New York

Firm overview

Thompson Hine LLP, a full-service national business law firm with approximately 400 lawyers in nine offices (Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC), is widely recognized for its innovative, value-driven approach to delivering legal services. The firm’s groundbreaking SmartPaTHTM program was created to respond to clients’ needs for a more predictable, efficient and transparent service experience. It combines legal project management, value-based pricing, flexible staffing and process efficiency to align service delivery with clients’ business goals. Thompson Hine has made significant investments in talent, proprietary technology and processes, and infrastructure to increase efficiency and provide greater value.

As part of its ongoing efforts to enhance service delivery, Thompson Hine continually collects feedback from in-house counsel about what innovations align best with clients’ needs and has conducted three formal analyses of the state of innovation in the legal market. The firm commissioned detailed surveys and interviews of in-house counsel and other senior executives and published its findings in comprehensive reports. These surveys aim to monitor developments in the corporate legal market and identify opportunities to further refine the firm’s delivery of efficient, predictable and transparent legal solutions.

In an industry first, Thompson Hine in 2024 transitioned its leadership from Deborah Read, one of the first women to lead a large U.S. firm, to Tony White, who will be one of a handful of African Americans currently occupying the top role at an Am Law 200 firm and one of only about a dozen to have held the position at any point.

Thompson Hine. Always Innovating.

www.thompsonhine.com/innovation

Updated Sep 2024

Firm overview

History: Pomerantz is the oldest law firm in the world dedicated to championing investor rights. Founded in 1936 by Abraham Pomerantz, the Firm’s work during the Great Depression to hold corporations accountable helped secure the rights of investors to bring class actions and derivative suits. Today the Firm’s global clients include more than 100 of the most influential public pension funds, asset managers, and private institutions. Honoring its founder’s legacy, the Firm continues to fight for defrauded shareholders while expanding the rights of global investors and championing transparent markets and good corporate governance.

Securities Litigation: Over the past eight decades the Firm has recovered billions of dollars for defrauded investors, with many settlements achieving new records. Notable matters include:

• A $3 billion settlement in litigation against Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras, involving an alleged decades-long corruption scheme that ensnared multiple former Brazilian presidents, among many others. The recovery stands as the fifth-largest securities class action settlement ever achieved in the United States (In re Petrobras Securities Litigation).
• A $225 million recovery for the Class in a suit against Comverse Technology, Inc., the second-largest recovery involving the backdating of stock options (In re Comverse Technology, Inc. Securities Litigation).
• A $110 million settlement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. that opened new avenues for discovery in securities litigation (Pirnik v. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V., et al.).
• A $74 million settlement for investors in Arconic, whose insulation panels were implicated in the June 2017 fire at Grenfell Tower in London (Howard v. Arconic et al.).

A Tradition of Innovation: Pomerantz is a recognized leader in developing novel legal theories to address the evolving juridical, social, and corporate landscape. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, Ltd (2010) barred investors in foreign securities from using U.S. courts to seek recovery. In the years since, Pomerantz has worked to win back these rights on behalf of investors. In a series of individual cases arising out of the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Pomerantz convinced the court to allow, for the very first time post-Morrison, both U.S. and foreign investors seeking recovery for losses in a foreign company’s foreign-traded securities to do so in a U.S. court. In a securities class action against the global pharmaceutical company Perrigo Co., the Firm’s ground-breaking legal arguments led the U.S. court, for the first time since the Morrison decision, to certify a foreign purchaser class. Both decisions have significant precedential value, expanding the options available for domestic and foreign investors seeking recovery in cases of securities fraud.

Portfolio Monitoring: PomTrack®, the Firm’s proprietary portfolio monitoring system, tracks and evaluates suspicious market activity, as well as securities and antitrust class actions and settlements, covering both domestic and international events. This system empowers investment plan fiduciaries to fulfill their duty to preserve investments by quickly identifying fund losses that may have been caused by financial misconduct. Comprising attorneys, forensic economists, damages analysts, paralegals, and support staff, the PomTrack® team monitors assets valued at over $9 trillion, making it one of the largest systems of its kind in the U.S. 

ESG: Pomerantz partners are pioneering securities litigation as a means to address 21st century ESG concerns. The Firm achieved a settlement with Deutsche Bank AG that recoups nearly 50% of estimated damages for investors in a case alleging that the bank failed to adhere to its own due diligence policies for certain high-worth clients, including convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Pomerantz also recently won class certification in its case against Wynn Resorts Ltd., which alleges that former CEO Steve Wynn engaged in egregious sexual misconduct against the company’s female employees, while the company and its directors simultaneously covered up his behavior, assuring investors of the company’s commitment to high ethical standards. 

Corporate Governance: In addition to addressing corporate governance via securities litigation, the Firm’s Corporate Governance Practice Group has achieved significant corporate governance reform at numerous major corporations through shareholder derivative lawsuits. Areas of interest include workers’ health and safety, environmental compliance, pay and gender equity, excess executive compensation, and addressing corporate transactions that result in an unfair price for shareholders. 

Education: Pomerantz partners frequently speak on corporate governance at conferences around the world, and the Firm regularly hosts Corporate Governance Roundtables for institutional investors. The Firm also publishes The Pomerantz Monitor, a bi-monthly journal of attorney-authored articles on securities litigation, corporate governance, and related regulatory and government policies. 

Updated Sep 2023

Firm overview

Weil is a leader in the marketplace for sophisticated, global legal services. Our pioneering “one-firm” approach, which integrates approximately 1,200 attorneys across three continents and multiple practice areas, allows the Firm to partner with many of the world’s most successful organizations on matters as complex and interconnected as the businesses themselves.

Featuring approximately 350 lawyers in more than a dozen practice areas and areas of specialization, Weil’s global Litigation Department is one of the largest, most diversified, and highly respected in the legal industry. We provide clients with business-oriented solutions to complex, multi-faceted legal challenges, including business disputes, regulatory actions and investigations, financial distress, and other potentially enterprise-changing circumstances.

Our expertise spans a number of substantive areas:

Antitrust: Weil is regularly retained by some of the largest corporations in the world to handle their antitrust litigation matters. Our Antitrust practice advises clients on the interrelationship between antitrust, IP, trade, and unfair competition laws and regulations, and litigates and tries those cutting-edge issues in civil and criminal cases before juries and judges in jurisdictions across the United States. Representative clients include Bridgestone, GrubHub, Hilton Worldwide, Meta Platforms, Panasonic, Paramount Global, Regeneron, Saks Fifth Avenue, Simon & Schuster, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Appellate: Weil’s Appeals and Strategic Counseling practice covers all of the Firm’s substantive areas of expertise, including employment, securities, copyright and trademark, patent, tax, bankruptcy, antitrust, civil rights, and administrative and constitutional law, among others. With 33 practitioners located across the United States, including former clerks to U.S. Supreme Court justices, over a dozen former clerks to federal appellate judges, a former Assistant Solicitor General for the State of New York, and a former Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States, we regularly prosecute and defend appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, all 13 federal circuit courts, and a range of state intermediate and supreme courts. We are regularly called upon to provide essential support before lower courts and regulatory agencies, as well as to assess whether litigation is advisable. Representative clients include BNSF Railway, Comcast, Elanco, Grubhub, Regeneron, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sanofi, Sears Holdings, Speedcast, Washington State University, and many major technology companies.

Bankruptcy: Weil is well-known as the leading restructuring firm in the world. We not only invented much of what is standard today, but we also have been involved in almost every type of consensual and litigated restructuring transaction in the United States since the 1970s. Weil has served as chief debtors’ counsel in the largest U.S. bankruptcy filings in history and has represented clients in numerous complicated international insolvencies. Our experience extends to exchange offers, debt for equity swaps, pre-packaged and prearranged chapter 11 cases, as well as conventional chapter 11 reorganizations.

General Commercial: Weil is a one-stop firm for commercial litigation matters, and has achieved significant victories in high-profile disputes for BNSF Railway, Burger King, eBay, ExxonMobil, Paramount Global, PepsiCo, Repsol, Sanofi, Serta Simmons, and Warner Bros. Discovery, among others. We specialize in trying high-stakes breach of contract, fraud, tortious interference, unfair competition and other business tort claims, class actions, and litigations arising under RICO, the False Claims Act, and numerous other statutes.

Intellectual Property: Weil offers market-leading capabilities in IP litigation, including complex patent, trade secret, copyright, and trademark disputes, as well as counseling. For decades, Weil’s prestigious IP/Media group has been at the forefront of hot-button industry issues. The group’s work in the area of digital media has been trailblazing, touching on multiple areas of commercial significance including artificial intelligence, e-commerce, digital rights management, and digital content licensing. We are also recognized for our expertise in false advertising, music licensing, television/motion picture and other content distribution, and privacy/data protection issues. Representative clients include A&E Television Networks, AIG, Alibaba, eBay, Getty Images, Meta Platforms, Pandora Media, and SiriusXM. Weil’s Patent Litigation group focuses on high-stakes patent and IP disputes, whether they involve winning a key patent infringement action at trial or on appeal before the Federal Circuit, litigating a complex investigation at the ITC, or trying contested IPR proceedings at the PTAB. Our team includes 39 attorneys, many of whom have technical degrees, allowing us to identify critical issues, understand the technology at the forefront of a case, and become trusted advisors to our clients, which include Altria, BeiGene, Bio Rad, Comcast, HP, Illumina, Johnson & Johnson, , Palo Alto Networks, Regeneron, and Sanofi.

International Arbitration: Leading multinationals involved in important international disputes repeatedly turn to Weil for its business oriented approach, understanding of specific cultural issues, extensive government and trade experience, and recognized skill in handling complex investment and commercial arbitrations before all major arbitral institutions, including the ICC, AAA, LCIA, and ICSID.

Product Liability: Weil’s Product Liability & Mass Tort practice handles nationwide class actions, MDL proceedings, and joint state/federal litigations, among other matters, and has won some of the largest consumer fraud class actions involving alleged product defects in the United States. Our experience extends to a broad range of issues – including product defects, environmental remediation and indemnification, natural disasters, chemical contamination, PFAS (forever chemicals), and crisis management – in sectors that include automotive products, industrial chemicals, medical devices, toys, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, heavy equipment, and airlines. Notable clients include Alibaba, Dometic, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, L'Oréal, Nike, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Repsol, and Sanofi.

Securities: Weil’s Securities Litigation practice has handled numerous high-stakes, precedent-setting disputes, including those related to the insolvency or restructuring of major financial institutions, high-profile SEC enforcement proceedings, white-collar securities prosecutions, proxy contests, busted-deal and other M&A litigation, and class action and derivative litigation. The group continues to tackle complex litigation and investigations for clients such as AIG, AMC Entertainment, Brookfield, Digital Currency Group, Elanco, Getty Images, Marathon Digital Holdings, Morgan Stanley, Sanofi, Walgreens, and Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as shareholder suits arising out of large, sophisticated M&A and SPAC transactions.

White Collar Crime: Led by an elite group of highly ranked criminal defense lawyers with extensive government experience, Weil’s White Collar Defense, Regulatory & Investigations practice conducts complex internal investigations and handles an array of criminal, civil, and regulatory investigations and parallel litigation arising out of accounting and securities issues, allegations of insider trading, money laundering, fraud, executive misconduct, and cartelization, and allegations related to U.S. criminal and regulatory laws with international and extra-territorial dimensions, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Updated Aug 2024

Firm overview

Sophisticated clients worldwide entrust us with their formidable disputes for a single reason–our remarkable track record. Clients seek our advice on high-stakes litigation and cross-border disputes, as well as government and internal investigations in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Anti-Discrimination and DEI Advisory: Our practice is dedicated to providing comprehensive legal counsel and strategic guidance on matters relating to anti-discrimination laws and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Our areas of focus include workplace investigations, litigation, legal compliance, culture and equity reviews, strategic counseling and training and education.

Antitrust and Trade Regulation: Clients turn to us for our record of success in handling high-stakes antitrust disputes, investigations, and achieving regulatory clearance for the largest and most complicated transactions. We advise clients on internal investigations, enforcement matters, and regulatory issues in connection with the OFAC, the Department of State, and the SEC.

Appellate: Our clients appreciate that Simpson Thacher is a formidable force in the appellate arena. They turn to us for our reputation for procuring against‑the‑odds, law-defining appellate rulings across a wide range of areas, including class actions, commercial, securities litigation, and pro bono.

Bankruptcy: Our comprehensive practice covers all aspects of bankruptcy-related litigation–from disputes over plan confirmation to tender liability and equitable subordination claims to issues arising out of insurance disputes and mass tort-related bankruptcies.

ERISA Litigation: Clients benefit from our coordinated advice in closely aligned areas, including securities, bankruptcy, and government investigations, and our ability to present arguments and evidence in the manner best suited to advance business interests and resolve conflicts with minimal disruption to their operations.

False Advertising Litigation: Companies in a broad range of fields, including pharmaceuticals, financial services, consumer products and food and beverage, turn to us for our significant experience in false advertising litigation, including disputes between competitors and consumer class actions.

Funds, Regulatory and Investigations: Our team includes attorneys with decades of experience in the funds industry, former senior government officials from the SEC, and former U.S. federal prosecutors, who draw upon their deep experience and institutional knowledge to provide sophisticated advice to clients on a broad spectrum of critical regulatory and compliance issues.

Government and Internal Investigations: Large and small companies and their boards, audit and special committees, officers and directors, and other individuals regularly turn to us for advice on a wide range of criminal, regulatory, congressional and other sensitive government inquiries and internal investigations.

Insurance and Reinsurance: Clients benefit from our experience as the leading firm representing the interests of both ceding companies and reinsurers in litigations and arbitrations throughout the United States, the United Kingdom and Bermuda. Major insurance groups, including Travelers, AIG, Berkshire Hathaway, Lloyd’s of London and CNA have trusted us on their most significant matters.

Intellectual Property: Understanding and protecting IP is crucial to the long-term success of many businesses. Clients seek our advice in high-stakes, “make it or break it” disputes and rely on our broad array of substantive experience in both litigation and transactional matters to help them protect their interests.

International Disputes and Arbitration: We handle high-stakes international disputes and commercial crises, where the outcome is uncertain and our clients need the highest quality of service. Our collaborative team operates worldwide from the Firm’s London office. The scope of our practice from the London office reaches across all of North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

International Regulatory and Compliance: With increased activism and cross-border cooperation between enforcement and regulatory agencies, we represent the interests of a wide array of clients operating in multiple jurisdictions and have advised on issues in China, India, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.

Mergers and Acquisitions Litigation: Clients seek our market-leading advice in all aspects of M&A litigation—where we excel at defending challenges to the largest and most complex mergers and acquisitions. They appreciate our extensive experience defeating efforts to enjoin transactions prior to closing; resolving claims through reasonable settlements pre-closing; and litigating claims for damages post-closing.

Privacy and Cybersecurity: Our multidisciplinary Privacy and Cybersecurity team advises global companies facing heightened regulatory, contractual and consumer obligations surrounding the management of data, including personal data and use of AI.

Product Liability and Mass Tort: Since the 1970s, clients have relied on our advice as a leader in the development of product liability and mass tort law in the United States. We have taken countless product liability and mass tort cases to jury trial in state and federal courts over the years, amassing invaluable courtroom experience.

Securities: For decades, clients have relied on our securities litigators in the most complex, high-profile, high-stakes securities matters of the day. The country’s most respected Fortune 500 corporations and financial institutions turn to us to help defend against headline-making allegations.

Whistleblower and False Claims Act: Companies and their boards have relied on us to respond to allegations by whistleblowers and to help them devise and implement corporate whistleblower policies. Clients seek our counsel on whistleblower matters in a broad range of sectors—including defense, healthcare, technology and financial services.

Office Locations: New York • Beijing • Boston • Brussels • Hong Kong • Houston • London • Los Angeles • Palo Alto • São Paulo • Tokyo • Washington, D.C.

Updated Oct 2024