race discrimination brought by an African-American female and former employee of Abbott. Hurst prevailed on the clients’ behalf in September 2023. Another of the firm’s marquis trial lawyers, DC’s Mike Brock(who has been consistently ranked as one of Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers since its inception in 2014) led a team along with Chicago’s Leslie Smith and Anne Sidrys representing 3M Company and its subsidiary Aearo Technologies in product liability litigation concerning 3M’s allegedly defective dual-ended Combat Arms Earplugs. In 2021, the Kirkland team secured a complete defense verdict in the second and fifth bellwether trials in this massive and headline-grabbing litigation. Operating from the firm’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, all-purpose commercial litigator Mark Holscher is another of the firm’s trial stars – one who makes his debut on the Top 100 list this year. A local candidate on this list testifies, “Mark is terrific. He’s now on the plaintiff’s side and become a thorn in the side of entertainment studios.” Holscher is representing Stable Road Acquisition in a purported consolidated securities class action arising from a merger, as well as an SEC action involving the CEO and founder of the merger candidate entity.

    Domestically, Kirkland has exhibited a remarkable level of growth in its New York office in particular. Kirkland came into this market and started knocking over furniture and not asking permission, just taking it,” quips one contemporary, summing up the firm’s explosive growth in the city. “We do a lot of work with them, and they send us work. They can’t be adverse to most of the private-equity firms that matter, but they have become an utter juggernaut in the New York market. More than anyone, they are responsible for the cultural shift in New York firms – there is a poaching war going on between them and some ‘white-shoe’ firms that I’m sure are historically not used to having their dominance challenged!” Many credit Sandra Goldstein, a litigation powerhouse and “straight shooter,” for this phenomenon. “Sandra has not only a terrific reputation but a sizeable book of business,” states one peer. “She has a carousel of securities and Delaware-related litigation on the go. But she also benefits from having the Kirkland machine and a great team that is coming under her and, at this point, with her – people like Stefan Atkinson, Rachel Fritzlerand Matthew Solum. They are all junior to Sandra but absolutely critical and playing major roles.” A peer elaborates, “Stefan Atkinson is a young guy that is very strong in Delaware.” The duo of Golstein and Atkinson prevailed in affirming a judgment entered in favor of Constellation Brands in a case in which Mexican beer brand Modelo brought suit against Constellation, the holder of a perpetual license to use the Corona and Modelo trademarks on “Beer” in the US, alleging that Constellation’s new Corona Hard Seltzer and Modelo Ranch Water products fell outside the scope of the license because hard seltzers are not beer. A peer insists, “You’ve got to look at [the New York office of] Kirkland harder for securities work! Just at the moment they’ve got GrubHub. Jeld-Wen. Six Flags. Honeywell…shall I go on?”Solum in particular is identified as “a securities star in the making,” with one peer stating, “We are seeing him everywhere and not just in one specific type of securities case, either. He’s got M&A work, derivative work, class actions, you name it.” Solum represents Avalara and certain of its former directors in putative securities class action arising from Vista Equity Partners’ $8.4 billion take-private acquisition of Avalara. Solum also represents Avalara in a related petition brought by Avalara against dissenting shareholders to determine the fair value of shares. Another New York partner, in the intellectual property space, Dale Cendali represented Take-Two Interactive Software in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by a tattoo artist related to the depictions of NBA players LeBron James, Danny Green and Tristan Thompson in Take-Two’s  popular NBA 2K video game series. Take-Two designs each of the NBA players’ avatars with an eye toward realism, which requires including the players’ real-world tattoos on their virtual avatars in NBA 2K. The plaintiff claimed that the inclusion in NBA 2K of six tattoos he inked on these three NBA players amounted to copyright infringement. At trial, the Cendali and her team argued (among other things) that the inclusion of these nearly imperceptible tattoos in the massive video games is de minimis, a fair use, and covered by a license from LeBron James. In April 2024, the jury returned a verdict of no infringement.

A full-service firm with a national – and global – footprint, Loeb & Loeb provides a wide array of legal services through its six offices in the US and two in China. In litigation specifically, the firm has deep ties to the entertainment industry. “It’s really time to take a closer look at Loeb & Loeb,” says one contemporary. “For entertainment litigation, they are really quite dominant. They have some strong connections there, some very high-profile clients.”

     Not surprisingly, much of this is serviced by practitioners in its Los Angeles office. A team of Loeb litigators, led by partner Jim Curry, represents CBS in litigation relating to the popular daytime television program “Judge Judy,” including defending CBS against first-of-their-kind cases involving claims that a sale of a television library should trigger a “buy-out” of the profit participant’s interest. The Loeb team also previously defended CBS against a related case where a former agent and profit participant sought a declaration that Judge Judy’s salary is too high and should not be deducted as a profit participation. Curry and his team won the case on appeal of the granting of summary judgment to CBS.

     LA partners John Gatti and Lauren Fried represent Miramax and its related licensees, including Amazon and Walmart, among others, in a suit brought by a photographer that claimed to own the rights to an iconic photograph of Uma Thurman used in a poster for the movie “Pulp Fiction,” which Miramax produced. After decades of Miramax licensing the image, the photographer claimed for the first time in his 2020 lawsuit that he owned the photograph, that Miramax had no right to exploit the photo in any way, and that Miramax and each of its licensees were liable for copyright infringement. The Loeb team successfully secured an order that the photographer was late in filing any copyright registration, thereby limiting the alleged damages. Gatti and Fried also represent singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman in a copyright-infringement case based on rapper and songwriter Nicki Minaj’s sampling of Chapman’s works without permission. On summary judgment, the district court found triable issues of fact as to whether Minaj could be held liable on Chapman’s distribution claim and set a date for trial. Minaj subsequently agreed to pay Chapman the full amount of damages sought and judgment was entered in the federal court case in Chapman’s favor for nearly half a million dollars.

     Operating from the firm’s New York office, Barry Slotnick and Tal Dickstein represent a group of six music publishers in a copyright-infringement action against the owners and operators of the website Wolfgangs.com, an online collection of recordings of thousands of live concert performances. The collections consisted primarily of audio and audiovisual recordings of concert performances from the 1960s to the 2000s by artists such as the Rolling Stones, The Who and the Grateful Dead. Defendants acquired the concert recordings primarily from the concert promoters and concert venues that recorded the concerts. Defendants converted those recordings to digital format and made them available for streaming or download to subscribers of their websites. The music publishers asserted that defendants’ exploitation of the recordings constituted copyright infringement of more than 200 works to which they owned the copyrights. Dickstein and Slotnick also defended UMG Recordings, PeerMusic and Warner Records, the publishers and record labels for the hit song “You Raise Me Up,” which was initially released by the Irish band Secret Garden in 2001, and then released by the US performing artist Josh Groban in 2003. The plaintiff, an Icelandic songwriter, claims “You Raise Me Up” infringes an Icelandic song titled “Soknudur.”

Polsinelli has grown beyond its Kansas City roots to inhabit various strategic locations throughout the country. The firm’s aggressive expansion over the years has equipped it with breadth and depth in many areas of litigation, while still maintaining its premier reputation as a go-to litigation firm for the healthcare industry.

      Chicago’s Mary Clare Bonaccorsi previously served as Polsinelli’s Cross-Department Litigation Chair, while keeping an active practice mainly focusing 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 in both state and federal courts throughout the country. Thomas Gemmell and Daniel Reinberg join Bonaccorsi in the Chicago office. 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.

      John Peterson bridges a geographic and practice divide, practicing in Nashville and 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. New addition to this year’s Litigation Star ranking is Atlanta-based partner Kurt Erskine. His practice’s focus is white collar crime, both investigating and litigating cases against state and federal entities. He is leading a healthcare company through a civil rights investigation conducted by the Department of Justice. Beyond the healthcare industry, Erskine is handling securities and insider trading fraud investigations by the SEC and DOJ, as well as a fraud case filed by the FBI and DOJ. 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.

     Rounding out the South, Dallas partner Adrienne Frazior debuts this year as a Litigation Star. She leads government investigations with an added expertise in employee benefits. Currently, Frazior defends companies that managed and administered self-funded health benefit plans in a Department of Labor investigation and subsequent litigation. She also defends a company in a matter alleging violations of Missouri Sunshine Laws, initiated by the state’s Attorney General.

     Polsinelli has maintained a commitment to upholding its labor and employment practice. Denise Drake, chair of the labor and employment practice, is among the firm’s leading, Missouri-based litigators. Drake is a leader through and through – leading the practice, the expansion into growing markets, and clients in their disputes. She has been consistently distinguished as a Labor & Employment Star since its inception, maintaining the status with a roster of notable class action disputes. Los Angeles litigator September Rea serves as the firm’s arbitration and dispute resolution vice chair, with Colorado-based Donald Samuels serving alongside her as chair. . Rea leads the California-based lawsuits arising from an investigation into allegations of C-suite misconduct that included abuse, harassment, retaliation and unfair competition. The case has spanned Italy, California, and Texas. Dallas’ Angelo Spinola specializes in handling labor and employment disputes on behalf of clients in the home health industry, particularly hospice and homecare companies. He recently resolved a lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) challenging the company’s alleged practice of not including certain nondiscretionary bonuses in the regular rate when calculating overtime pay. 

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan continues to reign supreme as the ubiquitous litigation juggernaut it set out to be upon its genesis. The firm name’s official subtitle of “Trial lawyers” makes no bones about its agenda, and the firm has fulfilled this boast with what has been observed as typical aplomb. The firm has placed as one of Benchmark’s Top 20 Trial Firms since that list’s inception, and no fewer than four of its attorneys have consistently been recognized in Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America, an enviable percentage. “If you’re in the litigation game, not only do you know Quinn Emanuel but you are seeing them, and chances are good that you’re seeing them a lot. They just perennially acquire talent,” is how one peer sums up the firm’s dominant position, further confirming, “I know I certainly do. If I’m out with fellow litigators, they are sure to come up in conversation – I’m forever going, ‘Ah, I knew you were going to bring them up!’” With offices in New York, DC, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Houston, and in several venues throughout California, the firm’s geographic footprint has grown to further showcase its bench depth. The firm leaves no stone unturned when it comes to litigation services either; nearly every practice area is touched on by its expansive roster of partners, with particular pockets of strength in the areas of bankruptcy, white-collar crime, antitrust, intellectual property and commercial litigation. “Subject-matter expertise is down to each individual – but either way Quinn breeds you to fight in court, period.”

The firm has historically found itself in the national headlines for its role in milestone cases, and this year was no exception. Stephen Swedlow, a Chicago-based partner, led a team that recently obtained judgments against the US government in precedent-setting litigation from July 2020, recovering $3.7 billion for health insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act concerning the “risk corridors” created by the act. This eye-popping sum is even more remarkable considering that it was on a contingency basis. On the strength of this, Swedlow not only makes his debut as a litigation star in this edition of Benchmark, but also wins a coveted position among the Top 100 Trial Lawyers. Another consistent placer on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list, New York’s Michael Carlinsky led long-time client AIG to a February 2022 victory (which also made the news) by getting a policyholder’s claim for $27.5 million worth of coverage tied to a settlement with the State of Texas denied. Carlinsky and his team argued that the policyholder had structured a settlement with the State of Texas for Medicaid fraud in a fashion that was intentionally designed to mask a contract case, which would allow for coverage. Yet another Top 100 Trial Lawyer, Los Angeles’ Bill Price is viewed favorably by several other candidates on this privileged list. “I think the world of him, he’s the best,” offers one peer, summing up the general consensus. Price’s recent client list includes Elon Musk, for whom Price scored in December 2019 in the defamation case brought against him by one of the rescuers of 12 children trapped in a cave in Thailand, after Musk referred to him as “pedo guy” following an online spat. Just weeks later, Price logged another win, in the plaintiff capacity, in an IP case in which he represented the California Institute of Technology in a patent dispute with Apple. Price chalked up a whopping $1.1 billion verdict for his client.

The firm’s bankruptcy practice is viewed by peers in the restructuring capacity as “one of those rare instances where they have actual bankruptcy trial lawyers, as opposed to just corporate or hybrid restructuring people.” This same peer elaborates further on the flinty approach employed by these practitioners, which include Susheel Kirpalani – a near-constant mention: “These are the bomb throwers, the people you think of when you’re going, ‘Who do I call when I need a rabid dog?’”
While the firm is certainly better known for its trial-level work, its appellate work – and particularly that of New York-based luminary Kathleen Sullivan – has also prominently featured in newsworthy matters. In December 2021, Sullivan, along with future stars Rollo Baker and William Adams, scored when they persuaded the Delaware Supreme Court to uphold a trial court decision allowing client Mirae Asset to walk away from a $5.8 billion deal to buy luxury hotels based on the seller’s breach of an “ordinary course” covenant. This decision, delivered via an en banc ruling, upheld what is reported to be only the second decision ever from the Court of Chancery allowing a buyer to back out of a merger.

Saul Ewing saw its genesis as a regional shop primarily focused on the Mid-Atlantic through its offices in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wilmington and Newark and Princeton, New Jersey. It has since expanded its reach into Boston, West Palm Beach, Minneapolis and Chicago and, as of this past year, into California, officially bringing its national ambitions into fruition. The firm is appreciated by clients for “efficient, high-level legal services that are sensitive to the unique issues in the education industry, with a focus on client-centered advice that is cost effective for a non-profit entity. We use the firm because the lead counsel carefully reviews our needs and brings the necessary resources to help our businesses.”
     The firm’s dominance in the education area is undisputed, and acumen in this practice is frequently demonstrated by various partners. Jason St. John and Mark Simanowith, both in the Baltimore office, lead a team representing the Maryland State of Board of Education in defense of a challenge by a class of Baltimore City plaintiffs who are the parents of Baltimore City school children. Plaintiffs are attempting to revive a lawsuit from the early 1990’s and claim that the State has failed to comply with its constitutional duty to provide adequate education to Baltimore City school children, including adequate funding for Baltimore City public schools. Plaintiffs further claim that the State has failed to fix the crumbling school facilities in Baltimore City that leave children cold from broken heat systems in the winter, overheated from schools lacking air conditioning in the summer, and wet from pipe leaks throughout the year. The court granted the State’s motion for summary judgment on all claims in March 2023, and the case is now on appeal. Simanowith makes his debut as a future star in this edition. A former future star making the leap to litigation star in this edition, Philadelphia’s Josh Richards represents California Lutheran University in a case that arose when members of a softball team performed and placed on social media a routine where they dressed up as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air cast, with some of them coloring their faces darkly for the performance. The school responded to significant student concerns about the content of their performance and condemned its racial insensitivity. A lawsuit ensued, with two dozen plaintiffs suing the school on 13 counts, including defamation. “Josh is a smart, client-focused, fantastic attorney,” extols a client.
     Saul Ewing is plenty busy beyond the education capacity. John Stoviak and Cathleen Devlin, both resident in the Philadelphia office, serve as lead counsel defending Waste Management of Pennsylvania and Grand Central Sanitary Landfill in two putative class actions filed in by two groups of area residents, who alleged claims of negligence and public and private nuisance arising from alleged odors emanating from the client’s operations at a landfill in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. Devlin, the firm’s head of litigation, enjoys another year as one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation. Another former future star who is elevated in this edition, Justin Danilewitz was selected as counsel to the Court-appointed monitor in the District of Delaware Bankruptcy Court proceeding involving pharmaceutical entity Mallinckrodt. As part of Mallinckrodt’s bankruptcy and settlement with a broad coalition of state Attorneys General, the Bankruptcy Court entered an operating injunction, which requires the appointment of the monitor to oversee Mallinckrodt’s opioid compliance program and its compliance with the operating injunction more generally.
     Based in the Minneapolis office, Katie Barrett-Wiik is addressed as “a very talented appellate lawyer,” by a peer, who goes on to elaborate, “She is my primary contact with the firm.  I refer appellate matters to her when appropriate. [She provides] responsive, skilled advocacy and client care. She is smart, skilled, dedicated and passionate about representing her clients; she is very well known and highly regarded in the local legal and judicial community.” Hilda Piloto, based in the firm’s West Palm Beach office, is championed as “an excellent technical and practical litigator,” by a peer, who goes on to testify, “I encountered her as we represented adverse clients in a very hotly contested litigation.  She had a very difficult client but managed both that client's temperament and expectations very well.”

Sidley Austin occupies a prestigious position that has grown far beyond its Chicago roots and blossomed into a full-service international powerhouse. “They really cover the waterfront,” declares a peer, speaking to depth and breadth of the firm’s practice portfolio. “They have some great people across almost every area.” While the firm has grown to global stature, it is still considered primarily for its national footprint, particularly in its offices in LA and San Francisco, Dallas, DC and New York, as well as the aforementioned Windy City. The firm is also cheered for its approach to litigation; one peer testifies, “I’ve recently had good experiences with Sidley. They are not only good litigators but there’s also an ethic there across the board. You can tell how they lean, they’re very polite, and I value that. I view that as someone you want to work with. You know, we’re in litigation, but we don’t have to be doing battle all the time.”
     The firm’s DC office, already considered one of its strongest, made a significant augmentation in 2024, when it lured Greg Williams and Richard Smith to its ranks from Wiley Rein. “Greg and Richard were at Covington [& Burling] before – they seem to be moving in parallel! They are both great, and that’s a nice boost for [Sidley.]” Williams’ hire has been viewed as a strategic enhancement to the firm’s international arbitration and litigation practice, which has historically been regarded as one of the country’s most seasoned. The firm’s DC office is also home another Covington alumnus, Jennifer Saulino, a product liability star who makes the remarkable three-pronged debut in Benchmark as a litigation star, one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America, and one of the Top 250 Women in Litigation on the strength of some considerable credentials and peer review. “Jennifer belongs in the top league,” insists another peer on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list. “She’s versatile and great on her feet in court, where she spends a lot of time.” Saulino obtained a major victory on behalf of Roundup herbicide manufacturer Monsanto in a product-liability trial alleging that Roundup was linked to the plaintiffs’ injuries. In March 2024, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their case with prejudice, unable to prove that Roundup was the cause of their alleged injuries. The judge accepted the dismissal with prejudice and discharged the jury. The DC office is also home to not only the firm’s but the country’s top appellate luminaries, Carter Phillips. “I often forget to mention him, not because he’s not still killing it, but just because I take it as such a given,” states a peer. Phillips secured a major victory when the Second Circuit affirmed a judgment against Lynn Tilton and her companies for breaching her fiduciary duties to TransCare and conducting an actual fraudulent conveyance. Phillips argued the appeal and led the briefing team. DC’s William Levi is namechecked as the next generation of appellate firepower. “Will came into a case we had involving Microsoft, and he was the lead on the legal issues team. He’s not a trial lawyer, but he’s a great appellate counselor. He can write a brief on the fly that tells the judge the facts with common sense.”
     Based in the New York office, Eamon Joyce, who makes the leap from future star to litigation star in this edition, recently successfully settled the last of a series of putative class action cases, which began in 2014, involving allegations that Kimberly-Clark Corporation’s flushable wipes are not in fact flushable. In a series of cases filed around the country, plaintiffs (consumers and municipalities) alleged the claims of “flushable” and “sewer-and-septic safe” on the packages for Cottonelle and other Kimberly-Clark brand flushable wipes were false and misleading. In the firm’s San Francisco office, Sarah Brody is routinely championed by peers in securities capacity. “I’m a big fan of Sarah,” declares one, “and she’s got a great practice. She has had a lot of cases involving startups – there are a lot of them in the Bay Area – that go public…and then they fail. Sarah has had a sweet spot with that.” In the labor and employment practice, Wendy Lazerson is praised by a client as “very experienced, smart, and knowledgeable, who diligently and thoughtfully represented our interests.” In the Los Angeles office, Debra Pole has long been acknowledged as a product liability trial lawyer. “She’s still a rockstar,” enthuses a peer. “She still commands the room.”

A global business firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been steadily increasing its litigation profile in both market share and a literal headcount/geographic footprint sense. “A few years ago, I would have said Willkie was a great business firm with a small but good litigation bench,” offers a peer. “Not anymore! They have really doubled down on litigation of late, and it seems to really be working. They are now in several key markets and building several practice areas to rival others.”  While its core strength in the US has historically been New York (and remains so), the firm has branched out and developed other domestic locations as well; it opened a Chicago office in 2020, officially planting its flag on the Midwest legal landscape, continued developing its DC resources, and has doubled down on its expansion in California, where it now has three offices (Palo Alto, San Francisco and Los Angeles.) “The biggest disrupter in the LA market recently has been Willkie Farr,” quips a peer in observation of the firm’s build-out of that office. “I feel like anything that’s not nailed down, they’re trying to take!”
     Willkie’s bet on California has paid dividends; the firm has attracted star partners in each office. In Los Angeles, that office’s managing partner Alex Weingarten is a peer favorite. “Alex is the real deal. He represented Jamie Spears [father and former conservator of Britney], and I thought he did a very good job with that,” opines one peer. “Alex was at Venable before moving to Willkie,” states another peer, who goes on to confide, “I was trying to get him to come here! He’s a terrific litigator who has some high-profile entertainment clients. [He’s] Unbelievable!” Weingarten represents The Chosen, Inc. producers of the popular television series, The Chosen. The client is engaged in an arbitration against a licensor of the series Angel Studios.  Angel Studios has dramatically exceeded the scope of its licensed use of the series and is using its affiliation with the client to improperly promote its unrelated content.  An arbitration hearing was commenced in March 2024. Acting with Weingarten on this matter is Kori Bell, a white-collar-focused partner with an avid peer following of her own that the firm lured from LA boutique Larson in 2023. Weingarten also represents Fitness Technologies, a software company servicing enterprise fitness boutiques, in its lawsuit against a concerning claims, among other things, the rival has engaged in an scheme to exclude competitors from the industry, including the use of exclusive contracts and non-competes. In San Francisco, Simona Agnolucci, identified by peers as “a real player,” acted with Benedict Hur in leading Google to a March 2024 defense against allegations of violating New York and Minnesota privacy laws by improperly retaining consumer streaming video rental data, such as rental history and personal identification, beyond the legal limits. Agnolucci also acts with Jonathan Patchen in representing Ever.Ag., a  provider of technology, services, and intelligence platforms to the US dairy industry, in a hotly contested trade secret dispute against a Canadian startup competitor that has asserted antitrust counterclaims against the client, alleging that Ever.Ag has illegally monopolized the market for data services for milk producers and processors in the US through anticompetitive contracts and acquisitions of competitors. A peer also insists, “Let’s talk about [San Francisco-based IP-focused future star] Barrington Dyer – he’s great!”
     In the New York office, the firm continues to enjoy esteemed positions in the insurance and securities spaces. In the former practice, Christopher St. Jeanos represents AIG, which has a major role in current and expected future coverage disputes arising from the opioid lawsuits. There are now 15 active litigations against 13 different policyholders. “He’s a stand-up lawyer,” insists a peer, “and I think he’s only in his mid-40s! My litmus test when it comes to dealing with counsel is ‘Are you just a paper tiger?’ And Chris is not – he’s the real deal.” Securities partner Tariq Mundiya is representing Zayo founder, CEO, and Chairman Dan Caruso in an action arising out of a $14.3 billion buyout of Zayo by a consortium of equity co-investors. Plaintiffs claimed that Caruso breached his fiduciary duties by steering the sales process towards an acquirer so he could capture upside through a roll-over of his stock and remain as CEO post-merger. They further alleged that the company’s board was aware of the CEO’s actions and did not properly oversee his actions to maximize stockholder value and that Caruso was liable for making misleading disclosures and omissions in a proxy statement recommending that stockholders approve the merger. Another securities partner, Todd Cosenza represents several current and former Board Members of Wells Fargo & Company in a civil RICO action. The plaintiff is a business owner who contends that he was injured when about $1.3 million of three of his companies’ funds were deposited into unauthorized deposit accounts and then withdrawn without authorization.
    Craig Martin, Chairman, Midwest, joined Willkie in 2020 from Jenner & Block and has continued to build out the firm’s Windy City office. Martin’s practice encompasses a wide spectrum of commercial litigation, white-collar work, intellectual property, and pro bono human rights issues.