New York

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

Boies Schiller Flexner is a firm of internationally acclaimed trial lawyers, crisis managers, and strategic advisers, known for its creative, aggressive, and efficient pursuit of successful outcomes for clients. The firm has a proven history of handling and winning complex, groundbreaking, and cross-border matters across various industries. Whether tackling thorny, high stakes-matters or straightforward business disputes, the Boies Schiller Flexner team excels at identifying the strongest arguments, understanding their value, and determining when and how to deploy them in a case.

Boies Schiller Flexner attorneys use the law as a strategic tool to maximize value and mitigate risk, approaching every case as if it’s bound for trial, relentlessly and methodically developing the factual record from the outset to position clients for success in or out of the courtroom.

The firm builds deep, long-standing relationships with clients, enabling it to provide guidance on any matter, in any forum, whether representing them as plaintiffs or defendants. Clients benefit from its extensive experience with trials before juries and judges and in international arbitration proceedings worldwide.

With offices located across the United States and in London and Italy, Boies Schiller Flexner operates as a unified firm, offering a seamless approach to building the most skillful and cost-effective team for every matter.

Practice Areas: 

• Aerospace and Satellite 
• Antitrust and Competition 
• Appellate 
• Asset Recovery and Judgment Enforcement 
• Class Actions, Opt-Outs, and Multidistrict Litigation 
• Commercial Disputes 
• Constitutional Law 
• Corporate, Ethical, and ESG Compliance 
• Creditor Rights, Bankruptcy and Restructuring 
• Crisis Management 
• Data Privacy and Cybersecurity 
• Elections and Political Disputes 
• Energy Law 
• Sports and Gaming 
• Environmental Law 
• False Claims Act/Qui Tam 
• Financial Institutions and Private Equity 
• Global Investigations and White Collar Defense 
• Government Litigation 
• Insurance Disputes 
• International Arbitration 
• Intellectual Property Litigation 
• Life Sciences and Health Care 
• Matrimonial and Family Law
• Media and First Amendment
• Partnership and Employment Disputes
• Professional Malpractice
• Products Liability
• Real Estate Disputes
• Securities and Financial Products Litigation
• Technology 

Updated Sep 2024

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

Elsberg Baker & Maruri is an elite commercial trial, litigation, and arbitration firm comprised of some of the nation’s top trial lawyers. We are consistently on the cutting edge of major commercial litigation and have acted as trial counsel in some of the most important and precedent-setting business trials and arbitrations, including matters arising from multibillion-dollar disputes involving busted M&A deals, corporate governance, complex contracts, energy, investment funds, violation of investment guidelines, computer hardware and software, breach of fiduciary duties, bond indentures, securities, fraudulent transfers, insolvency and major bankruptcy proceedings, and more. We are dedicated to achieving success for our clients and servicing their needs whenever and however they arise. We take pride in developing bold and creative strategies and relentlessly pursuing victory at all stages of the case.

EBM’s partners have won complete trial and arbitration victories on behalf of our clients in bet-the-company cases where the client’s survival was at stake. Our deep trial experience in such cases means our partners are called on not only to handle such cases from the outset—but also to come in shortly before trial. We have developed a process to work collegially and efficiently with existing counsel, and when appropriate, leverage our relationships with leading jury consultants to test key theories and trial presentation strategies. Some examples of our many trial and arbitration victories include:

• Won complete dismissal of all counts in a lawsuit against Sol Goldman Investments, LLC (“SGI”). The plaintiffs, who hold interests in SGI, sought to sell interests back to the company based on a valuation determined by a contractually mandated appraisal process. Unhappy with the $1.8 billion value ascribed to the company, the plaintiffs sued claiming SGI breached its own operating agreement. The Commercial Division of the New York Supreme Court granted SGI’s motion to dismiss, rejecting the plaintiffs’ argument that the company must be bound by its own operating agreement even though the company was not a signatory to it.
• Won complete defense jury verdict for Express Scripts against claims brought by New York City Transit Authority, claiming Express Scripts did not properly address “fraudulent, abusive or excessive” claims for compound drugs and seeking $100 million in damages. After an eight-day trial in the SDNY, the jury awarded $0.
• Won trial victory after one-week bench trial in Delaware Court of Chancery in the first COVID-era busted deal case in which the client sought to walk away from a $6 billion deal. In addition to being released from deal, client obtained full recovery of its $600 million+ deposit and was awarded its full attorneys’ fees and costs. Affirmed on appeal by the Delaware Supreme Court in an opinion setting the precedent on ordinary course covenants in deal documents.
• Won trial victory in the Delaware Court of Chancery in KCake v. Snow Phipps, a busted-deal case in which private equity buyer Kohlberg & Co. sought to terminate its $600 million agreement to purchase a cake decorating business from private equity seller Snow Phipps. Following a nine-day trial, the Court compelled Kohlberg & Co. to close the deal despite the lapse of its financing, ruling that Kohlberg had caused the failure of its financing and could not use that basis to excuse it from closing. This precedent-setting case established new law on the prevention doctrine.
• Won trial victory after a one-week trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery on behalf of Athilon Capital Corp. and its board of directors in Quadrant v. Vertin defeating breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and fraudulent transfer claims which sought hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, as well as a court order that would have forced the client to liquidate its assets and close down the business entirely. The Court issued a post-trial decision that denied all the relief Quadrant requested and permitted Athilon to continue executing the long-term business strategy that Quadrant challenged at trial. The press described this trial victory as a “resounding win” in a “literal bet-the-company case” that set precedent concerning the test for insolvency under Delaware law and that was affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court.
• Won trial victory after a six-day trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery on behalf of Crestview Partners against billionaire William Koch, defeating fiduciary duty claims and enforcing Crestview’s contractual put and exit-sale rights in connection with Crestview’s investment in Oxbow Carbon.
• Won trial victory in NY State court on behalf of American industrialist Len Blavatnik on his claims that JPMorgan violated its obligations under agreed-upon investment guidelines by misclassifying securities backed by risky subprime loans as “asset-backed” rather than “mortgage-backed” securities.
• Won arbitration victory on behalf of Rosen Capital on its claims against Bank of America/Merrill Lynch which wrongfully prevented Rosen Capital from executing its options volatility trading strategy. It was one of the largest investor awards on record.

Updated Sep 2024