New York

Firm overview

Founded in 1920, Akerman is recognized as one of the country’s premier law firms, with more than 700 lawyers in 25 offices throughout the United States..

Commercial Litigation: Akerman offers a leading trial team that includes litigators across the United States. We represent a diverse range of clients across numerous sectors, with particular strength in the financial services, private equity, insurance, real estate, construction, health and life sciences, and energy sectors. Akerman lawyers regularly appear before judges and arbitrators in class actions, securities, white-collar, fraud and recovery, product liability, intellectual property, employment, bankruptcy, and general business matters.

Appellate: With a bench that includes many former appellate and trial court judges, Akerman’s appellate practice is a national powerhouse with demonstrated success in handling appeals related to complex commercial litigation. Akerman's appellate team frequently assist trial lawyers during all phases of litigation, preserving errors for appeal, drafting motions and responses, and providing strategic advice on the best approach for seeking relief on appeal. They handle numerous matters before appellate courts nationwide in various commercial cases and class actions. We also have experience in administrative appeals involving high profile issues before state agencies. Additionally, Akerman's appellate lawyers represent industry associations as amicus curiae in appellate proceedings when our clients are not a party to an appeal but have a substantial interest in the outcome.

International Litigation & Arbitration: Akerman has a long record of accomplishment in resolving complex multijurisdictional disputes. Our team represents multinational, foreign, and domestic corporations and individuals before U.S. federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings before a wide range of international arbitral bodies in multiple jurisdictions. Akerman litigators help clients successfully address conflicts in a broad range of sectors, including general commercial disputes, power and energy, construction and engineering, and banking and finance, among many others. Our highly responsive, multilingual team works in tandem with experienced local counsel to provide seamless resolution to disputes throughout Latin America, as well as in Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East.

Employment Litigation: Akerman’s national, multidisciplinary team helps clients navigate claims brought before state and federal agencies and boards as well as trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. Our lawyers regularly defend employers in all types of employment litigation, including complex class-action discrimination cases and collective action wage and hour matters. We also represent employers in connection with administrative charges and audits, and have successfully negotiated and supervised numerous settlements with the U.S. Department of Labor.

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

WilmerHale is a leading, full-service international law firm with more than 1,100 lawyers located throughout 13 offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. Our lawyers work at the intersection of government, technology and business, and we remain committed to our guiding principles of:

• providing quality, world-class legal and client services;
• developing diversity among our lawyers and staff;
• fostering an environment that promotes an entrepreneurial spirit, collaboration and collegiality by drawing on the exceptional talents and varied experience of our lawyers;
• encouraging lawyers and staff to perform public service and give back to the community through pro bono work, government service, service to the bar, teaching, and supporting public institutions and charitable organizations; and
• hiring and retaining exceptionally talented lawyers who possess the common trait of outstanding academic and personal achievements.

Litigation & Trial:

Our lawyers have played an integral role in many of the most significant cases across the globe over the past several years, including internal and governmental investigations; patent, copyright and trademark cases; regulatory, government and public policy disputes; securities class action lawsuits; and federal and state appellate cases. Clients rely on our strong understanding of their industries and business goals, pragmatic and clear advice—even in the midst of complicated issues, complex legal and regulatory regimes, and high-stakes decisions—and ability to deliver practical solutions to realworld problems. Our cases and achievements cut across the litigation spectrum, and we have experience across industries, including aviation; bankruptcy and commercial; communications; defense and national security; government contracts; energy, environment and natural resources; financial institutions; labor and employment; technology; and trade.

WilmerHale’s elite lineup of intensely smart, battle-tested litigators can face down any adversary in the courtroom and win. We combine a mastery of proven trial techniques with the intellectual depth to tackle the most novel and complex legal challenges. A client may face an intractable issue that requires pushing the law into new territory. A verdict may turn on the ability to make the most arcane technology compelling to a judge or jury. An individual company officer may need a winning defense in a first-of-its-kind prosecution. In trial after landmark trial, our gift for strategy and our ability to draw cogent themes and narratives from even the most impenetrable facts and points of law have won us countless victories. And the way we win has brought us the respect of judges, juries, clients and competitors across the United States and internationally.

Related Solutions:

• Antitrust Litigation
• Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation
• Class Actions
• Commercial Litigation
• Construction and Infrastructure
• Consumer Protection Defense and Compliance
• Environmental Litigation and Mass Torts
• Government and Regulatory Litigation
• Intellectual Property Litigation
• International Arbitration
• International Litigation
• Investigations
• Native American Law
• Securities Litigation
• State Attorneys General
• Trials
• White Collar Defense and Investigations
• WilmerHale Discovery Solutions

Locations:

• Beijing
• Berlin
• Boston
• Brussels
• Dayton
• Denver
• Frankfurt
• London
• Los Angeles
• New York
• Palo Alto
• San Francisco
• Washington DC

Please visit our website at wilmerhale.com to learn more about the firm.

Updated Sep 2024

Firm overview

Milbank LLP is a leading international law firm with over 900 lawyers providing innovative legal solutions for more than 150 years across multiple disciplines and practice areas. We are headquartered in New York and have offices in London, Frankfurt, Munich, Hong Kong, Singapore, São Paulo, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

Our litigators handle a broad range of litigation, arbitration, regulatory matters, and investigations for sophisticated entities. We are known for deploying teams of exceptional lawyers supported by the latest litigation technology to deliver best-in-class service and strategic, innovative, cost-effective, and practical legal advice to clients. Our attorneys thrive on complex, challenging and “bet the company” cases.

They represent clients in a wide range of areas, including:

Antitrust: Milbank’s global antitrust team advises on the full spectrum of antitrust issues in the US, EU, and other significant antitrust jurisdictions throughout the world. Our antitrust litigators regularly handle multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil investigations and follow-on private litigation asserting antitrust price-fixing conspiracy, monopolization/abuse of dominance and market manipulation claims. Our attorneys have held senior positions at US federal agencies and regularly provide counseling to clients in these and other industries on a wide variety of antitrust topics.

Bankruptcy and Restructuring: Milbank is a global industry leader for creditor representations. We regularly represent official and ad hoc committees, individual creditors, companies, investors, boards, underwriters, and other parties in interest in corporate and restructuring transactions throughout the world. Milbank has successfully represented official and ad hoc creditor committees (often composed of members with divergent interests) in many of the largest and most high-profile restructurings over the past two decades.

General Commercial: Milbank is highly diversified in its complex commercial litigation practice, with matters including breaches of contract; business torts such as fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with contract, tortious interference with prospective business relations; and regulatory matters involving state and federal statutory law.

Intellectual Property: Milbank’s New York team provides comprehensive and sophisticated IP services to the world’s leading businesses. In addition to litigation, Milbank provides pre-litigation counselling, cutting-edge finance and transactional IP representation (including restructurings), and assistance with alternative dispute resolution and settlement negotiations. Milbank’s IP lawyers have extensive experience in both the “tech” and life sciences sectors.

International Arbitration: Our lawyers act as counsel and arbitrators in international arbitrations under all of the major international arbitration rules and before all major arbitral institutions. We also handle subsequent or ancillary litigation that may arise in different jurisdictions, including in connection with efforts to confirm, vacate, correct and/or clarify arbitral awards.

Securities: Milbank has one of the leading securities litigation practices in the United States, representing clients in some of the most influential, high-stakes, and high-profile cases ever brought under federal and state securities laws. Our securities litigators are backed by one of the nation’s leading white-collar crime and SEC enforcement teams driven by partners who are former Assistant US Attorneys from the Southern District of New York and elsewhere, as well as the former co-director of enforcement at the SEC. Our team has served as lead counsel in some of the largest and highest-profile securities litigation matters in the world.

White-Collar and Government Investigations: Milbank’s White-Collar Defense and Investigations lawyers, many of whom are former federal prosecutors and SEC attorneys, combine substantial government experience with in-depth knowledge of the legal landscape applicable to the financial services industry and corporate clients, and a strong grasp of criminal and regulatory enforcement issues faced by companies across many industries and jurisdictions. Milbank represents institutions and individuals in some of the most high-profile and complex investigations or prosecutions by law enforcement authorities, both in the United States and internationally.

Updated Sep 2024