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We are 800+ lawyers serving clients from 12 offices located in the leading financial and business centers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The world’s leading organizations, companies and corporations choose us to be their representatives in their most critical situations. But more, they consider Proskauer a strategic partner to drive their business forward. We work with asset managers, major sports leagues, Fortune 500 companies, entertainment industry legends and other industry-redefining companies.
Proskauer’s Litigation Department wins make-or-break cases, changes laws and establishes precedents. Our litigators cover the full spectrum of complex commercial litigation practice areas, including: antitrust, asset management, bankruptcy, copyright, false advertising, insurance recovery, patent, privacy and cybersecurity, products liability, real estate, international arbitration, securities, sports, trademark and white collar. We are also known for our appellate practice, which handles appeals in federal and state court, and advises on trial issues.
Proskauer’s 150+ litigators have built a track record of success both inside and outside the courtroom. We pride ourselves on being trial lawyers, and we have extensive experience trying cases before juries, judges and arbitral tribunals throughout the U.S. and abroad. Where appropriate, we embrace alternative dispute resolution and have achieved significant success resolving challenging matters for our clients.
Our lawyers include former senior government officials and prosecutors with formidable trial and regulatory experience. Our litigators have served as the U.S. Attorneys for New Jersey and the Southern District of Illinois; chiefs and deputy chiefs of divisions of U.S. Attorney’s offices in New York and the District of Columbia; General Counsel of the SEC; New York Deputy Attorney General; the Corporation Counsel of the City of New York; and clerks for justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Our litigators have consistently earned top rankings from Chambers and The Legal 500, U.S. News Best Lawyers, Daily Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal and The American Lawyer. The Firm was also noted in the New York Law Journal as a General Litigation Finalist for Litigation Department of the Year.
Select recent representations include:
Lead outside counsel to the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico. The Oversight Board was created under PROMESA, a federal statute enacted in 2016, to oversee the restructuring of Puerto Rico’s finances. The Oversight Board represents the Commonwealth and related public entities in the largest ever municipal restructuring in the United States. Puerto Rico had approximately $74 billion of bond debt and $55 billion of underfunded public pension liabilities. The litigations surrounding Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis, pending in the District of Puerto Rico, likely represent the single most active docket in the federal courts over the last six years. This is the first territorial debt restructuring in the history of the United States, which put an end to its bankruptcy, while cutting billions in debt and fixing a broken pension system.
Secured a decisive victory for Gilead Sciences in a $3.6 billion antitrust case on allegations that the pharmaceutical company struck an anticompetitive “pay-for-delay” patent settlement related to two HIV medications. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California delivered a full defense verdict following a six-week trial. The verdict affirms that a 2014 patent settlement between Gilead and Teva did not violate antitrust law and was not a reverse payment.
Lead counsel to Miramax in a groundbreaking lawsuit against director Quentin Tarantino, involving allegations of intellectual property infringement and breach of contract related to the offering of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the film Pulp Fiction. The team achieved a pioneering copyright settlement, marking the first of its kind involving NFTs.
Lead trial counsel for Gilead Sciences in various California state and federal product liability actions brought by ~17,000 plaintiffs related to Gilead’s HIV prevention and treatment drugs. The cases allege that Gilead drugs were defectively designed and failed adequately to warn about the increased risk of potential kidney disease and bone injury that could result from use of its highly effective and FDA-approved HIV medications.
Lead counsel for the National Football League in actions filed by apparel distributors and NFL merchandise purchasers in federal court in New York alleging that the NFL’s agreements with Fanatics, Inc., a manufacturer, supplier and distributor of licensed sportswear and merchandise, violate state and federal antitrust laws.
Defense of Major League Soccer against a federal lawsuit brought by the North American Soccer League against MLS and the US Soccer Federation following US Soccer’s decision not to sanction NASL as a Division II professional league for the 2018 season. NASL alleges that MLS and U.S. Soccer are engaged in an antitrust conspiracy to ensure that MLS is the sole Division I soccer league in the United States, and further alleges that MLS is an illegal monopoly in violation of the Sherman Act.
Complete victory at summary judgment on behalf of Wayne Farms in the broiler chicken litigation, one of the largest U.S. antitrust cases after seven years of litigation. The plaintiffs alleged that the top 21 chicken producers in the U.S. unlawfully agreed to work together to reduce the supply of chicken over a 10-year period as part of a two-hub conspiracy. The court granted summary judgment in favor of Wayne Farms and 6 other defendants, and also granted our motion to eliminate two of the three hubs of the conspiracy alleged by the plaintiffs.
Secured a significant victory for Shamrock Capital Advisors, in a high-profile case brought by founders and other minority shareholders of bookmaker and fantasy sports provider, FanDuel, a portfolio company of Shamrock. FanDuel’s founders and other minority shareholders alleged breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting and unjust enrichment claims against Shamrock, a preferred shareholder in FanDuel, and other defendants. In a $1 billion lawsuit, the founders and early employees of FanDuel claimed that certain directors undervalued the company during its merger with European sportsbook Paddy Power Betfair.
Representation of ATP Tour and WTA Tour on a myriad of issues, including:
Updated Sep 2023
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (“Robbins Geller” or the “Firm”) is a limited liability partnership with nine offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville and Boca Raton.
The firm has obtained the largest securities class action recovery in six of the nation’s federal circuits and has shaped the law in the area of securities litigation and shareholder rights. The firm has tried more shareholder class actions and served as sole lead counsel in more major securities class actions than any other firm. Robbins Geller has been ranked as one of the top law firms in the world in both amount recovered for shareholders and total number of class action settlements in every annual ISS Securities Class Action Services Top 50 Report published since 2010. ISS reports that Robbins Geller has settled over 250 federal securities class action cases during that time (more than any other law firm in any jurisdiction) and has overseen the distribution of settlement proceeds of nearly $14 billion to class members (more than any other law firm in the world). On March 23, 2021, the latest SCAS Top 50 Report ranked Robbins Geller first for recovering $1.6 billion for investors in 2020 – more than double the amount recovered by any other firm – noting that Robbins Geller was “the only plaintiff law firm to surpass the $1 billion threshold.”
Robbins Geller’s record of success includes some of the largest recoveries in history: the largest securities class action recovery (Enron – over $7.2 billion); the largest securities class action recovery following a trial (HSBC Finance Corp.– $1.575 billion); the largest pharmaceutical securities class action settlement (Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Inc.– $1.21 billion); largest personal contributions by individual defendants in a securities class action recovery (American Realty Capital Properties, Inc.– $237.5 million of $1.025 billion total recovery); the largest stock option backdating recovery (UnitedHealth Group– $925 million); the largest securities fraud class action recovery in the last 20 years in the Ninth Circuit and the second-largest ever in that Circuit (Twitter, Inc. – $809.5 million pending approval); the largest opt-out (non-class) securities action recovery (WorldCom – $657 million); the largest privacy class action settlement (Facebook, Inc. – $650 million); the largest RMBS purchaser class action recovery (Countrywide – $500 million); and the largest merger and acquisition class action recovery (Kinder Morgan– $200 million).
Robbins Geller developed the first-of-its-kind portfolio monitoring service for institutional investors. The firm’s Portfolio Monitoring Program® is built upon a sophisticated, proprietary software platform that enables the firm to promptly alert its clients when losses have been suffered as a result of fraud or other securities law violations and ensure clients timely submit claims for shareholder recoveries. Robbins Geller’s Portfolio Monitoring Program® is performed entirely in-house by a team of two dozen highly trained and experienced attorneys, forensic accountants, economists, damages experts, paralegals, and e-discovery specialists, who monitor worldwide financial markets.
Updated Sep 2022
Willkie excels in high-stakes litigation, building a preeminent platform that is not only notable for the significance of its cases but the array of disputes and variety of its victories—a true hallmark of a litigation powerhouse.
Willkie’s litigators shine in virtually every type of dispute and venue globally – at the trial and appellate level in state and federal courts as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, before arbitration panels, in bet-the-company lawsuits and pro bono cases—clarifying key areas of law, upholding cardinal corporate protections, and vindicating threatened rights. Willkie has been on the front lines of the industry, leading a series of topical litigations arising from some of the most significant and publicized controversies of our time.
Our record underscores Willkie’s trial-ready strengths and demonstrates not only the outstanding advocacy of our litigators but also their ability to strategically achieve their clients’ objectives. Willkie has a distinctive ability to distil complex and contested issues in a compelling way, dissect opponents’ arguments, establish credibility, and execute at trial.
Results like those obtained by Willkie require firepower—intellectual heft, mastery of substantive law and persuasive advocacy—but they are only possible with a culture of collaboration and a commitment to excellence. The range of Willkie’s recent victories attests to the depth and versatility of our litigation department. Unlike other litigation powerhouses, Willkie runs lean, prioritizing the caliber of its attorneys over their number, the potency of its teams over sheer size. The firm trains its litigators to be generalists, giving associates meaningful roles and experience across the gamut of disputes.
Willkie also has a robust arbitration practice, regularly representing clients in both domestic and international arbitration proceedings. Willkie’s arbitration practice ensures continuity of the same high caliber of legal representation for the firm’s clients across the globe.
Complementing our existing robust litigation practice, our Chicago office, led by Craig C. Martin, Chairman, Midwest, brings a new Willkie destination for commercial and business legal matters of strategic, economic and reputational impact. Since opening in March 2020, the office has grown from a team of six partners to more than 60 diverse lawyers. Globally recognized as top-ranked practitioners and as trusted advisors, our attorneys are firmly committed to delivering outstanding client service and to engaging in civic involvement and pro bono work.
In addition, the litigators in Willkie’s Los Angeles office, launched in 2021, bring market-leading experience representing major companies, investors and individual clients in a range of disputes.
Updated Sep 2023
With more than 225 attorneys in seven major cities, Robins Kaplan LLP is among the nation’s premier trial law firms. Our attorneys litigate, mediate, and arbitrate client disputes, always at the ready for an ultimate courtroom battle. When huge forces are at play, major money is at stake, or rights are being trampled, we help clients cut through complexity, get to the heart of the problem, and win what matters most.
Our attorneys are experienced in a wide range of litigation. A few key areas in which we practice include:
Antitrust and Trade Regulation: The Antitrust and Trade Regulation group is one of few national practices to have obtained landmark successes on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in major antitrust litigation and at trial, including in several of the most significant antitrust cases ever litigated. With nearly $10 billion in recoveries for antitrust plaintiffs in the past several years alone and a long history of successfully defending Fortune 100 companies in antitrust disputes, Robins Kaplan regularly ranks as one of the top firms in the United States for antitrust litigation.
On the plaintiffs’ side, Robins Kaplan antitrust attorneys represent businesses and individuals in classes and direct actions in courts throughout the country, where we have achieved historic recoveries in some of the largest antitrust cases in U.S. history. Our lawyers secured the first settlement between a state and Big Tobacco using an antitrust theory, and our plaintiff successes have forced critical structural reforms in many other industries. As court-appointed co-lead counsel, we recently reached the largest settlement of a private antitrust action in the 130-year history of the Sherman Act in In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation.
Robins Kaplan antitrust attorneys also have a proven track record of successfully defending clients in high stakes antitrust cases and government investigations. Among our notable defenses, we successfully represented UnitedHealth Group and PacifiCare in an antitrust lawsuit alleging price-fixing and fraud related to prescription drug reimbursement, with claimed damages in excess of $1 billion.
Intellectual Property and Technology: The Intellectual Property and Technology Litigation group has a long history of extraordinary courtroom victories in high-stakes intellectual property and technology disputes. Our lawyers have led multiple enforcement campaigns on behalf of IP rights holders where recoveries in each exceeded $100 million. We are known for zealously representing and sharing risk with a broad range of clients, including some of the world’s largest technology-oriented companies, and innovative emerging companies, as well as individual inventors, authors, and developers.
Robins Kaplan’s attorneys represent clients across a full range of intellectual property matters, including patent litigation, strategic IP monetization, Hatch-Waxman litigation, trade secret litigation, copyright litigation, trademark litigation, and more. We have litigated and monetized technologies as diverse as software, microprocessor design, telecommunications equipment, drug and other therapeutic technologies, and imaging hardware. We have an established record of winning in federal and state courts, the International Trade Commission, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and both national and international arbitration forums.
Commercial Litigation: The commercial litigation attorneys are no strangers to high-stakes, mission-critical litigation. They know how to litigate and efficiently resolve cases with a view to the bottom line. Our clients include an enviable sampling of Fortune 500 companies along with multinationals, technology superstars (and iconoclasts), and mom-and-pop success stories. Agile across a wide range of business sectors, we have developed particular depth serving entertainment, financial, food and beverage, insurance, manufacturing, and retail industry members as well as a nationally recognized government and internal investigations practice.
Updated Sep 2023