New York

Firm overview

Kramer Levin provides its clients proactive, creative and pragmatic solutions that address today’s most challenging legal issues. The firm, headquartered in New York with offices in Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., and Paris, fosters a strong culture of involvement in public and community service. For more information, please visit www.kramerlevin.com.

Litigation: Kramer Levin lawyers have taken on and won precedent-setting federal and state court cases and bet-the-company matters, handling trials and appeals, and resolving disputes through arbitration, mediation and negotiated settlement. Kramer Levin’s litigators are regarded as trial-ready, formidable opponents, which often enables them to resolve cases advantageously without litigation. They are also known for their success in achieving early case dismissal through skillful motion practice.

Bankruptcy and Restructuring: For more than 30 years, creditors, debtor corporations, investors, lenders and acquirers have turned to Kramer Levin to solve complicated bankruptcy and restructuring problems, to structure and lead negotiations that harmonize divergent interests and achieve consensual solutions, and to win suits in bankruptcy court, courts of appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court. Representing clients throughout the United States, Kramer Levin lawyers typically take on cases that involve multiple debtors with competing secured and unsecured creditors, complex restructurings, and contested interdebtor and intercreditor issues.

Corporate Transactions and Finance: Kramer Levin represents buyers and sellers, including financial and strategic acquirers ranging from entrepreneurial startups to large multinationals, in mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies. They focus on the middle market and are exposed to a high volume of M&A deal flow in this market segment, which gives them keen insight into deal terms, conditions and trends. Kramer Levin’s Banking and Finance group represents a large number of borrowers and major lenders, providing legal and transactional advice on a wide variety of financing arrangements. Because they represent both borrowers and lenders, they can offer clients uncommon perspective and tremendous insight into each party’s needs as well as deep knowledge and broad experience in market-leading terms and the latest financing strategies. The firm’s Private Equity team has extensive experience advising and representing private equity funds, fund sponsors and their portfolio companies in all aspects of their business, from fund formation and operation to private placement, mergers and acquisitions, financings, and control and minority investments, including growth equity transactions.

Intellectual Property: Kramer Levin’s litigation-focused Intellectual Property team regularly asserts and defends IP-related claims in courts throughout the United States and Europe, and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as well as the European Union Intellectual Property Office and foreign national intellectual property agencies. Well known for their success in the courtroom, including in many high-stakes patent litigation cases, the team also advises clients on worldwide IP portfolio management and IP-based transactions. 

Real Estate, Land Use and Environmental: For the past 50 years, Kramer Levin has advised on many of the most significant real estate developments and other projects in New York City and throughout the United States, helping transform city skylines and reshape the landscape. The firm is among only a handful of large New York-based firms with a destination real estate practice — one that attracts clients interested primarily in their real estate talents. The Real Estate team is involved in many of the major real estate transactions throughout the city, including acquisitions and sales, joint ventures, financings, and development. Kramer Levin’s Land Use practice is the largest and most experienced in New York City. With a core group of partners that has practiced together for more than 35 years and support from a cadre of other lawyers, a veteran real estate litigator, two condemnation lawyers, an engineer and three planners, it offers unmatched technical knowledge, synergy, industry insight and experience. The practice has handled many of the thorniest and most sophisticated land use matters, has represented most of NYC’s leading developers and institutions, and has advised on many of NYC’s megaprojects. Kramer Levin’s Environmental lawyers help developers, investors and companies across industries manage environmental issues so they can focus on improving properties, maintaining efficient operations, building projects, closing transactions and planning for the future. 

Tax: With a clear understanding of clients’ business needs and a deep knowledge of the ever-changing tax laws, Kramer Levin tax lawyers develop creative and practical client-specific solutions to help clients accomplish their goals. They advise U.S. and foreign public and private companies, including private equity firms and hedge funds, as well as high net worth individuals, on U.S. transactions and the U.S. tax aspects of international transactions. 

Employment and Immigration: Kramer Levin’s Employment lawyers provide practical and proactive counsel to employers, helping them make decisions and take action to minimize their risk of litigation, promote their workplace culture and values, and achieve their specific business objectives. The team is composed of highly responsive advisers and litigators focused exclusively on employment law matters, and each team member is well versed in a broad range of employment law issues and able to act quickly and decisively when clients need help. Kramer Levin’s internationally recognized Immigration group is among the largest and most respected immigration practices in the United States. With decades of experience, their immigration lawyers advise global brands and preeminent corporations across a wide range of industries, including media and advertising, financial services, technology, and performing and fine arts. 

Updated Aug 2024

Firm overview

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Hunton Andrews Kurth is a global law firm with over 900 lawyers handling a range of complex transactional, litigation, and regulatory matters for clients in many industries, including energy, financial services, real estate, retail and consumer products, and technology. With offices across the US and in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, the firm is aligned with clients’ businesses and committed to delivering exceptional service. Our full-service litigation practice is one of the largest in the country, with particular depth in key litigation markets such as Texas, California, New York, Florida, and Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic. 

Since its founding more than 100 years ago, Hunton Andrews Kurth has been a business-focused firm, an approach we continue in today’s litigation-focused climate. Our team of more than 400 litigators draw upon decades of experience to handle all aspects of disputes with the goal of achieving successful results whether in a courtroom or the boardroom. 

Our skilled litigators focus on strategy from the outset and develop individualized litigation plans that are comprehensive in scope, mindful of each client’s business and legal goals, and aligned with client needs. We aggressively and efficiently represent clients at different phases of their corporate life cycles. Whether advising a start-up in patent litigation or a Fortune 100 company in a bet-the-company class action, we apply the same principles of client-focused representation to achieve the desired result. 

Litigation Overview: Hunton Andrews Kurth has a top global litigation team, having litigated and/or arbitrated in all 50 states and many foreign countries. We often serve as national or worldwide coordinating counsel. Our diverse team has the collective knowledge, skill, and experience to help businesses identify and manage risks, respond to existing or threatened litigation, and pursue resolution in any venue. Hunton Andrews Kurth attorneys are admitted to the American College of Trial Lawyers and ranked by publications such as Chambers USA, Legal 500, and Benchmark Litigation, and the firm is named one of the “most feared firms in litigation” by BTI. 

We handle litigation matters in the energy, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, food, hospitality, consumer products, and retail industries, tailoring strategy on a case-by-case basis. Our commercial litigation docket includes class action defense, commercial contract issues, white collar defense, administrative matters, cybersecurity and privacy investigations, and appeals in state and federal courts. We represent corporations and other entities across a broad range of complex matters – from providing advice and counsel about business disputes and torts to civil litigation, trial, and appeal. We are often engaged in “bet-the-company” cases, multidistrict litigation, and coordinated state law proceedings. Our lawyers have the experience to handle cases that involve multiple adversaries in courts across the nation and abroad. 

In addition, the firm’s environmental team, with more than 45 environmental attorneys and scientists, many of whom are former DOJ attorneys and senior regulatory agency officials, handles high-profile environmental litigation matters. These include enforcement defense, permit litigation, and challenges to environmental regulatory programs before federal district and appeals courts and the US Supreme Court, addressing issues of nationwide significance.

Updated Aug 2024

Firm overview

With over 3,600 lawyers in 14 countries and fluency in 60+ languages, Latham & Watkins offers an unmatched global platform to quickly mobilize the best-suited teams. Our lawyers collaborate across practices and offices to provide proactive, efficient, and commercially savvy counsel, helping clients avoid costly regulatory issues and effectively resolve the most complex disputes.

The Litigation & Trial Department leverages a global platform to provide unmatched legal services. With over 1,100 top-tier litigators, including more than 30 former U.S. federal prosecutors, we bring experience, insight, and determination to every client. Our pragmatic approach ensures favorable results through effective collaboration with local counsel, co-counsel, and government regulators. We develop aggressive and creative litigation strategies, often resolving matters before trial. When necessary, clients can rely on our ability to win at trial, arbitration, regulatory proceedings, and on appeal.

Antitrust & Competition: Our elite team features highly qualified lawyers skilled in local and international antitrust and competition issues. We counsel on merger clearance, cartel investigations, competition-related litigation, IP antitrust, and compliance training. Our team delivers top client service in cases involving monopolization challenges, fast-moving merger litigation, and novel bet-the-company theories.

Complex Commercial Litigation: Our team combines trial-ready capabilities and business fluency to tackle complex challenges. We represent public and private companies, financial institutions, private equity firms, governmental entities, and high net worth individuals in commercial disputes. Over the past decade, we have tried or arbitrated hundreds of cases to verdict with an extraordinary success rate in U.S. federal and state courts and arbitration panels. Our team includes over 350 former federal law clerks and more than 30 former federal prosecutors, providing invaluable institutional knowledge and courtroom experience.

Connectivity, Privacy & Information: Our firm brings together a global team of lawyers addressing the critical legal issues arising from digital technology and services, in disciplines including communications, data privacy and cybersecurity, internet law, and digital copyright. Our team handles high-profile litigation, regulatory investigations and counseling, internal investigations, and technology transactions for clients in multiple industry sectors. We handle matters requiring extensive experience in particular areas of the law governing digital commerce, as well as matters that cut across legal silos to deliver exceptional results for our clients.

Environmental Litigation: We represent clients in administrative and regulatory proceedings, enforcement, litigation, transactions, and legislative matters. We help clients navigate complex agency rulemakings, secure approvals for energy and infrastructure projects, and resolve environmental investigations and compliance issues. Our wide-ranging expertise and unique government experience set us apart, delivering successful outcomes in groundbreaking matters worldwide.

Intellectual Property Litigation: Latham's litigators have unparalleled experience in IP disputes, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade dress, and trade secrets. We engage in multijurisdictional litigation worldwide, including in over 45 U.S. district courts and before the Federal Circuit, ITC, and PTAB. Our team includes 105+ technically trained lawyers, 9 technical analysts, and 17 IP paralegals, handling cases in semiconductors, software, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, electric motors, engines, cloud computing and networking, packaging, building products, and banking technologies, among others.

Securities Litigation & Professional Liability: Our Securities Litigation team has unparalleled experience in complex securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. From 2021 onward, we have defended more federal securities lawsuits than any other U.S. firm (Lex Machina). Named Securities Group of the Year by Law360 in 4 of the past 5 years, and consistently ranked #1 by Chambers and The Legal 500, our team includes top lawyers, former federal prosecutors, and senior SEC staff. We are the go-to firm for Fortune 500 companies, major financial institutions, and the Big Four accounting firms, achieving high-profile, precedent-setting wins. We excel at resolving matters before trial through dispositive motions or settlements, and have a proven track record in trial success.

Supreme Court & Appellate: Led by a former U.S. Solicitor General, our Supreme Court and Appellate Practice boasts an outstanding record before the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts. Over the past two decades, our advocates have argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court, representing Fortune 100 corporations, state governments, leading educational institutions, and individuals. Recently, we secured certiorari in nearly a dozen cases and have prepared briefs for hundreds of cases in both federal and state appellate courts.

White Collar Defense & Investigations: Latham is at the forefront of advising on white collar and enforcement matters, offering unparalleled expertise in high-profile, sensitive cases globally. We leverage deep experience with regulators and prosecutors to guide clients through inquiries and investigations, skillfully defending against enforcement actions and prosecutions. Our track record includes avoiding charges and achieving full acquittals, often defeating government prosecutions before trial. We represent clients in actions by the SEC, DOJ, PCAOB, FINRA, CFTC, state attorneys general, Congress, and other global regulators. Our team excels in export controls, economic sanctions, and national security-related work, including CFIUS reviews and FOCI mitigation. Our defense lawyers include former senior prosecutors and government officials from top agencies.

Updated Oct 2024

Firm overview

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is an elite global law firm with world-class practices across the board. Industry-leading companies and global financial institutions know they can rely on us for their most challenging legal and business matters. The firm’s top-flight capabilities are grounded in a distinguished history of 170 years, and our global, forward-looking focus is supported by offices strategically located in the world’s key financial centers and political capitals. More than 1,000 lawyers collaborate seamlessly across practice groups and geographies to provide clients with exceptional service, sophisticated advice and creative, practical solutions. 

Litigation

Litigation has been a cornerstone of Davis Polk’s practice since the firm’s inception. Our litigators are widely recognized for their creativity, integrity, strategic approach and extensive experience.

Leading companies around the world, as well as their executives and directors, benefit from our numerous partners and counsel who have many years of prior service in a variety of government roles. We also count among our ranks leading trial lawyers who have won landmark verdicts on both the defense and plaintiff sides.

We view matters through the lens of our clients’ business objectives, drawing on the substantial experience of our firm across all major industry sectors. Our approach has created a long track record of success for our clients, from motion practice to strategic settlements, trials and on appeal. Our work has earned the respect of the judiciary, prosecutors, regulators and the bar.

Some recent successes on behalf of clients include: 

• Coordinated resolution of FCPA investigations by the DOJ and SEC concerning a Colombian banking conglomerate’s involvement in an infrastructure project. 
• Complete dismissals of multiple securities fraud actions against issuers from around the world. 
• Rare dismissal of criminal price-fixing and bid-rigging charges brought by the DOJ Antitrust Division against an industry executive. 
• Trial victory for a major medical technology company in a patent infringement case.

Updated Sep 2024