New York

Firm overview

Levine Lee LLP is widely recognized as one of the most prominent litigation boutiques handling some of the nation’s most significant and contentious securities litigation, white collar criminal, and complex civil litigation matters. As highlighted by Benchmark Litigation, our firm “has made a distinct impression on the legal landscape – including much larger community peers,” with our lawyers being recognized as “tenacious” and “brilliant” tacticians.

Levine Lee, as profiled by Chambers USA, has “particular strength in securities litigation” and a “strong track record” in “high-stakes white collar and government investigations.” Chambers USA notes, with respect to these matters, “clients trust them,” “they learn their client’s business,” “they do outstanding work and offer sage counsel,” and “each attorney at Levine Lee is exceptionally knowledgeable and experienced.”

Chambers USA has also individually profiled the firm’s named partners. The publication describes Seth L. Levine as a “fierce trial lawyer,” an “outstanding litigator, advocate, and negotiator,” and a “passionate advocate for his clients,” and notes that Kenneth E. Lee “spearheads strategic decision making” and “always figures out a way to accomplish whatever needs to be done.”

Client-Focused, Steadfast Advocacy

We are committed to providing the highest levels of legal representation efficiently and with unparalleled attention to our clients’ objectives, as reflected in our accolades. Benchmark Litigation writes, for example: “They give you personal attention, they are willing to dig in against the government, and they give you smart and practical advice. You feel like a client, not a commodity.”

Our intense focus on each of our matters positions us to deliver the highest quality results for our clients. As Benchmark Litigation notes with respect to Seth L. Levine: “You feel like your problems are his. He fights for his clients, he is passionate, smart, and tenacious. You feel you could put your life, livelihood, and reputation in his hands.” And Chambers USA similarly notes that Kenneth E. Lee is “someone [you] can trust during a very delicate and very sensitive time frame for the company.”

In all of our representations, we endeavor to act as strategic advisor, looking beyond the engagement at hand to craft a comprehensive strategy – litigation, corporate, regulatory, public relations – to meet the client’s overall goals.

Recognition and Awards 

Numerous publications have profiled our firm’s outsized successes and have ranked our firm as one of the top litigation practices in the country. By way of recent examples:

• Law 360 honored us nationally in both 2022 and 2019 as a “White Collar Practice Group of the Year” – the only boutique firm to receive such recognition in recent history.
• Chambers USA (2024) once again ranks us as a leading firm for “Securities Litigation” (the only boutique firm in the country so honored) and as a leading firm for “White Collar Crime and Government Investigations.”
• The Legal 500 (2024) ranks us nationally as a leading firm for “Securities Litigation:  Defense.”
• Benchmark Litigation (2024) ranks us in its highest category for “Dispute Resolution” – one of the few boutiques to achieve that designation.
• The American Lawyer ran a feature on “How Manhattan Boutique Levine Lee Unraveled the Government’s Final LIBOR Conviction,” highlighting our widely covered, hard-fought, and consequential Second Circuit acquittal for Deutsche Bank trader, Gavin Black, in connection with the LIBOR cases.

Our lawyers have also been individually recognized as among the leading litigators in the country, including, by way of recent examples:

• Chambers USA (2024) ranks Seth L. Levine among the nation’s leading Trial Lawyers and among the leading practitioners for “White Collar Crime and Government Investigations,” and ranks Kenneth E. Lee among the leading practitioners for “Securities Litigation.”
• The Legal 500 (2024) recognizes Seth L. Levine, Kenneth E. Lee, and Chad P. Albert nationally for “Securities Litigation: Defense.”
• Benchmark Litigation (2024) recognizes Seth L. Levine, Kenneth E. Lee, and Scott B. Klugman as “Litigation Stars,” and recognizes Chad P. Albert on the “40 and Under” list of the “top emerging talent in litigation.”
• Lawdragon (2025) named all the firm’s partners to its list of the “500 Leading Litigators in America,” and named Seth L. Levine and Kenneth E. Lee to its 2024 list of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America.” Lawdragon also named Chad P. Albert, Alison M. Bonelli, and Steven W. Kessler to its 2024 list of “Next Generation” lawyers.

Updated Sep 2024

Firm overview

Hecker Fink LLP is an elite litigation boutique, fusing high stakes, cutting-edge litigation with a groundbreaking commitment to serving the public interest.

The Hecker Fink team is comprised of highly experienced litigators, trial lawyers, and operations professionals, including five former federal prosecutors, three former public defenders, six former U.S. Supreme Court clerks, and dozens of attorneys with experience clerking at all levels of state and federal courts. This uniquely talented pool of attorneys enables the firm to consistently produce exceptional outcomes and value to our clients, and also earned us the recognition of being named “Boutique Firm of the Year” by Benchmark Litigation for four of the past five years.

Hecker Fink is recognized by Chambers and Legal 500 as having one of the country’s top white collar defense practices. Our commercial litigation, FCPA, nationwide corporate crime and investigations, employment, and higher education practices are similarly ranked by Chambers. The legal guide noted that the Firm is “recognized for its excellence across an array of litigation-related matters” and is “respected by the market for its ‘deep bench of heavy hitters with different backgrounds who are leaders in this area, and are smart, collaborative people.” Our lawyers have tried and won dozens of cases in state and federal courts across the country.

Our lawyers have extensive trial experience, with five former federal prosecutors and three former public defenders among our ranks. Our litigators have tried numerous civil and criminal cases to verdict in both federal and state courts, and our clients benefit from this deep trial proficiency and a wide range of subject matter knowledge. We offer diverse perspectives and insights from opposite sides of the courtroom, enabling the kind of strategic flexibility that delivers results.

In what was recognized by Benchmark Litigation as “Impact Case of the Year” and Global Investigations Review as “Most Important Court Case of the Year,” a team led by Sean Hecker secured a “rare” acquittal at trial in a market manipulation case against a former Barclays trader. In 2022, Benchmark Litigation honored the Firm with a second “Impact Case of the Year” award for our representation of the plaintiffs in Sines v. Kessler, in which the team won a historic $26 million damages award in the groundbreaking lawsuit against twenty-four white supremacists and neo-Nazis for their roles in organizing the racial and religious-based violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

As a peer noted to Benchmark Litigation, Hecker Fink’s lawyers “are unwaveringly committed to staring down injustice without blinking, and their work proves that. They are ambitious, feisty and fearless, especially tailor-made for these tumultuous times.”

Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is more than a value of our firm, it is who we are. Our firm was founded by women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Today, over 60% of our attorneys identify as women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, or some combination thereof. We strive to make sure that our policies, the way we practice, and opportunities for advancement at our firm all actively reflect our prioritization of building an equitable and inclusive workplace. We are extremely proud that The American Lawyer has recognized this work, naming Hecker Fink its 2021 inaugural “Best Diversity Initiative” award recipient.

Hecker Fink has built a track record of impressive results in high-stakes litigation, fueled by a small team of litigators with extensive trial experience and wide-ranging subject matter expertise. Its practice focuses on the following areas:

Commercial Litigation: Hecker Fink lawyers are highly-experienced commercial litigators with wide-ranging backgrounds. Clients range from large financial institutions and ratings agencies to Fortune 500 companies, tech companies and startups, and nationally prominent individuals – among numerous other categories. We are efficient, diverse, creative, collaborative, and focused on achieving the best possible results for our clients.

White-Collar Criminal Defense: The firm has extensive experience defending companies, boards of directors, and executives from criminal investigations and enforcement and regulatory proceedings across a range of practice areas, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and anti-corruption, whistleblower and False Claim Act claims, anti-money laundering, and various kinds of financial fraud, among many others.

Cybersecurity and Data Privacy: Hecker Fink lawyers have wide-ranging experience helping companies and executives navigate complex challenges involving cybersecurity, data privacy, and related regulatory compliance.

FCPA and Anti-Corruption: Hecker Fink lawyers have significant expertise representing clients in which the FCPA and other anti-corruption issues arise – including in internal investigations, representing companies and individuals in government enforcement matters, and advising companies on anti-corruption compliance.

Employment, Discrimination, and Sexual Misconduct: The firm has substantial experience representing organizations in sensitive employment and discrimination matters, including with respect to Title VII and Title IX claims and independent contractor and Fair Labor Standards Act classification. Hecker Fink has particular expertise representing top academic institutions in their most important Title VII and Title IX matters.

Investigations and Crisis Management: Hecker Fink helps its clients navigate every aspect of sensitive internal investigations: conducting the investigation, developing internal and external communications strategies, advising on public disclosures, and reviewing and revamping compliance structures.

Regulatory and Securities Matters and Litigation: The firm has represented some of the nation’s leading financial institutions and commercial businesses in regulatory proceedings, including securities enforcement proceedings and anti-money laundering investigations, helping clients navigate the ongoing challenges to relationships with regulators, investors, and shareholders that these proceedings can cause.

Public Interest Litigation: Hecker Fink takes on some of the most pressing and groundbreaking public interest litigation in the country.

Appellate Litigation: The firm’s appellate practice spans all areas of its work. Hecker Fink team of lawyers, which includes three former Supreme Court clerks, have litigated cases in all levels of state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Updated Oct 2024

Firm overview

Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna LLP, which opened its doors in New York in January 2021, is built on the reputations and experience of nationally recognized lawyers who have worked together and represented policyholders as a unified team for more than 20 years, recovering billions of dollars for their clients and securing landmark judicial rulings. The group has earned a national reputation as fierce advocates for policyholders in high-profile, high-dollar disputes against insurance companies. The team—which has tripled in size since the firm’s founding—represents a client base of Fortune 500 companies, hedge funds, and private equity firms.

Many of those recoveries have come in closely watched cases, including a first-of-its-kind appellate decision on flood limit clauses that allowed New Jersey Transit to access $400 million in coverage after Superstorm Sandy. For a pump manufacturer, the firm won a precedent-setting $500 million ruling over insurance coverage for asbestos liabilities. And on issues at the frontier of insurance law, the firm has won multiple significant rulings—dealing with, for instance, damage from email spoofing under computer crime policies and a first-impression test of insurance coverage for SPACs. The firm has also earned a reputation for gaining precedent-setting rulings and shifting the landscape of D&O and E&O coverage in favor of policyholders.

Additional precedent-setting wins in recent high-profile disputes include:

• A rare jury verdict reversal for Conduent State Healthcare in its pursuit of insurance coverage from AIG and other insurers for defense costs relating to a $236 million Medicaid fraud settlement. It was the first jury verdict that Delaware Superior Court Judge Mary Johnston reversed in her nearly 20 years on the bench.
• A series of significant victories for Walmart in a lawsuit against nearly 40 insurance carriers related to coverage for hundreds of millions of dollars in defense costs incurred in defending against thousands of lawsuits arising out of the sale and distribution of opioids and related settlements totaling more than $3 billion. The team recently defeated efforts by dozens of Walmart’s insurers to dismiss their Arkansas action and earned a precedent-setting ruling establishing Walmart’s right to coverage for defense costs incurred in opioid lawsuits.
• A Delaware court ruling that directors and officers of Clover Health Investments Corp. count as “insured persons” under a D&O policy issued to Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp., a SPAC that took Clover Health public. In one of the first decisions addressing coverage for a SPAC, the court ruled that the SPAC’s D&O insurers must pay defense costs for not only the SPAC itself, but also for its future officers and directors.
• A favorable decision for Paramount Global (f/k/a Viacom Inc.), finding that Viacom’s insurers cannot rely on a bump-up exclusion to avoid covering the $122.5 million settlement that had resolved Viacom shareholders’ lawsuit over the company’s merger with CBS.
• A win for Crystal Windows & Doors Ltd. in a dispute over coverage owed for alleged construction defects that allegedly caused over $20 million in damages. The New York Supreme Court dismissed the insurer’s action seeking to resolve its indemnity obligation as premature and, in a precedent-setting ruling, held that the insurer’s acknowledged duty to defend also required the insurer to pay the insured’s costs in defending against the coverage action.

With decades of insurance recovery and advisory experience, Cohen Ziffer also assists clients with their insurance counseling needs, guiding organizations through complex insurance issues and advising on the insurance coverage that is right for them. The firm’s attorneys work with clients and their insurance brokers to identify the most likely liability risks and to review their insurance policies and advise on whether they are likely to cover those risks. When incidents do occur, they also guide their clients through the insurance claims process.

The firm’s commercial litigators are first-rate trial lawyers who also have experience tackling a host of complex commercial insurance disputes on behalf of organizations across the country, and have handled a spectrum of very large, complex, high-stakes, and cutting-edge cases. The team litigates these high-stakes coverage suits in a variety of state and federal courts and tribunals and jurisdictions around the world, and represents organizations in a diverse array of economic sectors, including financial services, manufacturing, professional services, and real estate.

Practice Areas:

• Insurance Recovery
• Insurance Advisory Services
• Commercial Litigation

Updated Aug 2024

Firm overview

A&O Shearman distinguishes itself by harnessing the intellectual strength and deep experience of its lawyers across its extensive global footprint. The firm represents many of the world’s leading corporations, financial institutions, emerging growth companies, governments, and state-owned enterprises. Those clients, in turn, continue to choose A&O Shearman for its ability to leverage the knowledge and judgment of one of the world’s largest and most accomplished cross-border legal teams—a team ideally situated to help clients on their complex business transactions.

Our lawyers have vast experience litigating, arbitrating, investigating, and resolving disputes across multiple jurisdictions. We have the depth of experience and breadth of knowledge to assist in any significant dispute, having served as counsel in high-stakes, complex cases for some of the world’s most recognizable companies. We focus on meeting our clients’ goals, whether litigating a matter through trial and appeal or negotiating a business resolution. We understand our clients’ immediate and long-term needs and consistently deliver successful results.

In an increasingly volatile world, our understanding of the different legal and political landscapes in which our clients operate drives our approach to dispute resolution. We provide our clients with sophisticated risk-management counsel, and trial-tested teams with a track record of success, who are ready to litigate aggressively to defend our clients’ interests at all costs.

A&O Shearman has experience in a wide range of substantive areas including:

Securities Litigation:
Our securities litigation practice is a core component of our market-leading litigation group. With a deep bench of attorneys focusing on this area of law, we are ready to handle any securities dispute. Through years of success, we have become the go-to counsel for numerous public companies and financial institutions, as well as their officers and directors. We recognize that every securities matter is also a business matter. Each case can potentially pose a significant threat, and – if not handled with the appropriate care and sensitivity – can cause major reputational and financial risks.

White Collar Defense and Global Investigations:
Our preeminent white-collar defense and global investigations practice takes a holistic, coordinated approach to navigating our clients through criminal, regulatory and internal investigations. We have both local depth and global reach, and the majority of our work is cross-border. We bring a deep understanding of the laws of different jurisdictions and investigation practices across the globe, bolstered by the experience and insights from the more than 20 former prosecutors and regulators on our team.

Antitrust Litigation:
Our global antitrust team advises corporates, private equity and financial institutions on their most significant transactions, investigations, and litigation. The breadth and scale of our U.S., U.K., and EU practice together with our global network and industry knowledge makes us uniquely placed to advise on complex multijurisdictional matters involving parallel proceedings and inter-agency co-operation.

M&A Litigation:
We have unparalleled expertise in representing major international companies, investment banks, private equity firms, boards of directors, special committees, and other parties involved in high-stakes transactional litigation. We advise on all aspects of M&A disputes, from pre-deal due diligence, risk assessment and mitigation to post-closing claims and remedies, and shareholder disputes. Our deep expertise in M&A litigation across the globe, including in the Delaware Court of Chancery and state and federal courts across the U.S., distinguishes us in the market.

Complex Commercial Litigation:
We have represented corporations, partnerships, joint ventures, and other entities in a variety of business-related disputes relating to breach of contract, fraud, professional malpractice, business torts, and insurance and reinsurance matters.

Intellectual Property Litigation:
We represent the world’s leading businesses, helping them to invest in and protect their critical intellectual property as well as defending them when plaintiffs allege that they have violated intellectual property rights. Whether developing, acquiring, registering, licensing, or enforcing IP rights – or defending against alleged IP violations – we help our clients to navigate the legal and commercial challenges they face globally.

Employment Litigation:
We handle disputes arising from terminations, team moves, whistleblowing, and trade-restraint matters, as well as allegations of misconduct, discrimination and harassment. We have a track record of delivering successful outcomes whether via obtaining or defending injunctions, resolving claims through mediation or arbitration, or litigating in court or before employment tribunals.

Cybersecurity:
We help multinational organizations identify, mitigate, and manage cyber threats. We work with our clients to build their operational resilience and cyber-readiness with robust, tailored compliance programs and governance processes, which address both their own risks and those posed by their supply chain partners.

Arbitration:
We have decades of experience advising and representing clients in complex cross-border commercial arbitrations and investor-state disputes under the rules of all the leading institutions. We are known for our skill in arbitration-related court proceedings - including multijurisdictional enforcement strategies - ensuring we can take cases from inception to their ultimate conclusion. We also regularly advise on complex issues of public international law.

Updated July 2024