New York

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

A National and International Litigation Practice: Wachtell Liption has represented clients in some of the world’s largest and most complex disputes, including domestic and cross-border deal litigation, corporate governance disputes, white collar and regulatory defense, commercial, securities and bankruptcy litigation, complex settlements, appeals, and arbitration. Our litigators have a long history of handling cutting-edge merger litigation, including many of the most significant takeover defense battles in history. We are called upon to play a central role in high stakes and high profile matters generally, including litigation related to the tragic events of 9/11, the recent financial crisis, and other litigations with fundamental consequences for our clients. We also assist our clients with sensitive internal and law enforcement investigations. In addition, our litigators engage in significant pro bono activity at both the trial and appellate court levels, write and speak in areas of expertise, and teach at the nation’s top law schools.

Our Approach to Litigation: A tight-knit group of approximately 75 lawyers, we approach each matter with intensity, thoroughness and creativity and build teams appropriate to the circumstances. We approach our clients’ legal issues within the larger framework of their strategic, business, and financial goals. We specialize in matters that require careful attention, tested experience, and a high degree of expertise. We handle litigation at all stages, from pre-suit counseling and investigations through trials and appeals. Engagements undertaken by the firmare at all times afforded the direct personal attention of partners possessing relevant expertise. Our approach is to achieve the best result for the client as quickly as possible. We regularly take cases to trial and win before judges, arbitrators and juries. But we also know when it makes sense to settle, and we have structured some of the largest and most complex litigation settlements to date.

Takeover and Merger Litigation: Wachtell Lipton is known for trendsetting takeover, transactional, and corporate governance litigation. We litigated the Revlon, Household, and other cases in the 1980s that set the doctrinal framework for all subsequent deal litigation. And we continue to lead in the area — year after year, the firm handles the most important corporate governance and takeover cases in the nation, from the seminal case Corwin v. KKR Financial, which recognized the merger ratification defense to the successful Airgas trial (in which the court reaffirmed the “poison pill” takeover defense against a generation of attack) to the successful Vulcan trial (in which the Firm secured an unprecedented order enjoining a hostile takeover bid) to the successful Sotheby’s defense of the company’s shareholder rights plan against an activist investor attack; to Allergan’s closely watched takeover battle with Valeant and Pershing Square, resulting in a groundbreaking preliminary injunction that set new federal precedent against unfair tactics in takeover bids, to Twitter’s successful litigation to compel Elon Musk to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the company. Other leading merger cases we have litigated include: Paramount Communications, Inc. v. Time, Inc.; Paramount Communications, Inc. v. QVC Network, Inc.; and IBP, Inc. v. Tyson Foods. Our litigators also have led the charge against appraisal arbitrage litigation, securing post-trial victories in the appraisals of Ancestry.com, SWS Group, PetSmart, and AOL. And we have been the thought leaders behind innovative corporate litigation developments in books-and-records suits and stockholder forum-selection bylaws.

Complex Commercial and Securities Litigation: Wachtell Lipton's approach to complex commercial and securities litigation also exemplifies our focus on fresh thinking and creative solutions and the fact that we are called upon to handle some of the nation’s biggest and most complex cases. We represented National Australia Bank in the landmark Morrison case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and SEC Rule 10b-5 apply only to purchases and sales of securities in the United States. The decision overturned 40 years of lower-court precedent and eradicated a burgeoning species of securities litigation along with billions of dollars in potential liability for foreign securities issuers. We successfully defended Goldman Sachs in Baker v. Goldman Sachs, a five-week jury trial in federal court in which co-founders and major shareholders of a speech-recognition software company, Dragon Systems, were challenging Goldman’s investment banking advice and seeking over half a billion dollars in damages. We helped Bank of America contain its mortgage exposures arising from the financial crisis, including by negotiating Bank of America’s landmark $8.5 billion settlement of claims involving more than 500 trusts for mortgage-backed securities issued by Countrywide and in resolving multibillion dollar claims arising from the foreclosure crisis with the federal government and 49 state attorneys general. Following the tragic events of 9/11, we were called upon to represent the leaseholder of the World Trade Center in two jury trials with its property insurers that ultimately helped it secure enough money to rebuild the site. And we continue to represent Philip Morris USA in arbitrations and litigation that have arisen under the landmark 1998 settlement between the major tobacco companies and 52 states and territories, after previously  structuring and negotiating this more than $200 billion settlement, and in 2022 successfully defended the company’s successor Altria in defense of the FTC’s effort to unwind Altria’s 2018 investment in JUUL as anticompetitive under the antitrust laws, where we achieved complete victory in the FTC’s own administrative court.

Bankruptcy and Restructuring Litigation: Wachtell Lipton has a long and successful record representing major parties in litigation relating to bankruptcy cases and other debt-related issues. We have represented major companies in the successful defense of actions brought by bankruptcy trustees and creditors. We represented JPMorgan Chase in: (1) the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, where the firm obtained summary judgment dismissing $8.6 billion of estate claims; (2) the Bernard Madoff liquidation, where the firm obtained dismissal of claims by the trustee seeking $18 billion in damages; and (3) the General Motors bankruptcy, where we successfully defended the bank at trial from fraudulent transfer claims seeking $1.5 billion. We represented Campbell Soup at trial and on appeal in defeating a fraudulent transfer challenge to the spin-off of Vlasic Pickles. On behalf of Education Management, the firm defeated an attempt to enjoin the company’s $1.5 billion restructuring and won a precedent-setting appeal from a judgment under the Trust Indenture Act. We have represented private equity firms, hedge funds, and other clients in significant contested matters arising in chapter 11 cases, including Toys “R” Us and Energy Future Holdings. We also represent companies in defending litigation and default claims by activist debtholders.

White-Collar and Regulatory Enforcement: Wachtell Lipton has a leading white-collar criminal and regulatory practice. We have represented major financial institutions and multinational corporations, as well as their boards of directors and senior executives, in a broad range of the most complex and typically high-profile white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, both nationally and internationally. In the past few years alone, our litigators have handled both U.S. and foreign governmental investigations focusing on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, criminal tax evasion, criminal transfer pricing, the False Claims Act, insider trading, securities fraud, accounting fraud, criminal antitrust, crypto regulation, and export control violations. In addition, we regularly represent boards, audit committees, and special committees charged with conducting special investigations in response to whistleblowers or governmental inquiries.

Updated Sep 2023

Firm overview

Serving our clients' most sensitive litigation needs – white collar criminal defense, regulatory enforcement, commercial disputes, and securities litigation – since 1973.

For 50 years, Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC has been at the forefront of advising companies and individuals on complex white collar and regulatory matters and sophisticated business disputes. We are best known for our unparalleled trial experience.

Our practice includes the representation of individual and institutional clients in all phases of criminal and civil proceedings. Over the past several years we have tried numerous cases, including high profile white-collar matters in the federal and state courts, complex civil trials and arbitrations in New York and throughout the country, and criminal cases in which we served as appointed counsel for indigent defendants under the Criminal Justice Act. In addition to our trial practice, we regularly engage in pre-indictment advocacy and pre-trial negotiations and handle appeals of both criminal and civil matters. We also conduct sensitive internal investigations for our institutional clients, serve as independent counsel for boards of directors, and have represented such clients in related government investigations as well.

Our firm’s size promotes efficiencies and maximizes the service we provide to our clients. We are agile and able to quickly move the right talent to where specific expertise is needed. We are small enough to engage in a constant exchange of ideas and information, which permits the full breadth of the firm’s aggregate experience to be applied for the benefit of each client, and large enough to add lawyers at virtually any seniority level when the case warrants a larger team, or when the client so requests

Updated Oct 2025

Firm overview

Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight is a nationwide plaintiffs-side law firm that was founded in 2004 by David Sanford and Jeremy Heisler to litigate public interest and social justice cases that make a significant difference in society. In 2017, Kevin Sharp, a former Chief Judge of the United States District for the Middle District of Tennessee, joined the firm as its third named partner. In 2024, H. Vincent McKnight Jr., Co-Chair of the firm’s Whistleblower and Qui Tam Practice Group, became a fourth named partner.

David Sanford has served as lead counsel in more than 50 class actions and numerous significant qui tam fraud cases; he has represented over 100 general counsel, in-house counsel, and lawyers in claims against their law firms and companies. Over the course of his 43-year legal career, Jeremy Heisler has achieved notable success in employment, civil rights, and consumer class actions and complex multiparty and multistate litigation, producing hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to class members and individuals. Judge Sharp has nearly 30 years of experience litigating and/or presiding over complex civil litigation cases, qui tam and whistleblower matters, products liability claims, malpractice cases, class action matters, ERISA claims, and civil rights matters. H. Vincent McKnight Jr. is a leading voice on whistleblower law who has generated approximately $5 billion for the U.S. government and clients during the past ten years.

The firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Diego, and Nashville. The firm has recovered over a billion dollars for its clients, and continues to move the needle in high-profile, precedent-setting litigation not only by winning significant compensation, but also through achieving real change in companies and institutions to create a more equitable environment and enlightened management policies.

The firm is committed to helping and giving a voice to disadvantaged groups and individuals, assisting whistleblowers in litigating their claims, representing employees seeking relief from employers’ retirement fund mismanagement and abuses, and advocating for employees and executives in a wide range of employment disputes, including severance negotiations, wrongful termination, retaliation, wage and hour violations, sexual harassment, and gender, sexual orientation, race, national origin, and disability discrimination. The firm also promotes social and economic change by increasing media awareness and stimulating public dialogue.

The firm’s lawyers are successful in protecting plaintiffs’ rights in federal and state courts, in settlement negotiations, and in arbitrations nationwide. The firm has forged ahead, often against the odds, and achieved success against major technology firms, including Oracle, Western Digital, and Alaska Communication Systems; pharmaceutical giants like Merck, Novartis, Sanofi, and others; premier law firms in the United States such as Chadbourne & Parke (now Norton Rose Fulbright), Sedgwick, Morrison & Foerster, and Proskauer Rose; and top universities, including Dartmouth College, Harvard College, Columbia University, New York University, and the University of Arizona. The firm has waged and won lawsuits that have protected thousands of employees’ rights to have their 401(k) retirement plans appropriately managed as required by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”).

The firm has an active practice representing military sexual assault survivors in civil actions against the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. These cases seek to hold the U.S. military accountable for its longstanding failure to prevent and address sexual harassment and assault within its ranks. The firm currently represents, among others, more than 40 victims of a former Army doctor charged with sexually assaulting patients at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington; survivors of a decades-long cover-up of sexual misconduct at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut; a 17-year-old Marine recruit abused by her recruiter; and a civilian mariner allegedly raped by the captain of the Navy vessel USNS Carson City.

The firm excels at holding institutions accountable when they cause harm, consistently advocating for victims of discrimination, harassment, and sexual assault, including employees at Fortune 500 companies, attorneys in Big Law, and university faculty and students, and routinely pursues cases against institutions such as schools, daycares, and religious institutions that fail to keep children safe from sexual abuse.

Most firms would shy away from challenging the most powerful interests in society. Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight has taken on the largest corporations in the world and has succeeded.

Among the Firm’s Recent Notable Successes

ERISA 401 (k) CASES

UnitedHealthGroup
On June 13, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota granted final approval of a historic record-setting $69 million settlement in Snyder v. UnitedHealth Group on behalf of approximately 350,000 participants in the UnitedHealth Group 401(k) Savings Plan. Charles Field, David Sanford, and Leigh Anne St. Charles served as lead class counsel after filing suit in April 2021. The Complaint alleged UnitedHealth violated ERISA’s fiduciary duty of prudence by retaining the poorly performing Wells Fargo Target Fund Suite as the Plan’s default investment. The settlement is believed to be the largest recovery ever obtained in an ERISA case alleging failure to remove imprudent investment options.

In re: GE ERISA:  
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted final approval of a $61 million settlement in In re GE ERISA Litigation—the second largest recovery ever in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) case challenging a company’s use of proprietary investment funds. Originally filed in 2017 and litigated for nearly eight years, the case alleged that General Electric Company and its fiduciaries breached their duties of loyalty and prudence by exclusively offering underperforming, GE-managed investment options in the company’s retirement plan. Plaintiffs asserted that GE retained poorly performing in-house funds to bolster the assets and sale value of its wholly owned subsidiary, GE Asset Management (GEAM), which was ultimately sold to State Street for $485 million in 2016. The class argued that GE’s actions inflated GEAM’s value at the expense of employees’ retirement savings.

PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION

Crime Victims’ Rights Appeal
Since 2022, Firm Chairman David Sanford has represented the family of Hae Min Lee in their long fight for justice. After the Baltimore Circuit Court vacated Adnan Syed’s conviction without properly notifying the Lees, Sanford appealed on their behalf. In August 2024, the Maryland Supreme Court ruled in the family’s favor, affirming that crime victims have a right to notice, to be present, and to participate in key proceedings. The Court later commended Sanford and colleague Sharon Kim for their “extraordinary advocacy.” Their efforts not only reinstated Syed’s conviction but also prompted the State of Maryland to acknowledge that its original motion to vacate was based on “false and misleading statements.” For this landmark victory strengthening victims’ rights, Sanford received the Vincent Roper Memorial Award from the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy and the Roberta Roper Lifetime Achievement Award from the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center.

Clemency Granted to Leonard Peltier
Since 2019, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight Co-Vice Chairman Kevin Sharp led a nationwide push to secure presidential clemency for Leonard Peltier, a Native American civil rights activist wrongly convicted in federal court and sentenced to two consecutive life terms for aiding and abetting in the murder of two FBI agents at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975.

On February 18, 2025, Leonard Peltier returned home to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, in Belcourt, North Dakota, after being granted clemency the previous month by President Biden. Mr. Peltier entered prison at age 32 and was released at age 80—nearly 50 years of wrongful incarceration for the deaths of two FBI agents during a shootout in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Opioid Litigation
Since October 2018, Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight filed suit on behalf of the City of Martinsville, Virginia, against major opioid manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and pharmacy benefit managers for their roles in fueling the opioid epidemic that devastated the community. Unlike most opioid cases consolidated in federal multidistrict litigation, City of Martinsville v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., et al. has proceeded independently in state court following its remand to the Martinsville Circuit Court in October 2024. While the city has reached settlements with several defendants, its claims against pharmacy benefit managers OptumRx and Express Scripts continue, with the Fourth Circuit affirming the case’s return to state court in April 2025. Active litigation is ongoing, and trial is set for April 2027.

EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION

Robinson v. De Niro and Canal Productions
In 2023, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, a jury found Canal Productions liable for gender discrimination and retaliation and awarded our client, Graham Chase Robinson, $1.2 million. Ms. Robinson was Robert De Niro’s former longtime executive assistant. The jury also rejected Canal’s counterclaims of conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of the duty of loyalty.

United States Marshals Service
In 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) granted final approval of a $15 million settlement in a nearly 30-year-long race discrimination class action alleging that the United States Marshals Service (“USMS”) discriminated against African Americans in its promotions, recruitment, and hiring policies for Deputy U.S. Marshals positions. As part of the settlement, the USMS agreed to institute significant programmatic reforms to its hiring practices.

MILITARY SEXUAL ASSAULT

Webb, et al. v U.S. Coast Guard
On March 13, 2025, our firm filed seven new Federal Tort Claims Act complaints against the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Transportation on behalf of former and prospective Coast Guard Academy cadets who allege they were sexually assaulted while attending the Academy in New London, Connecticut. In total, the firm now represents 29 former cadets in these administrative claims, the first step toward filing federal lawsuits. As first reported by CNN, the Coast Guard intentionally withheld from Congress a report known as “Operation Fouled Anchor,” which exposed decades of widespread sexual assault and institutional failures to protect cadets.

Manning, et al. v. Department of the Army
The firm represents 42 plaintiffs with Federal Tort Claims Act complaints against the U.S. Department of the Army and Department of Defense who allege sexual abuse by former Army doctor Michael Stockin at Madigan Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord. In January 2025, Dr. Stockin pleaded guilty in a military court-martial to sexually abusing 36 male patients and indecently viewing five others, and he faces over 13 years in prison. The complaints allege the Army was negligent in hiring, supervising, and retaining Dr. Stockin, failed to implement adequate safety protocols, and knowingly allowed his abusive conduct to continue.

WHISTLEBLOWER/QUI TAM

In 2023, our firm and the U.S. government settled a whistleblower action under the False Claims Act (FCA) with International Vitamin Corporation (“IVC”), a leading importer of dietary supplements. As part of the settlement, IVC agreed to pay the U.S. government $22.865 million to resolve claims that it systematically skirted customs duties on thousands of imports of nutritional supplements from China between 2015 and 2019 by fraudulently reporting incorrect tariff classifications and duty rates on the imports. The Complaint also alleged that IVC knew that it had evaded more than $10 million in duties but failed to inform the government and pay the duties as required under applicable law.

Updated Oct 2025