United States (National)

Bartlit Beck is celebrated among peers for forging a template of what many aspire to; the firm’s name is one of the most frequently referenced by maverick litigators who calve off of larger “Big Law” institutions and forge their own shops. One peer declares, “They set the standard for litigation boutiques in the US. Most people setting up litigation shops owe at least some debt to Bartlit Beck, whether they know it or not.” Ironically, the runaway success that the firm has experienced with its business model has caused it to outgrow its “boutique” status; the firm now has more than 40 partners practicing in its offices in Chicago and Denver. “Yes, they’re like a boutique on steroids now,” sums up one peer. “The big difference between them and a boutique is that it’s not ‘eat-what-you-kill’ and it’s not just a ‘one-star’ system. They have the bench depth! They don’t need to take on all the cases to make a lot of money, they can just take the lead on two or three and just do a great job on them. That puts the client more at ease because they feel like they will get more attention.” Clients corroborate this observation. One commends the firm’s “exceptional strategic vision, incredible case management focused on the end goal, and creative and thoughtful legal analysis.” Another states, “Their team of professionals – both lawyers and other team members – is consistently extraordinary at doing hard work exceptionally well in a way that brings out the best of everyone with a highly functional team approach.”

     Few would argue that the firm’s most venerated figure remains Chicago trial icon Phil Beck, who boasts a decades-long series of appearances as lead counsel on precedent-setting cases in a wide variety of forums to his credit. Beck continues to deliver arguments in big cases and, indeed, was recently set to try a case for Gilead before the case settled. “Phil is still ‘the man,’” confirms one peer, elaborating, “but the firm has done great in alleviating the ‘what’s after Phil Beck?’ question. They have groomed powerhouse people from top to bottom.” Rebecca Bacon, another frequent mention in the Chicago office, who enjoys a whopping seventh consecutive appearance as one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation, was retained by FedEx Ground to serve as lead trial counsel in several actions in several states. Sean Gallagher has seen a pronounced spike in activity as of late. He is lead trial counsel for Pratt & Whitney in environmental tort cases involving more than $1 billion in alleged property damage and personal injury claims arising out of the declaration of a “cancer cluster” by the Florida Department of Health in a neighborhood near Pratt & Whitney’s West Palm Beach facility. More than 20 individuals who claim to have cancer as a result of environmental exposures brought personal injury claims, alleging water and soil contamination with radionuclides and other contaminants. Several hundred property owners sued individually and on behalf of a putative class of many thousands of plaintiffs. The first of these cases was otherwise set for trial in January 2022. Gallagher, along with Adam Hoeflich, is also lead counsel for several major institutional investors who collectively lost billions of dollars when the Structured Alpha hedge funds managed by Allianz Global Investors US collapsed in March 2020. The cases filed by the firm clients were settled on confidential terms. Hoeflich serves as national counsel for three DuPont entities in more than 2,000 cases pending across the country related to per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances. In these cases, plaintiffs allege that DuPont engaged in a series of corporate transactions to try to fraudulently transfer assets to avoid paying potential judgments. “I’m seeing more of Bartlit Beck these days and in particular Adam Hoeflich,” testifies a peer. “He’s a very talented guy, worth knowing. I’ve just become really aware of him but he’s been around for years. He does a lot of work for Citadel, who is one of the parties in the Robinhood cases.” Kaspar Stoffelmayr serves as lead and coordinating counsel and as lead trial counsel for Walgreens in all nationwide litigation relating to the distribution and sale of prescription opioids. He acted as lead trial counsel for Walgreens in a seven-week federal jury trial in one of only two such cases to go to a jury verdict. Stoffelmayr is also currently representing Walgreens at trial in Florida state court in a case brought by the Attorney General of Florida, and in federal court in the Northern District of California in a case brought by the City and County of San Francisco. Three other cases were set for trial later in 2022. Stoffelmayr also represents Bayer and Monsanto, which was acquired by Bayer in 2018, in thousands of cases pending in courts across the country alleging that Roundup herbicide causes cancer. The firm’s intellectual property prowess has been increasingly on display, and peers are taking notice. “Bartlit Beck is doing more patent litigation! We have a great deal of respect for their IP people.” Scott McBride is lead trial counsel defending Gilead Sciences against patent infringement allegations brought by the Regents of the University of Minnesota relating to Gilead’s sofosbuvir-containing treatments for hepatitis C.

     Based in the firm’s Denver office, newly listed star Sundeep “Rob” Addy (along with former partner Sean Grimsley, who left the firm for an in-house role) were appointed in September 2020 by the Colorado Attorney General as special assistant attorneys general to serve on the team conducting a “patterns and practices” investigation into the Aurora Police and Fire Departments. The Colorado Legislature authorized this investigation in 2020 after a series of high-profile reports of law enforcement misconduct – specifically, a pattern of racially biased policing. Addy is championed by a client who extols, “Rob is an exceptional writer, [a] versatile and creative lawyer, [and is] really great at making sure the whole team brings their strengths. He is also fun to work with and has a great sense of humor.”

Bradley is a long-time leader in the southeast of the country, with roughly half of its force dedicated to litigation. The firm’s headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama has the largest concentration of its litigators, trailed by its Jackson, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee offices. Bradley’s acclaimed product liability practice garnered it national recognition, and is still a prized practice, along with commercial and appellate litigation, which have risen to prominence as well.

     The firm has several lawyers who have mastered the art of handling mass torts and multidistrict litigation. Product liability expert David Hymer has been the co-lead counsel defending CVS Health in a series of opioid-epidemic lawsuits nationwide.  He has been leading the team on five bellwether cases related to the MDL proceeding pending in the Northern District of Ohio. Hymer's team is responsible for overseeing document production efforts across all cases. Lindsey Boney has recently been leading clients in the life sciences industry through multidistrict litigation. Boney and fellow expert in product liability cases Kim Martin were lead counsel to Wyeth (whose parent company is Pfizer) in a case alleging that it engaged in off-label promotion of its prescription medicine amiodarone. Boney led oral argument before the First District of the California Court of Appeal, which published an opinion of its affirmed dismissal.

     Martin, partner in the Huntsville office, and Birmingham partner Leigh Anne Hodge are both nationally recognized as product liability authorities. Along with Jackson, Mississippi partners Will Manuel and Margaret Cupples, they lead the teams in the high-profile 3M multidistrict litigation regarding its allegedly defective earplugs. Manuel and Cupples are leading teams in the MDL consolidated in the Northern District of Florida, where they have been handling depositions and discovery. Cupples serves as national writing counsel for the team. Martin and Hodge have been leading the Case Specific Expert Team, which has been supervising a team of more than 20 of the firm’s lawyers to handle expert reports and depositions, including coordinating with ENT experts for plaintiffs across the 121 cases the team is responsible for handling in Waves 1 and 2. Martin, Hodge, and Manuel specialize in other areas in addition to product liability. Martin’s practice also includes white-collar crime and False Claims Act litigation, in which she recently obtained a dismissal in a case. Hodge serves as the firm’s co-chair of the litigation group and has developed expertise in handling matters on behalf of the healthcare industry. She recently handled a number of cases on behalf of Fresenius, litigating an array of matters from product liability mass tort to medical malpractice lawsuits. She is additionally lead on ERISA [DJ1] cases, currently handling a case on behalf of MetLife. Manuel represents an accounting firm, Horne, in a bankruptcy-related case alleging professional liability claims after farmers sold grain to the now-insolvent grain dealer Express Grain Terminals (EGT). Owing to EGT’s bankruptcy, declared after the sale, the farmers were not paid or were drastically underpaid and have since filed lawsuits against the client and the company’s bank.

     Birmingham partner Anne Marie Seibel has maintained a nationwide practice that involves class actions and multi-plaintiff commercial disputes. As of late, she has been defending Priceline against lawsuits challenging the tax services provided by online travel companies like Priceline. After the pandemic, two cases were filed, framed as False Claims Act lawsuits. Seibel removed one to federal court, and one remains in state court, involving issues of first impression for the Nevada False Claims Act. Seibel secured a summary judgment ruling in the federal court case.

Cahill Gordon & Reindel remains a favorite with its stable of loyal long-time clients, which include global cornerstones of the financial industry, as well as embattled individuals who turn to Cahill practitioners for counsel but probably hope to never see the firm (or any litigator) again. One of Cahill’s clients voices appreciation for the “comprehensive advice, with excellent strategic game plan” that the firm has become known for. Cahill is best known for its concentration in the commercial, securities, antitrust and white-collar crime capacities.
     Operating from both the firm’s New York flagship as well as its DC location, Brad Bondi has become known as a trusted advocate for white-collar and securities enforcement matters. Bondi leads a team that is representing five large hospital funds as plaintiffs in connection with potential claims against Allianz Global Investors arising from the catastrophic implosion of Allianz’s Structured Alpha investment products. The allegations concern violation of federal securities laws and state common law claims. Total losses claimed exceed $10 billion. Bondi also represents former a KPMG senior partner and executive who is charged, along with four others, in a high-profile case with wire fraud and other offenses relating to the misappropriation by the defendants of confidential inspection information from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. “Over the years I have some to know Brad well and have trusted him on several important projects,” testifies a peer. Bondi is not the only partner in this group earning acclaim; Nola Heller represents a former asset manager who is charged for her alleged role in a $63 million scheme to place fraudulent bonds in discretionary client accounts. In March 2020, Heller served as lead trial counsel in a four-day evidentiary hearing regarding the client’s motion to withdraw her guilty plea. The response is also strong for Anirudh Bansal, a younger partner who is making a swift ascent. “I think Anirudh is first-rate,” opines a peer. “He was a junior to [celebrated former Cahill partner] David Kelley so he got excellent training and then had big shoes to fill, which he did. He stepped up in a big way, and I expect you’ll see more of him.”
     In the commercial capacity, Tammy Roy is another younger partner making a rapid rise. A client addresses Roy as “a rock star” who “[has] command of facts without getting lost in details. [She has a] bright future.” Roy has taken the lead on several notable engagements as of late. She represents S&P Global in five related actions alleging that S&P made reckless misrepresentations in connection with the rating of a life settlement securitization. In March 2019, several claims were dismissed but others were allowed to proceed and are now in discovery. Roy also represented UBS in connection with a defamation claim filed by a former UBS employee-turned-whistleblower after UBS publicly refuted the plaintiff’s claims, which were published in a book, regarding the details of his role in a tax-evasion scheme allegedly implicitly endorsed by UBS. UBS also denounced the plaintiff and highlighted lapses of credibility in his story. The parties settled the matter in September 2020. Roy also represented UBS Financial Services in a putative class action filed in the Southern District of New York in October 2020.  The named plaintiff sought to represent an alleged class of US citizens living abroad who she claimed had their UBS investment accounts frozen, converted to cash or closed without timely notification. At a pre-motion conference that was filed for in January 2021 in anticipation of UBS’s motion to dismiss, the plaintiff conceded that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction and subsequently filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal of all claims.
     Cahill has long serviced Credit Suisse in cases straddling an intersection of securities and antitrust issues. Joel Kurtzberg, a recent addition to Benchmark’s litigation stars, has proven his mettle in having taken the lead on several of these matters. “Get Joel on your radar,” advises a peer. “He has earned it.” The team also includes long-time stars Herb Washer and Elai Katz, the latter known primarily for his antitrust acumen and the former frequently pivoting between securities, antitrust and commercial cases. “Elai is an antitrust secret weapon,” confides a peer. “He comes on like a bit of a street fighter, but you can tell by his writing – and he does a lot of it – that he is really studious and geeks out on this stuff.” Washer is said to be able to “do it all, while all the while being one of the more pleasant and well-spoken litigators you’ll encounter.” Others servicing Credit Suisse in various capacities include Sheila Ramesh and future star Jason Hall, as well as David Januszewski, a seasoned partner who receives near-universal acclaim from peers in the market. “David is fantastic, he should get national recognition,” insists a peer. Beyond his work for Credit Suisse, Januszewski also acts for Deutsche Bank. On behalf of this institution, Januszewski led a team (including Ramesh) that litigated a six-day bench trial in Connecticut seeking to enforce a judgment, secured by the bank in a UK court in 2013, against Alexander Vik and his offshore investment entity Sebastian Holdings, seeking to hold Vik liable personally as the Sebastian Holdings’ alter ego in Connecticut. Januszewski also prevailed on behalf of Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, securing a July 2020 dismissal in the Northern District of Illinois for a suit filed in March of that year in which plaintiffs filed their complaint against the bank, asserting claims for negligence, conversion, and contribution in connection with the transfer of securities alleged to have been funneled among various entities as part of a third-party’s long-running Ponzi scheme.

Cohen Milstein covers the Eastern seaboard with offices in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New York, Palm Beach Gardens and Raleigh, and services the Midwest through a Chicago office. Peers on both the defense and plaintiff sides of the “V” have voiced appreciation for the firm’s zealous approach. “I have always regarded them highly,” declares one plaintiff peer. “They have been mainly regarded as an antitrust firm, but they also so some work in securities and appear to be doing more of this. We happen to have a case where we are co-lead with them. They are smart lawyers.” The firm also has a noted employment, civil rights and ERISA practice. The firm made news in 2019 when a federal judge in Illinois to co-lead shareholder litigation against money transfer entity MoneyGram International, who, in November 2018,  agreed to pay $125 million to resolve allegations that it failed to crack down on fraudulent money transfers.
     The majority of Cohen Milstein’s star power is concentrated in its DC home base. Managing partner Steven Toll is a celebrated figure among the plaintiffs bar and a “feared but respected adversary” of defense lawyers. Toll has been at the helm of several recent milestone wins, including securing a ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that reinstated a suit against electronics maker Harman International Industries. A $28.25 million settlement was achieved in this action in 2017. Toll was also co-lead counsel in the BP Securities class action securities fraud lawsuit that arose from the Deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the certification of the class of investors alleged to have been injured by BP’s misrepresenting the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, and thus minimizing the extent of the cost and financial impact to BP of the cleanup and resulting damages. In February 2017, the court granted final approval to a $175 million settlement reached between BP and lead plaintiffs for the “post-explosion” class. Julie Reiser attends to a practice that straddles antitrust, securities and ERISA matters. Reiser has led litigation teams in several major class actions and has secured landmark settlements, including a $500 million settlement related to Countrywide’s issuance of mortgage-backed securities and a shareholder derivative suit against Wynn Resorts, with a net settlement value of $90 million. More recently, Reiser made news in September 2020 as co-lead counsel in negotiating a settlement with Google parent company Alphabet regarding credible claims of a culture of sexual harassment and discrimination within the company. Reiser's efforts precipitated a $310 million settlement that Alphabet pledged to commit to diversity efforts.
     While the DC partners are some of the firm’s most established, partners in other offices, particularly on the younger end of the spectrum, are also moving to the fore and garnering peer attention. Lauren Posner in the New York office is tipped by peers as a future star. “I’m sure she’ll be put in charge of many of their high-end cases,” forecasts a peer.

Cravath Swaine & Moore continues to set the standard for other major business law firms. Its elite status as one of the “white-shoe” firms is acknowledged by contemporaries on a coast-to-coast basis and always with tones of reverence. “The Cravath style” has been used as a descriptor for firms aspiring to the same level of pedigree. The firm also draws acclaim from several of its blue-ribbon roster of clients. “They provide excellent strategic advice and written work product. They also prepare for trial/hearing in a very thorough manner,” confirms one such client.
     For decades, Cravath managed to elicit this remarkable level of national prestige from its one office in Manhattan in New York. This year saw that change. While Cravath’s reputation remains as unassailable as ever, it has finally expanded its operations to a DC office, a bold gambit that immediately caused a buzz in the nation’s capital and beyond. “Like everything Cravath does, this was not just some kind of desperate expansion for expansion’s sake,” declares one peer. “They saw an opportunity and exploited it quickly, netting themselves some great recruits in that office.” These strategic hires include Jennifer Leete, a former associate director in the SEC’s enforcement division who handles regulatory and investigations work, and Noah Phillips, an antitrust practitioner and former FTC commissioner. “All eyes are on Cravath in DC,” confides a peer. “We’re eating popcorn and watching this very carefully.”
     While the firm’s inroads into DC are not going unnoticed, the hub of Cravath’s major litigation activity remains its New York office. Evan Chesler, after decades of prominence as one of the nation’s premier trial lawyers, continues to retain this position. “At a point in a career where others are riding off into the sunset, Evan remains a force,” marvels one peer. “I’m amazed that he is continuing to lead cases – you’re still seeing his name on there! But he loves what he does and he still can obviously handle it, so more power to him.” A dyed-in-the-wool trial generalist who has helmed many of the firm’s landmark victories in several capacities over the years, Chesler has been noted to be “doing a lot of Delaware work lately.” While Chesler’s lustre remains undimmed, others are generating their own rival levels of star power. Dan Slifkin has been particularly namechecked as “a real trial powerhouse, so confident in court.” The duo of Chesler and Slifkin, along with future star Vanessa Lavely, act as lead trial counsel representing Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other current and former members of the Tesla board of directors as defendants in a derivative action filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery related to the board’s approval of a performance-based compensation plan for Musk, Tesla’s largest stockholder.  The complaint alleges that the compensation package—with an alleged maximum potential value of $55.8 billion—is unfair to the company and asserts claims for breach of fiduciary duty and unjust enrichment.  The suit was tried in November 2022. Kevin Orsini is routinely identified as “just one of the best” by peers, one of whom stresses, “Kevin doesn’t specialize! He can do it all – antitrust, ‘event-driven litigation’ – and he never stays in one place.” Orsini recently acted with securities star Antony Ryan for Robinhood, winning the dismissal in February 2023 of purported securities class action filed in California federal court related to Robinhood’s July 2021 IPO.  The plaintiff alleged that offering documents issued in connection with the IPO contained materially incorrect or misleading statements and omitted material information about the company’s revenue growth and the reliability and scalability of its platform. The plaintiff further alleged that when the correct information emerged after the IPO, Robinhood’s share price declined by more than 55% from the offering price. 
     While Cravath’s litigation bench displays strength in several key practice areas, antitrust is arguably the most vibrant as of late. “Cravath is very well known as an antitrust powerhouse,” confirms one peer. “They were late to the party here, but boy have they ever caught up!” The firm has demonstrated ample evidence to support that claim with a staggering series of matters in this area. A crack firm team composed of David Marriott, Christine Varney, Sharonmoyee Goswami and Wes Earnhardt secured an unprecedented trial win for Illumina in September 2022, rejecting the FTC’s challenge to the company’s $8 billion acquisition of GRAIL. Cravath led the agency investigation phase and the trial team, preparing the entire case in under a year and ultimately trying the matter in August and September 2021 before the FTC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). The FTC appealed the ruling to the full commission, and Marriott and Goswami argued the appeal on behalf of Illumina in December 2022.  In April 2023, the commission issued a decision reversing the ALJ’s ruling. Illumina has appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit and Cravath continues to represent Illumina on appeal. “Cravath did an exceptional job for illumina in the FTC trial,” extols a peer. “We  shadowed that trial and I think the result of that got them a big Amgen assignment.” A peer in the antitrust capacity also stresses, “Karen DeMasi is someone in this area I really respect. She would probably identify less as pure antitrust – she’s just a great litigator – but she has some real chops in this practice.” Helam Gebremariam is another partner said to be adding further muscle to the firm’s antitrust team, although she also juggles securities and commercial work. “I got to see her cross-examining witnesses and it was really a tour de force,” testifies a peer.
     Cravath is also said to have “really caught up quickly and substantially” in the white-collar and investigations field. Ben Gruenstein conducted an internal investigation on behalf of WarnerMedia of Chris Cuomo, CNN’s former top-rated primetime anchor, and the conduct that resulted in his termination from the network. The probe concerned allegations that the former anchor engaged in journalistic misconduct related to the sexual-harassment scandal involving his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. 

Davis Polk & Wardwell is a consistent leader in litigation, earning its place as one of the top-tier firms in antitrust, securities, and white-collar crime especially. The firm’s growth over recent years has strategically established its presence in the New York, Washington DC and California markets. The accomplishments of its bench across practice areas have further driven the firm’s acclaim in high-profile litigation.

     Davis Polk remains one of New York’s elite firms and is equipped with numerous respected lawyers. Greg Andres serves as the firm’s co-chair of the white-collar crime and investigation group and is one of the leading lawyers in the practice area, enjoying a spot on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list since its inception. An all-star bench including Andres, Jarrett Arp, and Tatiana Martins, who makes her debut as a litigation star this year, handled the criminal charges in a broiler chicken-related antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice Antitrust Division against Jason McGuire, an executive in the industry. The team succeeded in the day-long James hearing regarding the admissibility of 294 statements and secured a dismissal of the criminal charges against the client after the court rendered the government’s evidence inadmissible. Based out of DC, Arp is one of the firm’s leading antitrust litigators whose practice is especially sought after for high-stakes and sensitive matters. Uzo Asonye, also of the DC office and debuting as a litigation star, specializes in white-collar crime defense, having joined the firm in 2020 after serving as the acting chief of the Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Unit in the Eastern District of Virginia. Asonye has joined forces with Andres in representing a Fiat Chrysler engineer who was charged with conspiracy to manipulate emissions tests. The duo have obtained favorable pre-trial rulings, including a successful motion for production of Brady and Rule 16 materials. The team initially obtained a dismissal of wire fraud conspiracy counts, and while the Sixth Circuit reversed on appeal, it also shared its skepticism as to whether the government would be able to prove its case during the trial.

     Head of the litigation group James Rouhandeh is also an established leader of the securities bar, known especially for being the “go-to” for financial institutions, particularly Morgan Stanley, for which he continues to handle cases related to residential mortgage-backed securities arising from the 2007 financial crisis. He defends the major financial institution against fraud claims filed by IKB Deutsche Industriebank in a case which has involved discovery across three countries. The team secured a pre-trial victory in defeating IKB’s motion to amend its complaint. While Rouhandeh continues to be a force for established institutions like Morgan Stanley, he is also at the forefront of securities litigation involving cryptocurrency platforms such as industry leader Binance. Last year, Rouhandeh obtained a complete dismissal of a securities class action alleging that the company unlawfully operated an unregistered exchange and an unregistered broker-dealer, unlawfully sold unregistered securities based on the sale of unregistered tokens, and another 149 violations of state blue sky laws. The court dismissed the case, agreeing with his arguments that the claims were not within the statute of limitations and that the company is not a “domestic exchange”, therefore neither federal nor state laws would apply extraterritorially. Another New York litigator who stands out in the market is Andrew Ditchfield. A peer at another top-tier firm praises Ditchfield’s capabilities in litigation, commenting, “It’s really fun to litigate against people outside of our firm that I think are at our level.” A commercial and civil litigator with a specialty in M&A-related litigation, Ditchfield recently scored a victory representing Brookfield in a shareholder dispute related to the company’s $8.3 billion acquisition of CDK Global. The complaint alleged violations of the Illinois Securities Act and sought to delay the tender offer by way of preliminary injunction, which was denied at the circuit court. The court agreed with Ditchfield’s arguments and subsequently found that the plaintiff could not show likelihood of success on the merits and thus they[WC(1]  voluntarily dismissed their case.

     New York litigator James McClammy makes his debut as a litigation star this year. Alongside long-time star Edmund Polubinski, McClammy represented two of the large lender syndicates in the case of Twitter v. Elon R. Musk in the Delaware Court of Chancery. The case arises from Musk’s attempt to terminate the merger agreement, for which the clients had committed to providing financing in the amount of $25.5 billion. McClammy and Polubinski were leading subpoenas over a 10-week period in the expedited and closely watched case, which was dismissed after the acquisition closed. In another case involving Elon Musk, litigator and arbitrator Frances Bivens represents JP Morgan against Tesla, alleging that the company breached certain agreements governing warrants that the client purchased. The case arose from Musk’s tweet to take Tesla private and, in turn, JP Morgan adjusted the strike price pursuant to the agreement. Bivens has filed a motion on the pleadings, and also defends the bank against counterclaims and damages from Tesla. Bivens and fellow international arbitration specialist Antonio Perez-Marques handled an 11-day arbitration as lead counsel defending Albemarle, one of the largest lithium suppliers, against alleged fraud, breach of contract and other claims filed by competing chemicals company, Huntsman. The co-head of the civil litigation practice, Paul Spagnoletti, recently obtained a critical win in a federal RICO lawsuit which garnered praise from the legal industry. On behalf of Apollo co-founder Josh Harris, Spagnoletti secured a dismissal of federal RICO claims filed by co-founder and former CEO Leon Black, who alleged that there was a fraudulent scheme to force him to resign by leveraging sexual abuse allegations against him.

     Dana Seshens is co-head of the civil litigation group and handles securities class actions and intellectual property litigation with the West Coast team. Seshens and distinguished California litigator Neal Potischman are representing Universal Television, Jimmy Fallon and his product company in a class action alleging violations of the federal securities laws and consumer protection statutes in California. The case is one of many involving celebrity endorsements of non-fungible tokens and related cryptocurrency. Seshens and Potischman have thus far quashed a subpoena and have moved to dismiss the case entirely. The duo has also worked on several other California cases together and on separate occasions served as counsel for underwriters in securities class actions. Seshens leads the team in defending PG&E in a class action arising from the California wildfires. On intellectual property, Seshens partners with Ashok Ramani, the head of the practice group, to handle trade secrets disputes on behalf of industry-leading pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer. The pair are preparing for trial early next year in a fast-paced trade secrets case filed on behalf of Pfizer against Razor Therapeutics, a start-up founded by two former executives who Pfizer allege used trade secrets to establish the company. On the patent side of IP, Ramani scored a trial victory for Magnolia Medical Technologies in its lawsuit against its sole competitor in provision of initial specimen diversion devices, Kurin. Ramani was called in to replace an IP boutique’s team just prior to summary judgment and was head-to-head with another top-tier intellectual property litigator representing Kurin. He obtained a verdict of infringement in the first phase and in the second, a verdict of damages and no invalidity.

Dedicated entirely to intellectual property, Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner is one of the go-to law firms for litigation involving patents, trademarks, and copyrights. The firm remains a leader in handling disputes before the PTAB and has also maintained a significant reputation in the life sciences sphere. Finnegan’s offices span the East Coast, centering its power in the District of Columbia and Virginia area.

     In DC, William Raich leads the biotechnology and pharmaceutical practice group and with a background in cellular and molecular biology, he is a top choice for patent-related cases. He and nationally recognized litigator Charles Lipsey of the Reston, Virginia office are defending Sarepta Therapeutics in a lawsuit filed by Nippon Shinyaku which alleges that the client’s product Vyondys 53^® infringes seven patents held by the plaintiff. Lipsey and Raich are currently active in fact discovery, and the trial is scheduled for May 2024.

     The DC office also features James Monroe and Paul Browning, both of whom are trial lawyers with an extensive record of cases before district and appellate courts nationwide. The duo was among the lead lawyers on the team representing Otsuka and Lundbeck in a series of ANDA cases filed in the District of Delaware. Eighteen generic drug manufacturers sought to create generic versions of the client’s drug Rexulti. Monroe, Browning, and the rest of the Finnegan team settled all eighteen cases favorably for the client, with the last settling on the eve of trial. The settlements protected the company’s multibillion-dollar drug franchise from infringing sales. Robert Yoches splits his time between District of Columbia and Taipei, representing clients in both the US and China. Yoches represents Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company before the ITC in a Section 337 investigation. The plaintiff, Daedalus Prime, alleged that the client’s semiconductor chips infringe its patents. Gerald Ivey is an established trial lawyer focusing on patent matters involving computer software and hardware. He is recognized for both his district court and PTAB appearances. Ivey recently defended Samsung in multiple inter partes reviews in connection with patents concerning the display of multiple displays on smartphones.

     On the trademark side, Douglas Rettew remains the go-to litigator to handle cases nationwide. As first-chair trial lawyer, Rettew obtained a jury verdict in favor of Armadillo Distribution Enterprises and Concordia Investment Partners on his core affirmative defenses and on the plaintiff’s claims for damages. Gibson Brands had filed a lawsuit alleging serial infringement and counterfeiting of six registered trademarks against the clients, demanding over $7 million at trial. In addition to trial expertise and experience, Rettew is also an established name before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, representing multiple clients, including A&H Sportswear, in enforcement matters.

     John Livingstone of the Atlanta office also leads the charge litigating on behalf of clients in the life sciences industry. He represents Novartis Pharmaceuticals in a series of Hatch-Waxman Act patent cases filed in the District of Delaware against generic pharmaceutical companies looking to market versions of Kisqali, a treatment for certain metastatic breast cancers marketed by Novartis. The case has the potential to provide nine years of exclusivity. Separately, Livingstone defends Novartis Gene Therapies against patent infringement allegations asserted by Genzyme. The patents include recombinant adeno-associated virus sector technology, which Novartis uses in its breakthrough gene therapy Zolgensma. Livingstone is also an established litigator representing life sciences clients before the International Trade Commission. His recent victory for Ajinomoto involved a biotech investigation and subsequent evidentiary hearing at the ITC, which in its final determination found that the defendant, CheilJedang, infringed Ajinomoto’s patents, and therefore also issued a limited exclusion and cease-and-desist orders, barring the defendant from importing the infringing products. Fellow Atlanta partner and celebrated multidisciplinary intellectual property litigator Virginia Carron successfully defended Nestlé in a business-critical patent infringement case in the Western District of New York. Steuben Foods sued the client alleging numerous claims related to five patents and claiming $500 million in damages. As lead partner on the case, Carron took a multifaceted defense strategy that challenged the validity of the patents before the PTAB and filed a series of motions for summary judgment in district court. She successfully narrowed the case to three patents and the district court further agreed with her claim construction position. Her aggressive strategy and briefing garnered a significant settlement agreement.

Goodwin has steadily expanded from its Boston roots, arriving at its current status as a national player in several key markets and industries, most notably the finance and life sciences sectors. It now houses litigation stars in nearly every one of its offices on the East and West Coasts. The firm receives resounding applause from clients, as well as peers, some of whom have worked alongside the firm on matters. “I was co-counsel with Goodwin on pro bono federal immigration litigation,” testifies one such peer. “The team of Goodwin attorneys who worked on the case were phenomenal. [They brought] great analytical, research, writing and oral advocacy skills.”

     Boston’s Christopher Holding is the co-head of the firm’s antitrust practice and manages a practice largely devoted to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry. In a case illustrative of the link between antitrust issues regarding patents, Holding represents Actavis in a challenge to the settlement of patent litigation between Shire and Actavis about the drug Intuniv. The plaintiffs assert that the agreement contained an implicit reverse payment that delayed generic entry. Holding also represents Teva in a pharmaceutical antitrust case raising reverse-payment allegations. The litigation was mostly settled after years of litigation, but a number of indirect purchasers who opted out of the settlement challenged the opt-out procedures set by the district court, and that challenged was briefed and argued in the Second Circuit in 2019. Anthony Fiotto, the Boston-based co-chair of the firm’s securities and white-collar capacity, recently achieved significant New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division and Court of Appeals victories on behalf of The Pyramid Companies, a developer of shopping malls with 16 properties that are separately owned by partnerships, with Pyramid being the majority partner in each. The dispute began when a minority partner sought to dissolve and force the liquidation of one of the partnerships on numerous grounds.
     The securities practice is also exemplified by Richard Strassberg in the New York office, whose practice also crosses over into more of a white-collar crime element, an area in which is revered by many other leaders in this practice. “Rich Strassberg is very smart and great with clients,” enthuses one peer. Another confirms, “We worked side-by-side with Richard on a large securities class action -- we represented the company and he represented an individual -- securing dismissal of all counts.” Other New York-based securities partners include Marshall Fishman, who represents Citibank and multiple affiliates in connection with a number of lawsuits that have been brought by the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Board Special Claims Committee, and Brian Pastuszenski, who is called out as “fantastic,” with one peer testifying, “I see him in a ton of work. He should be on your national securities list for sure.”

     In the firm’s DC office, Thomas Hefferon is nationwide litigation and trial counsel to Think Finance, a provider of technology, analytics, and marketing services to financial businesses in the consumer lending industry. Hefferon has coordinated the simultaneous defense of three major litigation matters: a lawsuit by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a lawsuit by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and a substantial number of coordinated consumer putative class actions—all in separate federal courts across the country.  All three controversies concern the alleged improper issuance of consumer loans, allegedly in violation of state usury and licensing laws. Also in DC, Willy Jay is a unanimously revered appellate practitioner. One peer, also one of DC’s leading appellate lawyers, raves, “I’m a HUGE fan of Willy. Clients love him, he’s like a walking encyclopedia of the law. He’s just awesome, very charming.” Jay is equally celebrated for his demeanor as well as his acumen; one peer testifies, “We co-wrote briefs with Goodwin, and we have a great relationship with them. Willy Jay in particular is just personally a very good guy and is a team player and not about trying to take all the credit for anything. He was very gracious in recognizing the contribution that we made to the briefs in a way that frankly you don’t always see.” In one recent matter, Jay represented the Town of Aquinnah, Massachusetts, in successfully reinstating its injunction against a Native American tribe seeking to build a casino in the Town without obtaining local permits. Jay was retained after the Town (and other parties) lost an appeal on the issue. 
     Goodwin has become a notably strong player in the intellectual property capacity as well, a status recognized by both peers and clients. One such client testifies, “Goodwin handled a patent infringement suit against Apple in the Eastern District of Texas on encryption/decryption technology. Their handling of the matter was outstanding and resulted in a $308 million verdict.” One celebrated practitioner in this area, New York’s Elizabeth Holland represents plaintiff Novartis in a patent infringement action filed in June 2020 against Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in the District Court for the Northern District of New York. Novartis seeks damages and an injunction for Regeneron’s sales of its newly-launched EYLEA Pre-Filled Syringe (PFS) product. Holland also represents this client as co-counsel as a defendant in an antitrust-oriented action filed by Regeneron in the Southern District of New York. Regeneron’s suit is based on the allegation that Novartis sought to hamper Regeneron’s ability to bring its EYLEA PFS to market through assertion of a patent that Regeneron argues is unenforceable. In addition, Regeneron argues that Novartis worked together with another company to impair Regeneron’s ability to market this product. The IP capacity is also bookended on the West Coast by Neel Chatterjee, a Silicon Valley-based star who not surprisingly attends to a largely tech-based practice. Chatterjee represented the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, a public higher education and research institution in India. After 11 years of litigation, the Northern District of California definitively rejected the plaintiff's claims that the client breached an oral joint venture agreement, breached a nondisclosure agreement, and misappropriated the plaintiff's trade secrets. Chatterjee also represents Facebook, recently obtaining dismissal of a multi-patent case brought against the social media behemoth.

Greenberg Traurig is an expansive full-service law firm with a global presence in a variety of practice areas. The firm hosts more than 2,000 attorneys in 41 offices across the world, which positions them to effectively serve both domestic and international clients. One of these clients appreciates the firm’s “quality of team; knowledge of law but also practical approach to the development of the defense” and addresses the team as “thorough in preparation, with good relationship management of the client.”
     The firm is highly regarded for its product liability capabilities, largely attributed to the efforts of Lori Cohen, who chairs the pharmaceutical, medical device and health care litigation practice, in addition to serving as co-chair of the global litigation practice group. Cohen has the distinct honor of consistently ranking as a litigation star who also enjoys a multi-year run as one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation as well as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in the US. Domiciled in the firm’s Atlanta office but recognized on a coast-to-coast basis for her appearance in matters of national magnitude, Cohen has wowed both peers and clients from a diverse range of industries and jurisdictions. An all-purpose trial lawyer by training and temperament, Cohen’s aptitude and gravitas has been particularly evident in the product liability capacity, where, often appearing as lead trial counsel, she has displayed an enviable streak of wins on behalf of clients in the pharmaceutical and medical device field concerning products ranging from pelvic mesh to contact lenses. Cohen is national trial counsel, national coordinating counsel, and national settlement counsel for all claims concerning pelvic mesh against C. R. Bard. Over the last year, she has solidified two significant victories as well as other additional dismissals in what has been described as one of the largest and most complex mass torts in history. Cohen is also a member of Novartis’ PF3.0 panel counsel program, which includes representation of subsidiaries Sandoz, Eon Labs, and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Cohen is national counsel for Sandoz and its subsidiary Eon in the national amiodarone litigation. She also represents Bausch Health subsidiary Bausch + Lomb in product liability litigation relating to the Trulign Toric intraocular lens, a Class III medical device approved by FDA pursuant to the Premarket Approval process. In March 2020, she secured the complete dismissal of all of plaintiffs’ claims in a closely watched case in the District of Connecticut.
     Based in the firm’s Dallas office, Karl Dial was sole defense counsel for a group of foreign defendants that were sued in a mass action by 44 plaintiffs alleging securities fraud and breach of fiduciary duties related to securities sold in Canada to invest in real estate in the US. This cross-border dispute was the first case filed by more than 200 investors who have threatened suit against the Canadian issuer. This case has ramifications as to under what circumstances a foreign issuer may be hauled into court in the US on claims made by investors outside the country.

     Operating out of both the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, Robert Herrington focuses his practice on class actions, with this practice touching on a wide spectrum of industries. Herrington is a new star addition to this year’s edition of Benchmark, propelled on the strength of vibrant peer and client review. One client asserts, “In the consumer protection context--both in class actions and mass consumer arbitrations--Greenberg does an absolutely fantastic job. Rob Herrington, in particular, is an exceptional advocate. Day or night, he and his team respond in a timely fashion, providing top-drawer work. In addition to the quality of their work and exceptional client service, they are very price-competitive. Robert is a great communicator, innovative and strategic thinker.  He's my favorite class-action lawyer.” Herrington and New York’s Richard Edlin won significant motions to defeat a class action alleging that Samsung’s Galaxy S7 series phones are falsely advertised as “water resistant.” The case began in 2016 in the Central District of California, asserting claims for common law fraud, violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law, and unjust enrichment. The Greenberg pair obtained a multi-year stay of proceedings pending appeal of a motion to compel arbitration under California law, resulting in the sole named plaintiff losing interest in the lawsuit. Another class-action authority, New Jersey’s Philip Sellinger represents Marriott and Ritz-Carlton entities in a putative class action brought on behalf of approximately 1,000 owners of fractional interests in The Ritz-Carlton Club, St. Thomas who are alleged to have paid an average price of $150,000 for their respective fractional interests.
     Miami’s Elliot Scherker represents the Government of the Virgin Islands in an appellate matter concerning the alleged 20 years’ worth of unpaid employer contributions into the Government Employees Retirement System, totaling more than $63 million. Another Miami-based star, David Coulson currently defends Champion Petfoods USA in a suit filed in the Federal Court in the Eastern District of Wisconsin alleging the client's dog food was tainted with dangerous levels of heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury which in turn rendered some of the statements on Champion's packaging misleading. The plaintiff asserted claims for breach of express and implied warranties, unjust enrichment, and alleged violations of state consumer protection and unfair competition statutes. In February 2019, the District Judge granted summary judgement and dismissed plaintiff's complaint with prejudice on the basis that the small amounts found in Champion's dog food were naturally occurring, safe, and did not render any of Champion's statements on its packaging misleading or deceptive. Shortly after, consumers in 15 additional states, including another in Wisconsin, filed suits against Champion making similar allegations – for a total of 17 matters now being litigated state-by-state, rather than in a multi-district litigation proceeding. In October 2019, the Greenberg Traurig team won the denial of class certification in the Central District of California.

 

Hausfeld has emerged as a plaintiff-side firm to be reckoned with in several categories. Unlike many other companies of its ilk, however, the firm has not opted for taking the “boutique” route and has instead embedded itself globally, with litigators practicing in 11 offices throughout the US and in Europe. Primarily in the antitrust capacity, Hausfeld is an undisputed trailblazer, identified as a ubiquitous presence by peers on both the plaintiff and defense sides of the “V.” One major defense peer confirms, “Hausfeld is who we almost always see on the plaintiff side if there is antitrust class action. Even if it’s not exclusively them, they are always somewhere in the mix.” Another frequent opponent notes, “They have a wide scope regarding antitrust actions, and they are also huge in sports. I do a great deal of this work, and it’s nearly always against Hausfeld, at least in the biggest and best cases.” Still another sums up the firm’s stature by saying, “Many firms try to do what they do, but Hausfeld is one of the few that gets it right and one of the ones we take the most seriously.” Over the past several years alone, the firm has landed national headlines for its dogged pursuit of antitrust and sports claims. The firm was chosen by the DC Attorney General’s office in May 2021 to spearhead its efforts in a massive antitrust case against online retail juggernaut Amazon. More recently, Hausfeld scored big as co-lead counsel in a major case alleging that more than 30 Blue Cross/Blue Shield entities across the country have entered into agreements not to compete with each other for customers of health insurance. The litigation sought damages on behalf of a proposed class of more than 100 million subscribers, along with injunctive relief that would increase competition in the market for health insurance. After eight years in litigation, the plaintiffs scored a $2.67 billion settlement in October 2020. In addition to monetary relief, the settlement proposes systemic injunctive relief that will change the landscape for competition in healthcare. This settlement was approved in August 2022 – Judge Proctor approved the $2.67 billion settlement on behalf of employers and individuals.

While the DC office – where firm founder and former name partner Michael Hausfeld is based – has long been viewed as the firm’s center of gravity, with his transition to a “chairman emeritus” position, several California-based partners are taking bigger roles. “It’s more about the team now,” observes one peer. Megan Jones in the San Francisco office has been identified by several peers as “a leader at Hausfeld now,” with one peer testifying, “I have been very impressed with her, she has been leading quite a few cases.”

Bonny Sweeney, also based In San Francisco, is also a recipient of accolades. In addition to antitrust, Sweeney attends to niche practices in sports and entertainment law as well as consumer protection and pro bono matters. In addition to acting on the plaintiffs’ steering committee on the aforementioned Blue Cross/Blue Shield case, Jones serves as co-lead counsel in a multidistrict litigation representing a proposed class of direct purchasers of industrial chemicals methylene diphenyl diisocyanate and toluene diisocyanate in claims against major industrial suppliers for conspiring to artificially inflate prices, in violation of federal antitrust law. Sweeney, meanwhile, was scheduled to head to trial in June 2021 as co-lead class counsel in a class action that alleges CVS violated six states’ consumer protection laws by overcharging insured consumers who purchased certain generic prescriptions at CVS pharmacies.

Melinda Coolidge, based in the DC office, serves as managing partner for the firm as well as attending to her own litigation matters that have earned her a debut as a future star in this edition. In July 2022, Coolidge led a team that reached a $90 million settlement in a ground-breaking case on behalf of app developers nationwide challenging Google’s 30% revenue share imposed on apps and in-app products sold on the Google Play Store. Coolidge is also part of a team is at the forefront of antitrust litigation over allegations that the nation’s four largest freight railroads – Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, and Norfolk Southern – colluded on fuel surcharges and overcharged customers by billions of dollars collectively.

Hoguet Newman Regal & Kenney continues to distinguish itself as a formidable force in its native New York as well as nationally. “They have some ‘Big Law’ credentials while having that kind of personal touch you can only get from boutiques,” declares a peer. Indeed, the firm’s founding partners do come equipped with experience from global juggernaut firm White & Case and have since forged ahead on building out this boutique with a high-touch approach. While the firm has some particularly strong niche areas – insurance and labor and employment, most notably – founding partners Dorothea Regal and Fredric Newman have instilled a culture that welcomes work that one partner quips is “pike law – anything that comes down the pike.” Whereas Regal represents international and domestic clients at trial and on appeal in complex commercial and insurance coverage litigation, Newman dedicates his practice to commercial trial representation.

While Regal and Newman remain active in these matters, the torch is being passed to younger generations of talent at the firm. Joshua Blosveren continues to develop in the role of emergent complex commercial litigation authority. Blosveren leads a team that represents Syngenta Crop Protection in an insurance coverage litigation filed by its primary and umbrella insurance companies in Delaware Superior Court seeking a declaratory judgment of no coverage for long-tail personal injury exposure claims made against Syngenta arising out of the manufacture and sale of Paraquat pesticide products by Syngenta and its predecessor companies. The basis for the insurers’ denial of coverage is that Syngenta’s notice of the claim was allegedly late and should have been noticed before the claim was filed against Syngenta. In August 2020, the Hoguet team secured Syngenta summary judgment on the threshold issue of the timing of the claim, which secured Syngenta $24 million in coverage. At the same time, the firm team defeated the insurance company’s pre-discovery motion for summary judgment, alleging that Syngenta made a misrepresentation in its application for insurance. A bench trial was held in October 2022 and in March 2023 – the court issued a post-trial decision that handed Syngenta a complete victory. The firm team behind this matter also included future stars John Curley and Miriam Manber.

The firm’s labor and employment capacity is largely run by Damian Cavaleri, who has an active docket of matters for a novel and varied roster of clients. Cavaleri and Manber represent a plaintiff who was prevented from accepting an executive position with Warner Media as a result of bad-faith threats from Verizon to enforce restrictive covenants. Verizon’s actions resulted in the client losing $12 million per the proposed employment agreement. Verizon also fraudulently induced the client to accept his offer with them previously based on promises concerning certain work that would be available. In March 2023, the trial court denied summary judgment on the claim related to Verizon’s bad-faith threats to enforce the restrictive covenant and the $12 million claim will proceed to trial. Manber also works with fellow future star Helene Hechtkopf on a labor and employment matter for MTA, a longtime mainstay client for the firm.

Holwell Shuster & Goldberg is widely revered as one of the preeminent litigation boutiques both in New York City’s congested market and nationally. Peers and clients stand united as admirers of the firm’s approach and litigation acumen. One client cheers the firm’s “client service, talent, bench strength, advocacy, professionalism and strategy.” A New York contemporary, meanwhile, voices respect for Holwell Shuster’s “top-to-bottom culture,” noting “a level of litigation excellence from the senior people to the up-and-comers – just a strong command and dedication.”

Continuing to serve at the forefront of the firm’s team, founding partner Michael Shuster year after year cements his position further as a complex commercial authority, including landing himself a coveted position among Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America. Among the most active of Holwell’s litigators, Shuster continues to offer representation to regular client Visa in numerous complex and long-running antitrust matters, both in the class-action and opt-out capacities. In the opt-out cases, the country’s leading merchants are challenging credit and debit card rules that go to the heart of the industry and seeking billions of dollars in damages, pre-trebling. Meanwhile, a putative equitable relief class on behalf of all merchants across the nation is seeking broad-ranging changes to Visa’s business model. In September 2018, the defendants reached a historic $5.6 billion settlement with one of the putative classes of merchants. An appeal was briefed in 2020 and argued in 2022, and in March 2023, the Second Circuit of New York upheld the now $5.6 billion antitrust class-action settlement with more than 12 million retailers. Shuster also currently serves as nationwide lead trial and appellate counsel to Chubb Ltd in all of the several insurance cases filed by pharmaceuticals titans – such as those filed by AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, and Rite Aid – as they seek insurance coverage from Chubb under unprecedented theories in connection with the widely reported opioid liability litigation currently unfolding in jurisdictions around the country.

Shuster is supported on these matters by partners Blair Kaminsky and Daniel Sullivan. One client weighs in, “Michael Shuster is an excellent trial attorney who is supported by the legal expertise of Blair and Daniel.” Another says, “Daniel Sullivan is a well-respected insurance defense attorney handling complex legal issues involved with the opioid declaratory judgment litigation for Chubb. Dan prepared successful legal briefs, prepared, deposed, and cross-examined corporate and expert witnesses, preserved and argued appellate issues, and made compelling arguments during hearings, motions, and at trial.”

Greg Dubinsky served as lead counsel for the National Basketball Association in an antitrust suit brought by a person denied the opportunity to qualify as a player agent. The plaintiff in this case claimed that the NBA and the league’s players union violated the antitrust laws by barring him from taking an online exam for individuals attempting to be player agents.

Two partners making their respective debuts as future stars in this edition, Scott Danner and Priyanka Timblo, secured a $70 million win on behalf of investment fund client Melody Business Finance in a case involving loans defaulted on by former hedge fund billionaire Philip Falcone and several entities owned or controlled by him. In this high-profile case, filed shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the firm’s team represents Melody as plaintiff in various litigations and out-of-court foreclosures resulting from defaults under several loan agreements secured by collateral that includes multimillion-dollar luxury mansions, a collection of fine art – including paintings by Warhol and Degas – and jewellery. Timblo is championed by a client as “incredibly talented, driven, hungry, smart, dedicated, and hard working.”

Since its genesis in 2015, Los Angeles litigation boutique Hueston Hennigan has had an ascent that can only be described as astonishing. Formed by a group of commercial litigators who peeled off from California institution Irell & Manella, Hueston Hennigan has forged itself a coveted position as a local litigation shop that has achieved state-wide and even national prominence. The firm is noted for its mission of putting a premium on trial work, a mission that has been fulfilled with rapid momentum on several high-level appointments. “They have just been massively successful,” sums up one East Coast litigator, stating a consensus shared by many. The firm’s client base is remarkably diverse, ranging from individuals to a variety of entities encompassing tech giants, Native American tribes, the Boy Scouts and the California State Bar (to name but a few), with very little repeat business and virtually no “routine” cases. “Hueston Hennigan doesn’t do the ‘cookie-cutter.’ They do really cool, cutting-edge work,” declares a peer, who goes on to confide, “I admit it makes me jealous, and I’m sure I’m not alone.” Seemingly not content with dominating the Los Angeles area, the firm has, within the past year, discreetly planted a flag in the New York market as well, with a further buildout expected.

Firm founder and lead trial lawyer John Hueston is a trial trailblazer who has carved himself an enviable position even among others in the elite trial lawyer circuit. “I have seen trial lawyers rise and fade but John is young and vibrant enough to be in this for the long haul,” says one peer. Hueston’s proven activity as lead counsel on a number of high-level appointments more than supports this near-unanimous view.

Hueston is not alone in his trial prowess and activity, however. Moez Kaba has staked himself a position as another of the firm’s lead trial counsel, acting in tandem with Hueston or on his own on some of the firm’s most high-stakes disputes – and he has accomplished this still well before his 40th birthday. Kaba made his debut as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in last year’s edition of Benchmark, a coveted status made all the more impressive by the fact that he is the youngest appointee to this prestigious list by some distance. More impressive still, his position on that list remains secure again this year – as does that of Hueston, who has appeared every year since the list’s inception.

Hueston and Kaba have logged substantial triumphs together over the years, and that record continues this year. Working together, they represented Monster Energy Company in a high-profile lawsuit that resulted in a ground-breaking, nine-figure verdict against competing energy drink manufacturer, Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX) and its owner and CEO. At trial, which began in August 2022, Monster alleged that this owner and CEO built VPX by lying, cheating, and stealing – namely, advertising that his energy drink, BANG, contains creatine, a popular sports nutrition supplement known for its physiological benefits, when it actually contains “Super Creatine,” a completely different compound that VPX prominently markets as the key differentiating ingredient in BANG. Monster further alleged that VPX gained an edge on its competitors by misappropriating Monster’s trade secrets and tortiously interfering with Monster’s contracts for shelf space in retail locations across the country. This same pair also was tipped to represent CeOpCo LLC/Combs Enterprises in a dispute against Diageo North America. The dispute arises out of Diageo’s allegedly inferior treatment of the DeLeon tequila brand, which music icon Sean “Diddy” Combs launched in 2009. Diageo has failed to meet its contractual obligation to treat the DeLeon brand as favorably as other tequila brands Diageo owns, instead typecasting DeLeon as an “urban” spirit that belongs only in night clubs. A lawsuit was expected to be filed in the spring of 2023.

Douglas Dixon, based in the firm’s Newport Beach office, has also been generating a rising level of acclaim. Dixon has been particularly active in the intellectual property arena, scoring a patent win for ClearOne concerning its audio-conferencing technology. Acting with Hueston, he won a $25 million jury verdict for incubator entity Acorn Technologies against Samsung after a five-day trial in the Eastern District of Texas. The jury found that Samsung infringed all claims of all four semiconductor-related patents at issue.

Dixon, Kaba and future star Christy Rayburn obtained summary judgment of non-infringement in a patent matter asserted against Amazon by serial patent litigant MasterObjects, who sought tens of millions of dollars for Amazon’s alleged infringement.

Another future star, Joseph Reiter, acts with Kaba in representation of Kaiser in a lawsuit and related arbitration with more than $500 million at stake. The lawsuit was brought by one of the largest for-profit hospital systems in the country – HCA Healthcare – for payments Kaiser made to a group of California hospitals for emergency health services. Trial began in 2023, with the Hueston Hennigan pair eventually obtaining a favorable settlement for Kaiser.

Since its genesis in 2015, Los Angeles litigation boutique Hueston Hennigan has had an ascent that can only be described as astonishing. Formed by a group of commercial litigators who peeled off from California institution Irell & Manella, Hueston Hennigan has forged itself a coveted position as a local litigation shop that has achieved state-wide and even national prominence. The firm is noted for its mission of putting a premium on trial work, a mission that has been fulfilled with rapid momentum on several high-level appointments. “They have just been massively successful,” sums up one East Coast litigator, stating a consensus shared by many. The firm’s client base is remarkably diverse, ranging from individuals to a variety of entities encompassing tech giants, Native American tribes, the Boy Scouts and the California State Bar (to name but a few), with very little repeat business and virtually no “routine” cases. “Hueston Hennigan doesn’t do the ‘cookie-cutter.’ They do really cool, cutting-edge work,” declares a peer, who goes on to confide, “I admit it makes me jealous, and I’m sure I’m not alone.” Seemingly not content with dominating the Los Angeles area, the firm has, within the past year, discreetly planted a flag in the New York market as well, with a further buildout expected.

Firm founder and lead trial lawyer John Hueston is a trial trailblazer who has carved himself an enviable position even among others in the elite trial lawyer circuit. “I have seen trial lawyers rise and fade but John is young and vibrant enough to be in this for the long haul,” says one peer. Hueston’s proven activity as lead counsel on a number of high-level appointments more than supports this near-unanimous view.

Hueston is not alone in his trial prowess and activity, however. Moez Kaba has staked himself a position as another of the firm’s lead trial counsel, acting in tandem with Hueston or on his own on some of the firm’s most high-stakes disputes – and he has accomplished this still well before his 40th birthday. Kaba made his debut as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in last year’s edition of Benchmark, a coveted status made all the more impressive by the fact that he is the youngest appointee to this prestigious list by some distance. More impressive still, his position on that list remains secure again this year – as does that of Hueston, who has appeared every year since the list’s inception.

Hueston and Kaba have logged substantial triumphs together over the years, and that record continues this year. Working together, they represented Monster Energy Company in a high-profile lawsuit that resulted in a ground-breaking, nine-figure verdict against competing energy drink manufacturer, Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX) and its owner and CEO. At trial, which began in August 2022, Monster alleged that this owner and CEO built VPX by lying, cheating, and stealing – namely, advertising that his energy drink, BANG, contains creatine, a popular sports nutrition supplement known for its physiological benefits, when it actually contains “Super Creatine,” a completely different compound that VPX prominently markets as the key differentiating ingredient in BANG. Monster further alleged that VPX gained an edge on its competitors by misappropriating Monster’s trade secrets and tortiously interfering with Monster’s contracts for shelf space in retail locations across the country. This same pair also was tipped to represent CeOpCo LLC/Combs Enterprises in a dispute against Diageo North America. The dispute arises out of Diageo’s allegedly inferior treatment of the DeLeon tequila brand, which music icon Sean “Diddy” Combs launched in 2009. Diageo has failed to meet its contractual obligation to treat the DeLeon brand as favorably as other tequila brands Diageo owns, instead typecasting DeLeon as an “urban” spirit that belongs only in night clubs. A lawsuit was expected to be filed in the spring of 2023.

Douglas Dixon, based in the firm’s Newport Beach office, has also been generating a rising level of acclaim. Dixon has been particularly active in the intellectual property arena, scoring a patent win for ClearOne concerning its audio-conferencing technology. Acting with Hueston, he won a $25 million jury verdict for incubator entity Acorn Technologies against Samsung after a five-day trial in the Eastern District of Texas. The jury found that Samsung infringed all claims of all four semiconductor-related patents at issue.

Dixon, Kaba and future star Christy Rayburn obtained summary judgment of non-infringement in a patent matter asserted against Amazon by serial patent litigant MasterObjects, who sought tens of millions of dollars for Amazon’s alleged infringement.

Another future star, Joseph Reiter, acts with Kaba in representation of Kaiser in a lawsuit and related arbitration with more than $500 million at stake. The lawsuit was brought by one of the largest for-profit hospital systems in the country – HCA Healthcare – for payments Kaiser made to a group of California hospitals for emergency health services. Trial began in 2023, with the Hueston Hennigan pair eventually obtaining a favorable settlement for Kaiser.

Recognized in jurisdictions around the country for its overall talent in litigation, Hunton Andrews Kurth is praised for its ability to provide clients with exceptional service across a litany of practice areas. Clients make note of the variety of issues for which they turn to the firm: “Class actions, regulatory advice, cybersecurity litigation, and arbitration.” One additionally shares, “Hunton Andrews Kurth has provided a variety of legal services to us recently. Hunton has provided advice and counsel on commercial contracts, litigation, class action litigation, employment issues and franchising.” In the same vein, the client comments on the firm’s service, adding, “Hunton brings a level of service that is above and beyond what we experience with other firms. They understand the client and provide counsel in a timely manner.”

     Hunton’s range of excellence across practice areas is equal to its bench strength spanning a strategic network of offices. In the southeast, Sam Dannon is recognized by peers in the Miami market. “Sam Dannon is a great lawyer,” one comments. “He’s excellent. He did a great job with the grass fertilizer cases. I think if you’re talking about individuals – Sam has a big name. It’s a well-deserved name.” Richmond-based litigator Elbert Lin receives the same recognition with a praising mention: “Elbert Lin – He's the man!” Lin serves as lead defense counsel to automobile parts manufacturers and distributors facing enforcement proceedings from the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. The companies also selected Lin and the team to represent them before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Lin seeks to challenge the EPA’s reinterpretation of the Clean Air Act, alleging it was illegal and acted without following proper rulemaking procedures pursuant to the act. The lower court had found in Lin’s favor, allowing the clients to challenge the interpretation in each enforcement action. Fellow Richmond partner Ali Cunningham makes her debut as a Litigation Star this year, covering the mass tort, product liability and environmental litigation and serving as the co-head of the firm’s litigation group. She is the lead lawyer representing French subsidiary of Alfa Laval, Alfa Laval Packinox, in an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration commenced by Drivetrain, serving as the litigation trustee for the bankrupt subsidiaries of a now-defunct infrastructure and energy company, Abengoa. Cunningham and the Hunton team were sought out as lead counsel after Drivetrain increased its damages request substantially. In response and as newly appointed counsel, Cunningham overhauled the defense strategy and resolved the case successfully and on terms favorable to the client.

     Richmond’s George “Trey” Sibley’s practice emphasizes matters of environmental permitting, while in D.C., environmental practice head Deidre Duncan focuses on disputes related to compliance in addition to permitting. The two are often active in these regards on high-stakes proceedings with the potential to markedly reshape the landscape of EPA regulation. Recently, Sibley and Duncan were before the Ninth Circuit in a matter challenging the scope of the court’s discretion to vacate federal agency action. The District of Columbia office also features Torsten Kracht whose commercial practice has involved class actions and arbitrations nationwide. One of Kracht’s clients voices their deep appreciation for his representation, client relationship, as well as his disposition. “Torsten listens first and provides counsel second,” the client reflects. “He is a consummate professional who is client focused and results driven. I have worked with hundreds of attorneys over the course of my in-house career and have not met another attorney that rises to his level.”

     In Texas, Houston’s Kelly Sandill is an active, multidisciplined litigator with a history of casework ranging from government relations to First Amendment. Sandill has been lead counsel to the Houston Police Officer Union in its challenge to voter-approved city charter amendment, Proposition B, which tied firefighter pay to policy pay. She led an all-female trial team that initiated the underlying challenge in 2018, and after years of litigation, months of briefing, oral arguments and post-submission filings, the Texas Supreme Court reinstated the team’s trial win. Not only did the Supreme Court find in favor of the HPOU, affirming the client’s right to collectively bargain for its members and ensure it remains a competitive police force, the high court’s opinion is likely to become authoritative on preemption in Texas.

     Making a first appearance as a Litigation Star this year, New York partner Shawn Regan has an industry-focused approach, handling all practice areas touching on issues related to the financial, energy, and consumer-retail sectors. He received a shout out from a peer who worked with him on a national case. Los Angeles-based partner Ann Marie Mortimer is the head of commercial litigation at the firm and stands at the forefront of cybersecurity litigation. Her talent is noted by clients who commend her work. One of whom shares, “Ann Marie is great at client communication and shows creativity in her legal arguments.” Spearheading cybersecurity cases as a thought-leader and litigator, Mortimer has maintained an exceptionally active practice over the last year involving technology-breach, California Consumer Privacy Act violations, and a variety of multidistrict litigation cases. Mortimer obtained dismissal for Bath & Body Works facing a CCPA class action alleging violations although the named retailers were not involved in a data breach. She is also lead counsel for Meta Platforms, handling a multitude of cases across jurisdictions in an effort to curb abusive users and hold them accountable as the company has come under scrutiny over its responsibilities. Mortimer has secured a series of wins over the last year, including motions to dismiss counterclaims and affirmative defenses brought by the defendant in a case. In the cybersecurity space, Mortimer thwarted a putative data breach class action with a success motion to dismiss in favor of OneMain Holdings and OneMain Financial Group after it announced that a vendor shared reports of credit card transactions which contained privileged information.

A force among Midwestern firms, Husch Blackwell boasts a network of outposts spanning beyond its Missouri routes to Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Arizona, California, and a host of other states both east and west of the Mississippi River. Clients from across the country have tapped the firm for litigation in practice areas across the board, ranging from employment, False Claims Act lawsuits, liability, commercial disputes, arbitrations, and Lanham Act lawsuits. One client describes the firm assisting them successfully in “a large, complicated coverage matter with many moving parts, involving tenuous liability and significant inflammatory damages.” The same client commends the team’s ability to “think problems through, deal with complex coverage issues, and partner to find solutions.” Clients also appreciate the firm’s overall client relationships, praising the teams they worked with for “understanding our business” and providing “business-minded advice.” Specifically, one says, “Husch Blackwell has a deep understanding of the pharma industry and provides efficient and practical advice on a variety of pharma-related issues.” Another client commenting on the firm’s team organization and expertise says, “They are extremely diversified and seem to have an expert in every area of the law.”

     Kansas City partner Jeffrey Simon has experience handling cases in a wide variety of disciplines. As co-counsel with another recognized law firm, Simon represents Provisur Technologies in its patent infringement case filed in the Western District of Missouri against competitor Weber. After a 10-day trial, the jury found that the defendants infringed three of the four asserted patents and awarded full damages for the infringement. The jury also found that the defendants’ infringement was willful, leaving Simon the opportunity to seek more in damages and attorneys’ fees. In a separate and differing matter, he is lead counsel to the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners defending a member of the KCPD against topical claims of civil rights violations in connection with the officer’s fatal shooting of a suspect who was being apprehended. After an adverse summary judgment motion decision, Simon argued the appeal before the Eight Circuit, which reversed and remanded the case for reconsideration. The trial court granted summary judgment on remand, dismissing the case entirely. The plaintiff appealed again to the Eighth Circuit, which Simon again argued, and won. In St. Louis, Chris Smith offers his commercial litigation expertise to healthcare clients throughout the country. He is lead counsel to Cigna and Express Scripts against New York City Transit Authority, which alleges that it was damaged by increasing prescription drug costs and healthcare fraud by its employees. Smith is engaged in pre-trial proceedings to address the NYCTA’s broad indemnification standard and claim liability. In New Mexico, Smith represents Centene in a putative class action alleging the client is obligated to provide medical marijuana coverage within the state. The issue of jurisdiction is being litigated currently, as Smith moved the matter to the District of New Mexico, arguing that it is a federal issue, whereas the plaintiffs have moved to remand the matter to the state court. St. Louis-based intellectual property specialist Rudy Telscher represents a subsidiary of Honeywell in a trade secret and breach of contract matter. He successfully transferred the case from the Western District of Texas to the Southern District of Texas and the matter is currently in discovery. In a cross-border dispute, Telscher represents Fosbel in the Western District of New York and Canada in a lawsuit filed by Vancour Refractories, a competing company in the coke over industry, as well as co-defendant Stelco in a parallel lawsuit. The case was brought under a seldomly litigated statute that allows plaintiffs to allege infringement claims in the US for exporting components from the US for assembly in another country that is alleged to be infringing. Beau Jackson of the Kansas City office is an International Trade Commission expert, successfully resolving several cases over the last year, including a complete victory on behalf of Larid Connectivity against the Netherlands-based subsidiary of Philips RS North America which alleged violations of Section 337 under the Tariff Act. After trial in 2021, the ITC adopted the Administrative Law Judge’s decision, finding that the asserted patents were not infringed and the claims of the three patents were invalid as indefinite or lacking written description.

     Chicago-based intellectual property star with an emphasis on the life sciences industry Don Mizerk is described as “very experienced in a variety of matters related to FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.” He recently defended Sigmapharm Laboratories in an ANDA dispute filed by H. Lundbeck and Takeda Pharmaceuticals after the client sought approval for its generic version of antidepressant vortioxetine. Mizerk took the case to trial before Judge Leonard Stark in the District of Delaware, who found that the client’s generic version would not infringe any patents-in-suit. The plaintiffs have appealed two issues regarding the use of patents to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

     Marnie Jensen of the Omaha, Nebraska office is a sought-after expert for food and agriculture matters, among other government relations cases. One client has remarked, “She is incredibly personable, knows our business, and is our go-to person for food issues.”  Milwaukee partner Ann Maher has a deep expertise in handling litigation and receives praise for her emphasis on client relationships. “She listens to the problem and asks appropriate questions to gather information, provides advice regarding strategy, and has great follow-through,” one client describes. “Ann is honest in her opinions. If we have some or complete culpability, she will tell you. If not, she is a great defender.” Maher represents Cleaver-Brooks in a case filed by a former distributor. The lawsuit alleges the client’s termination of the distributor agreement violated the Minnesota Franchise Act, among other claims. She prevailed against the plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction in the District of Minnesota and granted summary judgment as to all the plaintiff’s claims. Lorinda Holloway debuts as a Litigation Star this year with praise from clients for her talent across specialties. “She is very knowledgeable, takes a practical approach, and is extremely responsive,” notes a client. Holloway is active in litigation on behalf of clients in the healthcare industry. She represents South Austin Family Practice Clinic d/b/a Premier Family Physicians (PFP) against a False Claims Act retaliation claim brought by a former physician who quit after the clinic placed him on a performance improvement plan. Holloway succeeded in dismissing his other cliams for fraud, conversion, misappropriation, and violations of the Theft Liability Act, as well as the tortious interference claim. The Government declined to take the case following an extensive investigation into the plaintiff’s claims.

Litigation boutique Kaplan Hecker & Fink is viewed by peers as “the place to be” at the moment. “They chose the right time to form that firm,” says one. “Their model is superb, and their approach dovetails perfectly with the issues of this moment in history.” Another states, “They are all fantastic attorneys, and the firm has really expanded. They picked up some recent attorneys from the US Attorney’s office.” A client testifies on the firm’s behalf: “The firm provides excellent advocacy for its clients. The lawyers are strategic and relentless.” The firm’s partners continue to demonstrate the fierce commitment to social justice that has been in its DNA since it was founded in 2017, and its partners, all formerly with “big law” firms, boast a remarkably trial-tested résumé for their relatively young vintage. Historically a New York-based shop, the firm recently expanded, opening a DC office and welcoming back Joshua Matz, who returned to the firm after serving as counsel to the US House Judiciary Committee, as a partner in February 2020. The firm’s partners continue to demonstrate the fierce commitment to social justice that has been in its DNA since its 2017 founding. All formerly with “Big Law” firms, they have a remarkably trial-tested résumé for their relatively young vintage. Historically a New York-based shop, the firm recently expanded – opening a DC office and welcoming back Joshua Matz, who returned to the firm after serving as counsel to the US House Judiciary Committee, as a partner in February 2020.

All three name partners attract considerable praise. Founder and all-purpose trial lawyer Roberta “Robbie” Kaplan, who earned her stripes at Paul Weiss before initially launching this firm as Kaplan & Company, continues to earn plaudits for her role as a mentor and driver of the firm’s culture – as well as for her unwavering commitment to pursuing cases dedicated to progressive causes. “She is a relentless advocate, who is afraid of no one. She adopts her clients’ causes and does an excellent job at messaging.” Kaplan grabbed headlines in October 2017 when she was one of two partners retained by non-profit organization Integrity First for America to represent 11 plaintiffs from Charlottesville against 26 defendants implicated in the white nationalist/neo-Nazi rally that took place in Charlottesville that August and culminated in violence and other shameful events. The defendants include named people and several organizations, such as the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Nationalist Front. This case set a precedent at the 2018 Benchmark awards ceremony as the only case to be acknowledged with a prestigious “impact case” recognition, well before a favorable decision was reached, simply on the strength of the principles and audacity of the case. The case set further precedent when it became the only case to receive the “impact case” honor twice, when it was recognized once again at the 2022 ceremony after jurors in the November 2021 trial found that more than a dozen white supremacist and hate groups were liable under state law for injuries to counter-protesters and ordered them to pay the plaintiffs more than $25 million in damages. The final reward for this case came in the form of a $4.9 million award in expenses and legal fees – vindication that was all the more remarkable as Virginia typically doesn’t allow attorney fees except in certain contractual and civil rights claims. It will be a significant deterrent and expense for defendants. In a more recent development that bookends the Donald Trump era, Kaplan represents E. Jean Carroll, a journalist who is suing Trump for having defamed her after she publicly recounted her experience of being sexually assaulted in the mid-1990s. In one lawsuit, she alleges a defamation claim arising from statements that Trump made in 2019. In a second suit, she alleges a battery claim for the underlying assault and a defamation claim for a 2022 statement. The case went to trial in April 2023 and was met with a $5 million verdict on Carroll’s behalf in May. Subsequent attempts by Trump to reduce this verdict have thus far failed. Kaplan also was retained by the NCAA to conduct an independent investigation into gender-equity issues in connection with the association, focusing on NCAA championships.

Sean Hecker, a white-collar specialist, is a peer and client favorite, with accolades elicited on a near-unanimous basis. “Sean Hecker is just crushing it,” says one contemporary. “There are a lot of levels of performance that he hits, and he is also just a super great guy to be around.” Hecker acts with Jenna Dabbsin filing a suit on behalf of the Federal Defenders of New York in the wake of a humanitarian crisis at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY arising from an electrical fire in the middle of winter, resulting in loss of heat, light, hot water, and proper medical care, as well as the cancellation of all attorney visits – violating applicable regulations. The Kaplan Hecker duo quickly secured a Temporary Restraining Order, ensuring that the jail resumed legal visitation. However, the court later found that Federal Defenders was not the proper party to pursue the claims. In March 2020, the firm’s team secured a favorable ruling from the Second Circuit on behalf of the Federal Defenders of New York, reversing and vacating that decision. Since that ruling, Kaplan Hecker has continued to represent Federal Defenders. Dabbs is championed by a client as “very knowledgeable, with good business sense.” Julie Fink is representing several former players in the National Women’s Soccer League who came forward about widespread sexual harassment and abuse in the League.

Headquartered in downtown DC, Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick is a mid-sized law firm home to numerous trial-tested appellate and complex litigation lawyers.
       Founding and managing partner Michael Kellogg specializes in appellate, regulatory, and antitrust issues, many of which he has argued before the US Supreme Court. Fellow name partner Mark Hansen is a seasoned trial lawyer active in civil and criminal actions. As counsel, he has obtained some of the largest judgments in antitrust and unfair trade practice cases in recent history. David Frederick, a name partner, manages a diverse practice in the appellate arena. He has represented an array of individuals, classes and companies before the US Supreme Court, state supreme courts, and in every court of appeals across the country. Frederick serves as lead counsel for National Credit Union Administration in a lawsuit against numerous international and national banks. Aaron Panner is recognized for his work in the antitrust space. He is active representing clients in high-profile, high-stakes disputes in appellate and district courts across the country. He recently represented iPhone owners in one of the most considerable victories for private antitrust plaintiffs before the US Supreme Court. Andrew Shen is recognized for his breach of contract, securities, antitrust, health care, fraud, telecommunications, and whistleblower litigation practice. He recently represented an insurance company in a string of lawsuits related to the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities. Steven Benz is recognized as an antitrust and unfair competition expert, having represented clients in numerous complex commercial actions throughout his 25-plus year career. He is part of the lead counsel team representing Veeva in a suit filed by a rival life sciences giant which accuses the client of poaching an employee as part of an alleged practice that encourages competitors’ works to breach noncompete agreements. A Maryland federal judge determined the court had no jurisdiction over the matter.

Based in the Philadelphia suburb of Radnor, Pennsylvania, plaintiff heavyweights Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check have scored nationwide wins in the class-actions sphere. Clients voice appreciation for its partners being “well prepared in analysis of cases,” and “keeping the client informed.” While domiciled in suburban Pennsylvania, the firm’s ambitions have taken it global. “Kessler Topaz has a lot of penetration in the European market. They spent a lot of money on that, and it has paid off. They realized that there was a space in Europe where they did not know there was a class-action market at all, and so they built a monitoring practice with them. This has grown to the point where they are representing institutional investors in the US as well.”

In a recent example of the rewards of the firm’s overseas entrepreneurialism, Kessler Topaz scored a major win in February 2022, when a $1.6 billion global settlement became effective with Steinhoff International Holdings, Steinhoff auditor Deloitte & Touche South Africa, and Steinhoff’s former directors and officers and their D&O insurers. The settlement is purportedly the largest securities settlement outside the US to date. It resolves claims brought by Steinhoff common stock shareholders before courts in the Netherlands, Germany, and South Africa for losses they sustained as a result of Steinhoff’s December 2017 revelation that it had discovered accounting irregularities and that it had overstated profits by $7.4 billion between 2009 and 2017. Kessler Topaz, representing more than 40 institutional investors from around the globe, initially filed legal action in the Netherlands, seeking recovery of investor losses and a judicial examination.

Stuart Berman is particularly noted for his non-US litigation practice, as is Darren Check. The latter is praised by a client as “very knowledgeable and informative” and someone who “always keeps his clients up to date on the status of cases.”

While the firm has been primarily lauded for its securities practice, an area in which it has scored some of its most noteworthy victories, there has been a push toward antitrust cases as of late. In one example, Joseph Meltzer represents a class of plaintiffs who filed a Consolidated Class Action Complaint against pharmaceuticals entity Amarin, alleging that, having pursued and lost patent infringement litigation against would-be generic competitors as well as exhausting every regulatory means to prevent and delay the launch of generic competitors, Amarin adopted an unlawful strategy to artificially extend its monopoly for its sole product, Vascepa. By locking up every viable supplier of the key ingredient needed to manufacture generic Vascepa, Amarin boxed generic manufacturers out of the market. This scheme left Amarin free to continue charging supracompetitive prices and obtain the most profit it could out of Vascepa, at the expense of the plaintiffs and other purchasers of the drug. In another “antitrust-adjacent” matter, Meltzer and Check represent a class of plaintiffs, New Jersey municipalities, who filed a complaint against video programming and cable entities Netflix and Hulu, alleging that the defendants were required to file an application for individual certificates of approval or a system-wide franchise, in accordance with a New Jersey state statute, and failed to do so – and thus are providing cable television services throughout New Jersey without authorization and in contravention of the New Jersey Cable Television Act. Such certificates of approval and/or franchise would have authorized the defendants to use public rights-of-way to provide their cable television service and video programming, provided that defendants make payments to each municipality in which it provides service. The required payment is equal to a percentage of the gross revenues derived from subscription fees paid by subscribers in each municipality. The plaintiffs seek to require the defendants to abide by the CTA and pay what they owe to New Jersey municipalities.

Kirkland & Ellis has become an international powerhouse equipped with a diverse breadth of talent and bench strength, often holding high-level appointments in virtually every area of practice it offers. Over the years, the firm has been characterized as “formidable” with “something ‘cool and tough’ about them that you just can’t touch.” The firm’s litigation section has surmounted the market in nearly all practice areas – antitrust, securities, product liability, appeals, intellectual property, white collar and investigations, commercial and bankruptcy. As of late, its product liability, antitrust, and bankruptcy practices have been particularly active with its signature top-tier representation.

     Kirkland is noted for housing leaders in trial law. The marquis of the trial team is DC lawyer Mike Brock, a consistent name on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list since its inception in 2014. He has led the team – equipped with Chicago’s standout partners Leslie Smith and Anne Sidrys – in one of the largest multidistrict litigations, representing the client through numerous bellwether trials, many of which were successful. New York’s Devora Allon and Jay Lefkowitz serve as the go-to team for antitrust cases involving pharmaceutical companies. Peers also serving the pharmaceutical industry have noted their work in the market on behalf of generics. “They are very busy and cornered a subset of the market,” observes a peer who represents brands. Allon and Lefkowitz achieved two wins for Impax Laboratories recently in separate antitrust actions. One concerned a Federal Trade Commission challenge for a pay-for-delay agreement between Impax and Endo, for which the team secured a full dismissal in March 2022. This year, the pair obtained a key settlement in the multidistrict litigation arising from a patent litigation settlement. The win followed a successful summary judgment ruling as to claims brought by the end-payor payments and won remand of the initial order certifying the class. Allon and Lefkowitz have also been handling product liability cases concerning marketing and sales disputes. Lefkowitz also specializes in appellate work. For Teva Pharmaceuticals, the pair prevailed on a second motion to certify a class of direct purchasers after the Third Circuit granted the team’s petition for interlocutory appeal and reversed the district court’s certification.

     New York-based Sandra Goldstein is a leader of the securities bar, known for her “terrific reputation” and “sizeable book of business,” according to a peer in the market. “She has a carousel of securities and Delaware-related litigation on the go,” they add. Another observes, “If you do anything in private equity – anything! – Kirkland is involved somewhere.” She has developed a talented bench dedicated to securities litigation in the New York office.

     Goldstein and Stefan Atkinson have served as lead counsel defending numerous clients against securities class actions over the last year. They handled litigation in major markets for securities, such as Delaware. The pair recently represented 3G Capital, one of the largest shareholders, in a derivative action alleging violations of federal securities laws and breach of fiduciary duty. Goldstein and Atkinson achieved a complete dismissal in both Illinois and Delaware, affirmed on appeal. They combined efforts with Rachel Fritzler in representing Honeywell and certain current and former officers, as well as a Honeywell employee and former officer of Garrett Motion, in two separate securities class actions. The former arose out of the company’s accounting for asbestos-related liabilities, and Fritzler, Goldstein and Atkinson obtained a favorable settlement. In the latter case, representing an employee and officer, the class action alleges violations of Section 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act. After oral argument, the team obtained a full dismissal.

     New York’s Matthew Solum and Aaron Marks are well-regarded partners in the securities and commercial litigation arenas. Solum, regarded as “a great lawyer and a lovely guy,” has been increasingly active on the securities front. As one peer in the market confirms, “We are seeing him everywhere and not just in one specific type of securities case either. He gets M&A work, derivative work, class actions – you name it.” Solum and Yosef Riemer secured a victory on behalf of Bristol Myers Squibb at the Second Circuit, successfully dismissing a securities class action that sought $10 billion in damages. Plaintiffs alleged that Bristol Myers Squibb misled investors about the clinical trial assessing its first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer, Opdivo. The Second Circuit agreed with Riemer and Solum’s arguments and further clarified the use of expert testimony in complaints governed by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

     Another leader representing the financial industry comments, “Aaron Marks is a brilliant lawyer and has phenomenal judgment.” On the complex commercial front, Solum and Marks represented Blackstone and its affiliates in New York and in Italy where they handled an arbitration in Milan. The dispute stemmed from the client’s purchase of an office complex from RCS Media Group, which alleged that Blackstone had engaged in criminally usurious conduct. Acting as plaintiffs, Solum and Marks settled the claims in New York. In Milan, the team obtained an arbitration ruling that it did not engage in misconduct.

     The firm is also a dominant force in bankruptcy, as one leading lawyer put it, “In bankruptcy, it’s Kirkland every day.” A trial lawyer of many disciplines, Michael Slade led the team handling the first major cryptocurrency restructuring in the US, representing Voyager in its efforts to regroup following FTX. After a four-day hybrid confirmation hearing that encompassed cross-examining witnesses live and virtually, Voyager’s proposed “toggle” plan was confirmed, but not without objections from individual creditors and government entities such as the US Department of Justice and New York State, among others. The government has appealed. Slade is a leader in more areas than just bankruptcy. He is recognized in commercial and product liability litigation and also as a Top 100 Trial Lawyer.

While Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel has been a mainstay of the New York legal community since its inception, it has, in recent years, expanded in a modest and measured fashion, starting with an office in Silicon Valley, and moving full steam in to the DC market by storm with its auspicious acquisition of prized local shop Robbins Russell, incorporating a deep team of celebrated practitioners across several practice areas. “That’s a big deal,” sums up one local peer, voicing the general consensus. “Robbins Russell was a classic DC firm and now the platform has given both sides many new opportunities.” Key among these new recruits is appellate “dynamo” Roy Englert, a frequent visitor to the Supreme Court and an authority in the practice. Englert is “all appeals, all the time,” and respected by a vocal percentage of the leading figures in the DC appellate community. “Roy is fantastic,” testifies one peer. “He brought an amicus in a case we are working on, and we were very impressed.” Gary Orseck is another recruit with fluency in appeals, as well as a broad-based commercial, securities and white-collar practitioner. “Gary is a tremendous lawyer,” extols a peer. “He has a really good sense of judgment and is a great writer.” Orseck’s achievements exemplify these ringing endorsements; he defended United Health Services’ officers and directors in a derivative suit alleging securities fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and other claims, relating to alleged improper patient-admission practices at the client’s affiliated behavioral-health facilities throughout the country. The claims were dismissed in 2019 but went to appeal In December 2021, at which point the parties resolved the matter, originally valued at more than $1.5 billion, on the basis of non-monetary reforms regarding corporate compliance. In a similar matter, Orseck leads a team defending Community Health Systems and certain of its affiliates and former officers against fraudulent transfer, breach of contract, illegal dividend, and related claims brought by the Litigation Trustee for the QHC Litigation Trust. The Litigation Trustee seeks to avoid, among other things, a $1.2 billion transfer from QHC to CHS in connection with a 2016 spinoff transaction. The DC group comes with some youth factor to balance out the senior talent; future star William Trunk is part of Orseck’s team on the aforementioned Community Health matter, and Ariel Lavinbuk comes equipped with a practice that encompasses commercial litigation as well as a bankruptcy element, an area for which Kramer Levin, through its New York office, has historically been seen as Tier 1. 

     The bankruptcy practice has earned plaudits from fellow leaders in the area. “It is run by Ken Eckstein and Tom Mayer, who are great in court, great at deals, and just great at bankruptcy everywhere,” declares one peer, who further attests, “I see them all the time and they give me and anyone else a run for the money.” Eckstein leads a team that, for the past three years, has served as lead bankruptcy counsel to represent the Ad Hoc Committee (AHC) of 10 state attorneys general, six municipalities, and the Plaintiffs Executive Committee in the multidistrict litigation and a federally recognized Native American Tribe in the ongoing bankruptcy saga of embattled opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma. White-collar crime is another field in which Kramer Levin boasts an unanimously lauded roster. “The Kramer Levin team actually does trials! That’s rare in the white-collar world, and these are actually for some very high-profile individuals,” marvels one peer. Barry Berke is an undisputed leading presence. He was recently thrust into the limelight when he was called into service as special counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives in connection with its investigation and impeachment proceedings of Donald Trump, and as of February 2020, Berke returned to Kramer Levin with newly burnished credentials. Not that he needed them; even before this engagement, Berke has been routinely identified by peers as “absolutely one of the best,” with one elaborating, “Especially at his age point, he has some of the best experience you could ask for and credibility beyond question.” Clients agree; one calls Berke “a counselor, a litigator, and a strategist,” and goes on to assert, “No one is better.” While Berke’s profile in the community is undisputed, others in this group are making their mark. Dani James acted with Berke in representing Theodore Huber, a partner and analyst at Deerfield Management, in parallel actions brought by the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission arising from Huber’s trading based on purportedly confidential government information relating to Medicare reimbursement for healthcare services. Both celebrated white-collar stars Berke and James represented biotech giant Amgen in a commercial litigation capacity in the client’s dispute with Novartis over the latter’s alleged breach of contract and tortious conduct arising out of the parties’ collaboration agreement to commercialize a migraine drug. On a counterclaim, Amgen alleged that Novartis breached the contract when it allowed its subsidiary to manufacture a competing migraine drug, and then actively concealed this from Amgen. The Kramer Levin team on this matter also included Norman Simon, who typically deals with cases involving the Lanham Act and false-advertising claims, niche areas in which Kramer Levin has been noted as being one of the few major players.
     The firm has recently developed a more “hard IP” practice, spearheaded by Dr. Irena Royzman, who is noted by peers to “occupy a definite presence in the pharma patent space.” Royzman has historically represented Janssen, and on behalf of this client sued several generic manufacturers under the Hatch-Waxman Act for infringement of patents protecting Symtuza, a treatment for HIV/AIDS. The action is in active fact discovery and claim-construction proceedings, and a bench trial is scheduled for October 2023. The IP area is bookended on the West Coast by Lisa Kobialka in the Silicon Valley office (opened in 2011). Kobialka, whose practice is primarily devoted to the tech space, brought patent infringement actions against Xerox and Ricoh relating to systems and methods covering various aspects of printers and/or copiers as well as their processes, performance and maintenance, and workflow management. 

     The firm upholds its dedication to labor and employment litigation, regularly representing high-profile clients in a variety of respects, particularly emphasizing – though not limiting itself to – highly sensitive and complex single-plaintiff employment disputes. No stranger to the public eye, employment law chair Kevin Leblang of New York is regularly active at the forefront of the most highly exposed disputes in employment litigation. Leblang currently defends Stifel in a sexual harassment lawsuit that has gained significant market attention. In 2022, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) passed, leading the court to reverse its initial order to compel arbitration. Leblang has since appealed the decision to the Second Circuit. Leblang is routinely prepraing for trial. He is also active in discovery and pre-trial practice, defending Société Général in a sexual orientation and harassment lawsuit. Eliza Kaiser, also of the firm’s New York office, represents leaders across a variety of industries in disputes and investigations. Kaiser represented Facebook against a Department of Justice action that alleged that the company engaged in discriminatory hiring practices in the US in relation to its immigration policies. She negotiated a settlement with the DOJ as well as a parallel matter with the Department of Labor. Leblang and Kaiser’s fellow partner Robert Holtzman was recently engaged in three separate arbitrations on behalf of Natixis, all of which were successfully resolved.

Plaintiff shop Labaton Sucharow continues to stick to its historic roots as a securities boutique, although in recent years, the firm has broadened its scope to take on antitrust and privacy issues with the same formidable resolve. Corroborating the firm’s expansion, a peer advises, “Look closer – Labaton is getting more into the consumer class-actions space as well, particularly with privacy and data breach work.” The firm is strategically placed in the financial district of New York as well as in Wilmington, Delaware and Washington, DC, where it is well poised to feed heartily on a steady diet of corporate disputes arising on Wall Street and in the Delaware Court of Chancery. As far as its prized securities practice, the firm remains at the top echelon, as a defense-side peer says, “Labaton is one of the few plaintiff firms that get the big, meaty securities cases and they litigate them.”

     Elevated to Litigation Star status this year and recognized as a National Practice Area Star in securities as well, Carol Villegas is lauded for her “grit and talent” and denoted by a market peer as “the one who’s very prominent [at Labaton].”  Villegas serves as the youngest team leader in the firm’s history, spearheading the burgeoning Consumer Protection and Data Privacy Practice. In the privacy space, she serves as co-lead class counsel in their case alleging violations of privacy rights and related statutes against Flo Health, a women's health app developer that allows users to track data such as fertility and menstruation. While Villegas is trailblazing through the privacy and consumer protection litigation, she continues to be a pillar of the plaintiff-side securities bar. She is currently serving as co-lead counsel in a securities lawsuit filed against payment platform giant PayPal after it revealed that its “net new active” accounts were artificially inflated and illegitimately created by employees and “bot farms,” leading to a drop in stock prices. Villegas recently filed an Amended Complaint. In a case that was recently resolved, she defeated the defendant Uniti’s motion to dismiss and prevailed also on its motion for reconsideration. After filing a motion for class certification during discovery, Uniti settled for $38,875,000. Villegas and fellow star of the New York office Michael Canty are lead counsel to the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico in a securities action against California’s utility provider, PG&E. The leading partners had to adjust their strategy when the company filed for bankruptcy in the Northern District of California. Pivoting to bankruptcy proceedings, Villegas and Canty objected to and resolved unfavorable terms on behalf of the lead plaintiff and the putative class in the Plan of Reorganization. Their efforts preserved the claims of the putative class and at one point, extended the deadline for claimants after the defendants failed to provide proper notice to file a claim. Canty leads the trial representing Caprenters Pension Trust for Northern California and the Carpenters Annuity Trust Fund for Northern California, among others, in a securities class action filed against Allstate, the company’s CEO and its former President of Allstate Protection. The case arises from the company’s alleged growth strategy that ultimately led to relaxed underwriting standards which caused claims to increase.  Canty laid the ground before trial with several critical victories, including prevailing against the defendants’ motion to dismiss, class certification, and defeating the defendants’ motion to exclude the opinions of his experts.  

    James Johnson, a more senior partner in the New York office, lays claim to several key victories of his own. He serves as co-lead counsel in a closely watched battle with Goldman Sachs arising from its concealment of misconduct involving multiple collateralized debt obligations shorting the mortgage market ahead of the 2008 financial crisis. The long-running case dates back to June 2012 when the district court denied Goldman’s motion to dismiss, leading to the class certification in 2015. After interlocutory appeal, a remand order from the Second Circuit, and another class certification granted in 2018, the Second Circuit published an opinion affirming the class certification in 2020. In June 2021, the Supreme Court further affirmed the class certification, but clarified the legal standards involved in deciding price impact at the class certification stage. The case was remanded to the Second Circuit, which remanded the case to the district court. The class was certified for a third time, and the case went before the Second Circuit again. Oral arguments took place in September 2022.

     One of Labaton’s biggest accomplishments as of late has been the rising profile of the firm’s Delaware practice. This has largely been attributed to the efforts of Ned Weinberger, a partner who has made a splash in the Delaware market and has had the community talking. “Ned is one of the leaders,” confirms one Wilmington peer. “There are no shortcuts in Delaware – you have to earn your way up through the peers and judiciary. Ned has gotten appointed lead counsel on several cases, important cases, over people from several other plaintiff firms that are more established in Delaware!” Another peer adds, “Courts love him, he’s an aggressive litigator who gets results.” His status has succeeded against the established names, as one remarks, “These days, he has very quickly risen up to the position of being my first or second call if I needed to refer a case to a plaintiff. I would choose him over more established plaintiffs in Delaware, who are older and fading.” In a high-profile case watched closely by the Delaware market, Weinberger served as co-lead counsel against controlling stockholders of Dell, alleging they had breached their fiduciary duties by expropriating billions of dollars in value from Dell’s Class V Stockholders. He prevailed on the defendants’ motion to dismiss the second amended complaint. In the fourth amended consolidated complaint filed, Weinberger and the great plaintiffs’ team added Goldman Sachs as a defendant, alleging aiding and abetting claims. Weinberger engaged in fact and expert discovery, and three weeks before the trial, the defendants settled, and the proposed settlement hearing was scheduled for April 2023. Weinberger has been at trial representing minority shareholders of Straight Paith in a lawsuit arising from the company’s merger with Verizon. The plaintiffs allege that the controlling shareholder, Howard Jonas, breached his fiduciary duty after his actions caused shareholders to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Delaware Court of Chancery Vice Chancellor Glasscock denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss, which was affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court in 2019. The defendants IDT and Jonas filed motions for summary judgment involving the indemnification agreement between IDT and Straight path; their motions however were denied. The trial was set in two phases, and the parties have been engaged in post-trial briefings.

Lightfoot Franklin & White is an Alabama-headquartered litigation boutique with offices in Birmingham and Houston, Texas. The firm often serves as regional counsel to Fortune 500 companies on a wide range of matters, including catastrophic injury and bet-the-company litigation. The firm’s standing has been cemented by unanimous peer and client review – in keeping with this, Lightfoot was the recipient of the "Alabama Firm of the Year" award for the sixth consecutive year at the Benchmark Litigation awards in 2022. An appreciative client confirms, “Lightfoot is handling a high-profile parallel state and federal investigation that we are involved in. They are attentive, responsive, and help think through complicated issues. Their work product is excellent.” A local peer asserts, “Lightfoot isn’t the biggest firm in Alabama but they certainly have the biggest reputation for litigation, on the defense side anyway.” It is also noted that “Lightfoot is diverse in its scope. There are other great litigation firms in Alabama but they tend to focus more on one industry, like insurance or healthcare. Lightfoot goes well beyond that.They have really developed relationships nationally, with major national clients. In fact, I think only a small percentage of their cases lately have been in Alabama!” 
     Exemplifying this testimonial, Jack Sharman has been appointed by the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney as special counsel to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office in an investigation into certain activities in the state by former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election. The investigation is currently focused on a call between then-President Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pressured Raffensperger to investigate alleged fraud that would overturn Georgia’s presidential election results. Sharman also represents the Office of the Secretary of State in discussions with the Congressional committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol. “Jack is intelligent, responsive, level-headed, and creative,” extols a client. “He's an excellent counselor and good at dealing with opposing sides professionally.” Demonstrating the firm’s growing clout with national clients, Michael Bell and Chandler Bailey represent GM in a complex wrongful-death and catastrophic-injury case against claims of defective design arising from an accident that occurred involving five federal agents in a 2013 Chevrolet 15-passenger van. One federal agent died after being removed from the van and the others sustained various orthopedic injuries. Plaintiffs allege the van was defective because it did not come equipped with forward collision alert and/or automatic emergency braking and claim over $60 million in non-punitive damages. Trial was set for July 2022. Lee Hollis is defending GE Healthcare, the manufacturers of an anesthesia machine, in a suit brought by the family of a minor patient at the University of Florida Health Jacksonville who suffered from hypoxia and sustained a significant brain injury while under anesthesia. After the incident, it became clear that a preparatory test on the machine was not performed and the anesthesia resident conducting the procedure was unfamiliar with the equipment, resulting in the incident. The mistake by the resident was apparent to the attending physician and the hospital. The attending physician committed suicide in the wake of the incident, and the hospital reached a settlement with the family of the patient. The family of the patient has now sued GE Healthcare, seeking nearly $7 million in damages. In a novel prosecutorial role, Ashby Pate served as lead prosecutor for the State of Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission in a widely publicized judicial ethics trial of Judge Nakita Blocton. Charges filed by Pate in May of 2021 include complaints concerning multiple rules of judicial ethics, including delayed ruling on cases involving disfavored lawyers, working under the influence of medication in her chambers that cause erratic behavior, forcing staffers to take diet pills, and using fake social media accounts to harass people with cases before her. After a three-day trial, Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary handed down the harshest sanction available – removal from the bench and taxing of costs. Lightfoot has succeeded in its growth and recruiting strategy as well, with an impressive showing of new future stars in this edition. One of these, Rachel Lary, is touted as, “really the point person day-to-day on the GM litigation, managing it in eight states. She also has an interesting estate litigation practice.” 

McKool Smith has established itself as a litigation force to be reckoned with – a reputation that continues today on the strength of its deep bench of trial lawyers that spans seven offices in the US (four in Texas, the state in which the firm saw its genesis). “McKool is a top-notch plaintiff’s and hedge fund litigation firm,” says one client. Another adds, “They are excellent across the board – analysis, technology, strategy and articulation.” A peer agrees, saying, “McKool is a real trial firm. Those people have trials in their DNA.” While its practitioners cover a broad spectrum of litigation practice areas, the firm is perhaps most celebrated for its intellectual property prowess, which has logged it several high-profile wins over the course of its history – and it continues to do so. “They bring a creative, aggressive litigation approach in the patent area,” says one client. Since 2007, the firm has represented WiLAN in securing settlement and licensing agreements with many of the world's leading technology providers.

Warren Lipschitz, a Dallas partner making his debut as a future star in this edition, secured an $85 million patent damages verdict on behalf of this client against Apple. The verdict was announced in January 2020, following a jury trial in the Southern District of California. The case was later remanded by the Federal Circuit for a new trial on damages. In March 2022, WiLAN announced that it had reached a confidential settlement with Apple resolving lawsuits in the US, Germany, and Canada. Also based in Dallas, Nicholas Mathews, along with Lipschitz, represented Ericsson in defense of a seven-patent assertion brought by IP Bridge. The case involved assertions concerning mobile communications and multicarrier communications. IP Bridge filed the case in June 2021. The case settled after the pretrial conference and shortly before the trial began. Dallas’s Robert Manley represents plaintiffs and prospective class representatives who assert claims for breach of contract, tortious interference, and breach of fiduciary duty against USPI Holding Company. Plaintiffs allege that the defendants intentionally devalued stock options and shares granted to plaintiffs under USPI’s 2015 employee stock-incentive plan. The case settled on confidential terms. “Robert Manley is one of the best trial lawyers I know,” raves a peer. “He is a storyteller.” A client calls Manley “organized, cool under pressure, creative, aggressive, professional – he brings excellent legal pleadings and court presence.” Manley is also involved in a case led by Houston’s Joshua Newcomer, in which the team defends various Zachry defendants in a suit filed in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas alleging fraudulent transfers, breaches of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, and wrongful corporate dissolution. The plaintiff seeks more than $1 billion from the defendants based upon claims arising from a billion-dollar public-private toll road construction project in central Texas that suffered from significant alleged defects. Newcomer is applauded by a client for his “responsiveness, writing ability, sophisticated analysis, preparing witnesses, and understanding client goals, values and limitations.” Dallas’s David Sochia is defending clients Xerox, Conduent and New Jersey Transit in a case involving alleged patent infringement, theft of trade secrets, breach of contract, interference with business relations, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment claims alleged by Bytemark. The case is pending in the Southern District of New York. A client calls Sochia “a great big-picture manager of cases, focusing on the overall goal, not just the immediate issues that arise over the course of litigation.”

Alan Whitehurst, in the DC office, is cheered by a client for “[having] an excellent grasp of the technology, the patent laws and litigation strategy. Plus, he is a great guy.” Another client raves, “[Alan brings] exceptional responsiveness and thorough analysis of case strengths and weaknesses. [He is] excellent [at] witness preparation and an excellent team member in a sprawling multiparty case.”

MoloLamken is a rare example of a litigation shop that has entrenched itself in three key geographic venues (New York, Washington, DC and Chicago) while remaining lean and nimble enough to qualify for “boutique” status. The firm’s name partners straddle the axis of trial and appellate counsel and maintain broad and diverse ranges of cases for an equally varied portfolio of clients. A peer offers in summation, “MoloLamken cover a lot of ground,” and further elaborates, “I’m actually seeing them doing a lot more plaintiff work!”
     New York’s Steven Molo, one of the firm’s founders, is considered “a visionary,” by peers, one of whom emphasizes, “He’s a trial lawyer! He goes to court more than many others on [Benchmark’s] list.” True to form, Molo led a team serving as class trial counsel in a 10b-5 securities fraud stockholder class action against a company that transported oil developed from fracking in North Dakota to the coasts.  Shortly before trial, the class reached a settlement with the company’s officers and defendants for $14 million, nearly the entire remaining insurance policy balance.  The ensuing jury trial proceeded against one remaining defendant, and a favorable verdict was rendered in June 2022.  The case is now in the claims-processing phase. Other members of this team included New York’s Sara Margolis and Robert Kry, who works from both the DC and New York offices. “Oh my God, Robert Kry is so good,” raves a peer. “You must recognize him!” Molo also leads an antitrust class action against National Association of Realtors concerning allegations of conspiracy to inflate commissions for real estate brokers, and was also retained by a Special Litigation Committee established by Twitter’s (now X’s) Board of Directors to investigate claims made in a shareholder-derivative suit filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery.  The suit alleged that the Board’s directors breached their fiduciary duties by approving a $3 billion settlement with an activist investor who was bent on ousting then-CEO Jack Dorsey. 
     Jeffrey Lamken, in the firm’s DC office, is an appellate practitioner. A client cheers his “excellent writing and strong skills in oral presentation.” A DC peer quips, “Jeff is so known for IP appeals cases that I think he’s developed a real niche in that world. God help you if you want a Supreme Court case out of the Federal Circuit because I’m sure Jeff is going to go after it and most likely get it.” Although intellectual property might be a particular substantive area of concentration, Lamken actually scored big in a bankruptcy-related appeal in which he represented the Official Committee of Talc Creditors in the Third Circuit in a challenge to the bankruptcy petition filed by J&J subsidiary LTL Management, who employed the infamous maneuver known colloquially as the “Texas Two-Step” allegedly in order to dodge a wave of incalculable personal injury lawsuits alleging that its talc-based baby powder causes cancer. Lamken argued on appeal that LTL lacked the financial distress required for a good-faith bankruptcy petition. The court agreed and ordered the bankruptcy court to dismiss LTL’s petition, and the bankruptcy case was dismissed in April 2023 after LTL declined to seek Supreme Court review.
     MoloLamken continues to enrich its talent ranks beneath the more senior name partners. New York’s Justin Ellis earns commendations from his peers, one of whom testifies, “I have partnered with Justin in a series of whistleblower complaints regarding fraudulent commercial mortgage-backed securities. [He’s an] excellent, hard-working attorney with a keen intellect and deep knowledge of the substantive area of work, namely securities litigation.” New York’s Ben Quarmby balances commercial and IP matters and is similarly championed by contemporaries. “I’m seeing Ben more and more, he’s doing really well in this space,” confirms one peer.

 

 

 

Situated strategically in New York City, Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello has built a premier white-collar crime and investigations practice recognized nationwide as the “go-to” for both domestic and international clients. Its esteemed white-collar practice is complemented by capability in commercial and securities litigation, largely involving executives and cutting-edge issues, as well as employment-related litigation and high-profile and sensitive investigations. Former co-counsel and clients alike have praised its lawyers’ expertise and professionalism in and out of the court room. “Morvillo is a top-notch firm,” one states. “Their lawyers are extremely intelligent, seasoned, and professional. They provide superior legal services. It is a pleasure working with them.” Another depicts the lawyers as “very responsive and knowledgeable in their subject matter.”

     Karen King and Kate Cassidy debuted as Litigation Stars this year. King is a civil litigator, representing clients involved in issues from regulatory disputes to cryptocurrency – an area in which she is a thought-leader. She has represented crypto-related clients nationwide, including a provider of online cryptocurrency market data, in a putative class action lawsuit filed in the District of Arizona. The plaintiffs assert violations of state and federal law in relation to an alleged scheme that suppressed the value of HEX cryptocurrency. King obtained a motion to dismiss, arguing a lack of personal jurisdiction and a failure to plead cognizable claims and continues to represent the client on appeal. King has taken cases for clients up to the United States Supreme Court. She represented Narkis Golan, a domestic violence survivor and the mother of the young child at the center of the case in a matter challenging the Second Circuit’s precedent and interpretation of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction. King successfully prevailed before the US Supreme Court. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored the unanimous opinion holding that the Second Circuit’s rule is inconsistent with the requirements and text of the Hague Convention, largely seen as a win for fellow survivors and their children. Cassidy is well-known for her expertise in high-profile criminal cases. She is currently representing Trump Organization members involved in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office investigation and trial regarding tax issues. Catherine Foti is distinguished for her prowess in investigations, especially those that highly sensitive and often in the public eye.

     One of the firm’s most recognized and celebrated lawyers is Elkan Abramowitz. A seasoned criminal defense litigator who is revered by clients and peers, Abramowitz is regularly called upon to handle the most sensitive and high-stakes cases. He has been working on investigations related to the Trump organization, including representing the Chief Executive Officer of American Media, the company that publishes the National Enquirer, in their involvement with the high-profile investigations related to the Michael Cohen and former President Donald Trump prosecutions brought by the SDNY and Manhattan District Attorney office. Richard Albert, a nationally recognized litigator in the field, works alongside Abramowitz on the case. On the litigation side, Abramowitz and Ed Spiro have moved to dismiss a lawsuit against former Governor Andrew Cuomo filed by the NRA alleging that he violated the association’s right to free speech and equal protection. He has been one of the go-to lawyers for COVID-19 related disputes, including a case representing CEO of MBE Capital, Rafael Martinez, against alleged claims of fraud related to loans provided under the Paycheck Protection Program. Robert Anello, another recognized name-partner, is well-known for his established expertise in investigating and litigating issues related to white-collar crime and regulatory compliance, and employment-related discrimination and sexual harassment allegations. He is one of the firm’s leaders in International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) investigations and defense. Richard Weinberg is an additional expert in regulatory and white-collar issues. Co-counsel in a white-collar and regulatory investigation shares their first-hand look into Weinberg’s handling of the case for the clients, saying, “Richard Weinberg has substantial experience and expertise. He has a strong reputation for quality work and integrity, and he’s responsive to the clients’ needs. He was able to provide real-world advice and problem solving.

     ”Described by peers as “very knowledgeable and experienced,” Jonathan Sack splits his time between handling high-profile investigations and litigation. He is representing an individual connection to Steve Bannon and his Southern District of New York (SDNY) investigation and the District Attorney of New York County’s case involving alleged fraudulent fundraising for “We Build the Wall”. He and Benjamin Fischer represent a former Blackrock portfolio manager, Randy Robertson, against alleged potential conflicts of interest related to a contested investment made in a film distribution company. Fischer and seasoned white-collar defense lawyer Lawrence Iason obtained a non-jail sentence representing former basketball player Milton Palacio in his criminal case involving allegations of fraudulent insurance claims.

     Morvillo’s distinguished Future Stars have received a chorus of praise from various co-counsel. Brian Jacobs is commended by co-counsel who says, “Brian is extremely intelligent, professional, knowledgeable, and personable. He is an exceptional lawyer and one of the best white-collar practitioners I know. He offers superior client service and handles difficult, highly complex cases.” Christopher Harwood is described by a peer as “brilliant, strategic, and careful,” especially when handling sensitive investigations. His experience in employment-related cases and investigations is also noteworthy.

     “I regularly refer clients to Telemachus “Tim” Kasulis at Morvillo,” contends a peer. “Tim is extremely analytical and experienced.  His trial skills are top notch, but, more importantly, his judgment is nuanced and exceptional.”  Robert Radick is recognized as an “excellent all-around lawyer who is thoughtful and thorough,” according to former co-counsel. “Rob is wonderful to work with.  He's smart and provides practical solutions to complex matters.”

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough has grown well beyond its humble Southeastern roots to enjoy nationwide acclaim. While still a regional powerhouse with offices in major markets like Atlanta, the Carolinas and Florida, the firm has secured spots in New York City, Boston, Denver, Baltimore, San Diego and District of Columbia, among many other markets. Expansion has come in all forms, bringing additional talent to the firm’s already strong bench each year. The firm’s product liability practice remains its most notable, with commercial litigation and others close behind.

     Michael Brown is recognized nationally as a Top 100 Trial Lawyer and leading practitioner in product liability. He is known as a “formidable” opponent whose recent dealings have involved defending Johnson & Johnson, as well as its subsidiaries, against a series of personal injury product liability claims. Several of the cases are expected to go to trial in the coming months. One case, Campbell v. Ethicon, part of a national multidistrict litigation, alleged that a sling implanted to treat incontinence was defective and injured the plaintiff. Brown and the team anticipated the plaintiff demanding tens of millions of dollars in punitive and compensatory damages based on the alleged claims of strict liability, negligence and fraud. The matter was settled before trial last summer. David Dukes holds the prestigious Top 100 Trial Lawyer status, also reaching national acclaim for his product liability practice. He is serving as co-lead trial counsel on behalf of a leading pharmaceutical company in multidistrict litigation.

     Baltimore’s Michael Blumenfeld specializes in commercial litigation, representing businesses of all sizes in their disputes related to contracts, torts, employment and product liability. He represents Howard Bank in the company’s lawsuit alleging breach of contract claims against Compu-Link dba Celink. Blumenfeld filed a complaint, which Celink did not respond to or enter its appearance in the Circuit Court of Baltimore, allowing Blumenfeld to file a Request of Entry of Order of Default. However, Celink sought to remove the complaint to federal court and filed a motion to dismiss. Blumenfeld filed a motion to remand the case back to circuit court. Ruling on the dueling motions, the federal court remanded the case, denying the motion to dismiss. Celink’s motion to dismiss filed at circuit court was also denied and the matter successfully settled prior to trial.

     Appellate and product liability partner Marc Williams of the Huntington, West Virginia office serves as lead trial counsel in a series of cases involving underground mine respirators. He represents American Optical in actions filed by the State of West Virginia Attorney General, alleging violations of the state’s Consumer Credit Protection Act. In other cases, handled on behalf of American Optical, the team obtained dismissals which they are currently defending on appeal.

Operating out of a single office in Manhattan, Patterson Belknap elicits resounding praise from a vocal contingent of peers and clients, the like of which is usually reserved for a national firm. “We think very highly of them,” opines one peer, summing up the general consensus. “They are not showy or flashy, they are just solid all across the board. We could use more like them.” A client expands on the firm’s overall approach through a glowing accolade: “They bring a potent combination of transactional and litigation expertise to the table to help clients achieve their objectives. Building on their knowledge of deal documents and judicial decisions, they are great strategists and excellent writers. They tell their client candidly when it has a weak position, rather than engaging in undue optimism.” The firm’s practice offering covers a wide spectrum, spanning commercial matters, white-collar crime, antitrust, intellectual property, securities, and false advertising claims, an area in which the firm is said to be one of few major players. The firm’s hybrid model also affords it the freedom to take on cases in the plaintiff and defense roles.

     Patterson Belknap has also made headlines of late for matters of a more novel nature.
 The firm made news in May 2022 when a team led by Adeel Mangi scored big for Appian Corporation in a trade secrets and computer theft case in Virginia State Court. The Patterson Belknap team secured an eye-popping $2 billion verdict for the client. Mangi makes an impressive leap from the future star level to litigation star in this edition and, even more remarkably, earns a position among the coveted Top 100 Trial Lawyers list on the strength of this win. Pegasystems appealed in February 2023, and the Patterson Belknap team continues to represent Appian on appeal. Other members of the team included Jeff Ginsberg and Muhammad Faridi, the latter of whom was also part of a team (led by Peter Tomlinson) that, after more than a decade of litigation and following multiple weeks of a trial that finally commenced in September 2022, secured a historic settlement of $1.84 billion for Ambac to resolve this matter and related cases against Bank of America entities. Ambac initiated this litigation against Countrywide Home Loans (now a BoA unit) in New York Supreme Court in 2010, alleging pervasive fraud and breaches of representations and warranties made by Countrywide relating to the mortgage loans underlying several residential mortgage-backed securities transactions – the likes of which brought the economy to its knees in 2008.

     William Cavanaugh, who is a noted authority in antitrust and intellectual property, represented Takeda Pharmaceuticals in patent litigation concerning hypertension drugs.  “Bill Cavanaugh is a top-tier trial attorney, who has a unique ability to distill complex matters to simple and persuasive propositions for juries,” testifies a client. 

     Saul Shapiro represents Charter Communications in a lawsuit filed arising out of a 2006 agreement, the terms of which permitted the plaintiff entity to sell customers a “white-label” high-speed internet service using Charter’s infrastructure, in exchange for supplying Charter with a number of IP addresses to allow its customers to connect to the plaintiff’s high-speed service. The plaintiff claims in the litigation that Charter customer service representatives defamed the plaintiff and that Charter refuses to return certain IP addresses that it supplied under the parties’ agreement. “Saul is a great communicator and oral advocate,” testifies a client. “He identifies all possible risks, no matter how minute, and is prepared for each.”

     Patterson Belknap is also one of the few New York firms to have cornered the market on the false advertising niche, primarily through Steve Zalesin, a universally lauded partner in this capacity. Zalesin won a victory for Allbirds, a maker of footwear and apparel using wool and natural materials, in a putative class action that challenged the company’s claims regarding the sustainability of its products and raw materials sourcing practices. In April 2022, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a motion to dismiss in full, with prejudice. Geoffrey Potter represents Abbott Labs in an action against more than 300 wholesalers, retailers, and individuals that bought and sold diverted international FreeStyle-brand blood glucose test strips in the US. Said test strips that are packaged for sale outside the US have labelling and instructions that have not been cleared by regulators for sale in the US and therefore pose a potential risk to consumers. Because international boxes cannot lawfully be sold in the US and are not covered by US insurance, the boxes are diverted with the intent that they will be fraudulently submitted to insurance as US boxes, allegedly causing Abbott to lose sales and make unwarranted rebate payments to insurers. Abbott secured a preliminary injunction against the defendants barring them from selling international FreeStyle strips, which was affirmed by the Second Circuit. Abbott is seeking out-of-pocket damages of more than $50 million, and punitive damages of more than $100 million. Potter and his team secured favorable settlements with, and permanent injunctions against, many of the defendants, and damages trials for the remaining defendants are being scheduled.

Initially headquartered in Seattle and still considered a dominant force in that city’s legal community, Perkins Coie is unique in its ambitious strategic expansion. Its West Coast origins have enabled to establish a considerable footprint in the western half of the US as well as in Asia, specifically China and Taiwan. Perkins Coie is also somewhat unique in its distribution of litigation talent; rather than clustered in one specific city or metropolis, the firm has stars in a variety of disciplines throughout its offices in more recently developed offices such as Madison, Wisconsin and Anchorage, Alaska. One peer notes, “Perkins Coie is still the big brand name in Seattle – they get all the Boeing work! – but some of their best litigators are actually spread throughout its other far-flung offices.”
     Perkins Coie scored a considerable coup, and immediately established a burgeoning New York presence, with the recent absorption of the entire litigation team of the former Richards Kibbe & Orbe firm when that firm decided to divest itself of its litigation practice in 2020. In doing so, Perkins Coie also received a significant augmentation to its securities and white-collar operations on the East Coast. Lee Richards, a seasoned star in this capacity, is revered by all peers in the white-collar and enforcement field who are familiar with him. Richards remains an active force in this field, with several high-level appointments to his credit in just the past year alone. He represented Liberty Health Sciences in a securities class action alleging that Liberty made materially false and misleading statements about certain of its policies. In March 2020, the court granted Liberty’s motion for leave to file a motion to dismiss the class-action complaint. Richards is also counsel for the former director of CBS, Charles Gifford, in a federal class action against CBS and various officers and directors alleging violations of the securities laws related to #MeToo allegations against former CBS CEO Les Moonves and other CBS employees. The motion to dismiss filed by Gifford and the other director defendants was granted in January 2020. Richards also represents ICAP in a settlement with US and UK regulators over its alleged role in Yen LIBOR rate manipulation. Another former Richards Kibbe partner, Shari Brandt, acts on this particular matter. Brandt, a consistently recognized nominee in Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation over the past several years, is also counsel to a (confidential) company as well as to former senior executives involved in a federal class action alleging antitrust violations arising out of a claimed conspiracy among bank defendants to stymie the growth of open access markets for interest rate swaps on swap execution facilities following implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act. Other former Richards Kibbe stars acquired include James Walker and Daniel Zinman.
     Beyond its recent buildout in securities and white-collar, Perkins Coie has also established itself as one of the leaders in insurance coverage cases, particularly through its DC office where Selena Linde is a noted standout. A peer observes, “Shadow insurance suits are becoming a real phenomenon, and Perkins Coie is really becoming a leader in this space, on the plaintiff side.” The firm is also a noted contender in the intellectual property arena. A peer in this space confirms, “We recently tried a really hard case against David Anstaett, who is kind of Mylan’s trusted counsel. It was a three-ring circus, all remote, with witnesses all over the world. We won, but Dave is a very skilled lawyer who managed the case very effectively.”

Polsinelli has grown beyond its Kansas City roots to inhabit various strategic locations throughout the country. The firm’s aggressive expansion over the years has equipped it with breadth and depth in many areas of litigation, while still maintaining its premier reputation as a go-to litigation firm for the healthcare industry.

      Chicago’s Mary Clare Bonaccorsi previously served as Polsinelli’s Cross-Department Litigation Chair, while keeping an active practice mainly focusing on the healthcare industry, routinely leading high-stakes corporate internal investigations for clients in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, her casework often involves false claims act litigation in both state and federal courts throughout the country. Thomas Gemmell and Daniel Reinberg join Bonaccorsi in the Chicago office. Gemmell’s practice mixes IP and business litigation. He leads several industry-specific practices, serving as lead of the unmanned systems and advanced robotics practice and co-lead of both the aviation practice and the transportation and logistics practice. Reinberg like Bonaccorsi concentrates his practice on the healthcare industry.

      John Peterson bridges a geographic and practice divide, practicing in Nashville and Chattanooga as well as Los Angeles, Peterson is a commercial litigator with vast experience in securities as well as real estate, and he is yet another Polsinelli partner devoted to healthcare litigation, an industry essential to Tennessee's economy. New addition to this year’s Litigation Star ranking is Atlanta-based partner Kurt Erskine. His practice’s focus is white collar crime, both investigating and litigating cases against state and federal entities. He is leading a healthcare company through a civil rights investigation conducted by the Department of Justice. Beyond the healthcare industry, Erskine is handling securities and insider trading fraud investigations by the SEC and DOJ, as well as a fraud case filed by the FBI and DOJ. Farah Nicol operates out of the firm’s Raleigh and Los Angeles offices and serves chair of the firm’s litigation department -- the first leader to not be based in Kansas City, the firm’s mainstay. Nicol’s primary focus is on product liability and toxic tort litigation.

     Rounding out the South, Dallas partner Adrienne Frazior debuts this year as a Litigation Star. She leads government investigations with an added expertise in employee benefits. Currently, Frazior defends companies that managed and administered self-funded health benefit plans in a Department of Labor investigation and subsequent litigation. She also defends a company in a matter alleging violations of Missouri Sunshine Laws, initiated by the state’s Attorney General.

     Polsinelli has maintained a commitment to upholding its labor and employment practice. Denise Drake, chair of the labor and employment practice, is among the firm’s leading, Missouri-based litigators. Drake is a leader through and through – leading the practice, the expansion into growing markets, and clients in their disputes. She has been consistently distinguished as a Labor & Employment Star since its inception, maintaining the status with a roster of notable class action disputes. Los Angeles litigator September Rea serves as the firm’s arbitration and dispute resolution vice chair, with Colorado-based Donald Samuels serving alongside her as chair. . Rea leads the California-based lawsuits arising from an investigation into allegations of C-suite misconduct that included abuse, harassment, retaliation and unfair competition. The case has spanned Italy, California, and Texas. Dallas’ Angelo Spinola specializes in handling labor and employment disputes on behalf of clients in the home health industry, particularly hospice and homecare companies. He recently resolved a lawsuit alleging violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) challenging the company’s alleged practice of not including certain nondiscretionary bonuses in the regular rate when calculating overtime pay. 

With seven of its 12 global offices situated strategically throughout the US, Proskauer provides a wide range of services to clients across a broad spectrum of practices ranging from commercial to intellectual property, securities to white-collar crime and investigations, as well as its near-unparalleled status in specialty areas of employment, entertainment and sports law.
     The firm has also seen a pronounced spike in its bankruptcy profile, solidly on the strength of its mammoth appointment as lead outside counsel to the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, which was created to oversee the restructuring of Puerto Rico's finances, valued at $125 billion, in accordance with the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA.) The Board's mandate is to return Puerto Rico to fiscal health with access to the capital markets, and to initiate pro-growth reforms designed to generate a free flow of capital between Puerto Rico and the US. This long-running and sprawling action involves a team of Proskauer attorneys from numerous offices, including Boston’s Timothy Mungovan, New York’s Martin Bienenstock and Margaret Dale, and Los Angeles’ Michael Firestein, all of whom have played substantial roles in the manifold turns of action in this matter since its beginnings. Dale, a commercial litigator who has made a noted pivot to bankruptcy, is involved in several other Puerto Rico-related issues, primarily dealing with employee retirement issues. In the latest chapter of this saga, in March 2023, the firm team prevailed in litigation against the Governor and Legislature of Puerto Rico seeking to nullify a statute that made numerous, sweeping changes to the employment laws in Puerto Rico and imposed significant restrictions on private employers in violation of the Oversight Board’s certified Fiscal Plan. Because the Governor violated PROMESA by failing to submit required evidence showing that the statute was consistent with the Fiscal Plan, the Court nullified the law. The Governor and Legislature have filed urgent appeals to the First Circuit, and the Legislature and Governor have both sought stays of the District Court’s ruling. Also in March 2023, the Proskauer team achieved a significant victory on behalf of the Oversight Board in ongoing litigation regarding bonds issued by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the sole electricity provider on the island.
     LA’s Bart Williams, not only one of the firm’s most celebrated trial lawyers but also the country’s, has been at the forefront of several milestone matters every year, with this one being no exception. Williams is trial counsel for Gilead Sciences in several high-stakes matters. One involves thousands of California state and federal product liability actions brought by approximately 20,000 plaintiffs related to Gilead’s life-saving HIV prevention and treatment drugs. The cases allege that Gilead was negligent in its development of certain of these drugs and that they 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 these medications. The first federal bellwether trial is set for January 2024. In another matter, Williams scored a landmark win for this same client, securing a significant trial victory in a $3.6 billion antitrust case on allegations that the pharmaceutical company struck an anticompetitive "pay-for-delay" patent settlement related to two of its HIV medications. In July 2023, a San Francisco jury delivered a full defense verdict following a six-week trial. Williams, along with swiftly rising New York star Lee Popkin, was also trial counsel for Monsanto in a jury trial that was scheduled to commence in March 2023 in San Francisco. The case was brought by an alleged former user of the Monsanto herbicide Roundup and his wife, who claimed that Roundup caused him to develop non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The matter settled favorably for the client on the eve of the trial.

     Proskauer has been particularly active, and successful, in the antitrust capacity as of late. Chris Ondeck, co-head of the firm’s antitrust group and co-head of its DC office, scored big for Wayne Farms when, after nearly seven years of litigation, he secured a complete victory at summary judgment in the broiler chicken litigation, in which plaintiffs alleged that the top 21 chicken producers in the US, including the client, unlawfully agreed to work together to reduce the supply of chicken over a 10-year period as part of a two-hub conspiracy. Plaintiffs claimed damages valued at $45 billion in total. Wayne Farms is one of a small group of defendants that has not settled any part of the case, and instead proceeded to summary judgment. In June 2023, the court granted summary judgment in favor of Wayne Farms and six other defendants, with one additional defendant (who, while being represented by another firm, was not granted summary judgment) is scheduled to proceed to trial in September 2023. Another DC-based antitrust co-chair, Colin Kass represents Bright Data, a web data service with a specialty in artificial intelligence, in its multi-jurisdictional litigation against social media behemoth Meta, who, in December 2022, issued a cease-and-desist notice against the client, claiming that its user terms prohibit scraping its websites. The duo of Ondeck and Kass worked in tandem on yet another poultry-related antitrust matter on behalf of Butterball in a case involving an alleged information exchange conspiracy. Plaintiffs, turkey purchasers, allege that major turkey producers around the country, including Butterball, fixed prices, agreed to reduce output, and exchanged confidential information through Agri Stats, a subscription benchmarking service, in order to curb supply and raise the price of turkey to artificially high levels.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan continues to reign supreme as the ubiquitous litigation juggernaut it set out to be upon its genesis. The firm name’s official subtitle of “Trial lawyers” makes no bones about its agenda, and the firm has fulfilled this boast with what has been observed as typical aplomb. The firm has placed as one of Benchmark’s Top 20 Trial Firms since that list’s inception, and no fewer than four of its attorneys have consistently been recognized in Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America, an enviable percentage. “If you’re in the litigation game, not only do you know Quinn Emanuel but you are seeing them, and chances are good that you’re seeing them a lot. They just perennially acquire talent,” is how one peer sums up the firm’s dominant position, further confirming, “I know I certainly do. If I’m out with fellow litigators, they are sure to come up in conversation – I’m forever going, ‘Ah, I knew you were going to bring them up!’” With offices in New York, DC, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Houston, and in several venues throughout California, the firm’s geographic footprint has grown to further showcase its bench depth. The firm leaves no stone unturned when it comes to litigation services either; nearly every practice area is touched on by its expansive roster of partners, with particular pockets of strength in the areas of bankruptcy, white-collar crime, antitrust, intellectual property and commercial litigation. “Subject-matter expertise is down to each individual – but either way Quinn breeds you to fight in court, period.”

The firm has historically found itself in the national headlines for its role in milestone cases, and this year was no exception. Stephen Swedlow, a Chicago-based partner, led a team that recently obtained judgments against the US government in precedent-setting litigation from July 2020, recovering $3.7 billion for health insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act concerning the “risk corridors” created by the act. This eye-popping sum is even more remarkable considering that it was on a contingency basis. On the strength of this, Swedlow not only makes his debut as a litigation star in this edition of Benchmark, but also wins a coveted position among the Top 100 Trial Lawyers. Another consistent placer on the Top 100 Trial Lawyers list, New York’s Michael Carlinsky led long-time client AIG to a February 2022 victory (which also made the news) by getting a policyholder’s claim for $27.5 million worth of coverage tied to a settlement with the State of Texas denied. Carlinsky and his team argued that the policyholder had structured a settlement with the State of Texas for Medicaid fraud in a fashion that was intentionally designed to mask a contract case, which would allow for coverage. Yet another Top 100 Trial Lawyer, Los Angeles’ Bill Price is viewed favorably by several other candidates on this privileged list. “I think the world of him, he’s the best,” offers one peer, summing up the general consensus. Price’s recent client list includes Elon Musk, for whom Price scored in December 2019 in the defamation case brought against him by one of the rescuers of 12 children trapped in a cave in Thailand, after Musk referred to him as “pedo guy” following an online spat. Just weeks later, Price logged another win, in the plaintiff capacity, in an IP case in which he represented the California Institute of Technology in a patent dispute with Apple. Price chalked up a whopping $1.1 billion verdict for his client.

The firm’s bankruptcy practice is viewed by peers in the restructuring capacity as “one of those rare instances where they have actual bankruptcy trial lawyers, as opposed to just corporate or hybrid restructuring people.” This same peer elaborates further on the flinty approach employed by these practitioners, which include Susheel Kirpalani – a near-constant mention: “These are the bomb throwers, the people you think of when you’re going, ‘Who do I call when I need a rabid dog?’”
While the firm is certainly better known for its trial-level work, its appellate work – and particularly that of New York-based luminary Kathleen Sullivan – has also prominently featured in newsworthy matters. In December 2021, Sullivan, along with future stars Rollo Baker and William Adams, scored when they persuaded the Delaware Supreme Court to uphold a trial court decision allowing client Mirae Asset to walk away from a $5.8 billion deal to buy luxury hotels based on the seller’s breach of an “ordinary course” covenant. This decision, delivered via an en banc ruling, upheld what is reported to be only the second decision ever from the Court of Chancery allowing a buyer to back out of a merger.

 

 

A litigation boutique with a plaintiff-side ethos, Reid Collins & Tsai has crafted itself as a maverick in the world of trial litigation. The firm has strategically expanded from its Texas roots to include posts in the New York, District of Columbia, and Delaware markets. The firm's calculated five-office footprint has amassed national recognition, notably for its high-stakes commercial and bankruptcy litigation. Co-founding partner hailing from the Austin office, Bill Reid enjoys a far-reaching reputation as an all-purpose trial lawyer equipped to handle any case. After his 2018 Supreme Court victory in the Merit Management case, he was sought as replacement counsel for the BosGen Liquidation Trust in a closely related case, raising issues on viability of actual intent fraudulent conveyance claims. The case has been appealed to the SDNY. Reid is also serving as lead counsel on behalf of regional telephone partnerships in a derivatives lawsuit filed against AT&T, alleging an illegal scheme to leverage its position over partnerships and generate millions of dollars. Multiple actions are being litigated, seeking compensatory damages, disgorgement of profits, and pre-judgment and post-judgment interest. Reid and fellow co-founding partner Lisa Tsai have represented Claymore Holdings in its decade-long lawsuit against Credit Suisse. At a hearing in January 2021, Reid argued that Credit Suisse should pay Claymore $171.9 million in out-of-pocket damages and prejudgment interest. Six months later, the dispute seemingly came to an end when the 134^th Civil District Court in Dallas County entered a fraud judgment against Credit Suisse, awarding more than $121 million to Claymore. On appeal, the fraud ruling remained intact; however, the Dallas Court of Appeals overturned portions of the judgment. The case continues as to the overturned portions. Tsai is a multidisciplined litigator whose talent is well-rounded, covering a diverse set of practice areas. She is leading a legal malpractice lawsuit against a full-service law firm that provided services as transaction counsel during her client’s acquisition of a competitor. In a private equity matter, Tsai represents Carling O’Brien, partner and co-founder of Emerald Lake, against several former colleagues, who she alleges engaged in a bad-faith scheme to confiscate her partnership interest and carried interest grants, as well as making false and defamatory statements to investors. Tsai has been representing her client in arbitration.

     Bankruptcy and commercial litigator Eric Madden represents the successor to Insys Therapeutics, Insys Liquidation Trust, formed after the company’s illegal off-label marketing scheme led it to bankruptcy due to a series of criminal proceedings, class actions and civil cases that resulted in racketeering charges against executives and a $225 million fine to settle other investigations. Madden served as lead counsel in the company’s investigation and prosecution of claims against former executives and related professionals, and successfully negotiated favorable settlements. Madden is also serving as lead counsel to PNI Litigation Trust, successor to the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy of Patriot National, in a case that spans corporate governance issues in Delaware and insurance issues under Florida law. The team was pursuing claims against Patriot’s former officers and directors when the company went into bankruptcy after an SEC investigation and class action lawsuits. Thus far, Madden has obtained a $44 million settlement for its clients claims that included a cash payment of $14 million and another cash payment of $30 million collected in the coverage action against the D&O insurance.

Sanford Heisler Sharp continues to be a formidable opponent to management-side labor and employment litigators, even garnering their praises for the sophisticated and oftentimes complex cases. “I look at what they’re doing – I think that they bring a lot of really interesting cases – sets a tone for what the new issues are going to be,” declares an opposing peer. The firm has achieved widespread, national recognition in a variety of labor and employment regards, distinguishing itself across markets. As a plaintiff-side law firm, Sanford Heisler has organized a diverse and strategic network of offices, including New York, Maryland, DC, California, and Tennessee.

     While employment litigation is the firm’s primary focus, Sanford Heisler is also dedicated to representing victims of crime and civil rights offenses. Renowned trial lawyer recognized as a Top 50 Labor & Employment Litigator and chairman of the firm, David Sanford has been the lead lawyer representing the brother of murder victim, Hae Min Lee in his appeal of the Baltimore City circuit court’s decision to vacate the conviction of the alleged murderer. The case has received significant attention as the subject of both a 2014 podcast and an HBO documentary. Sanford and the team – comprised of Andrew Melzer, Kevin Sharp, and Jeremy Heisler, among others – challenged the hearing, contending that it violated Maryland’s statutory and constitutional crime victims’ rights, which would have afforded the family adequate notice and opportunity to participate in the proceedings. Sanford’s motion for full appeal was granted and the Appellate Court granted the team’s motion to remand the case to the circuit court, following a successful oral argument.

     Melzer and Heisler both practice out of the New York office. Melzer additionally represents plaintiffs alleging unlawful deductions from drivers’ tips, failure to provide adequate meal periods, and failure to pay for work performed during said periods. The lawsuit further alleges that the drivers were misclassified as independent contractors. Heisler worked alongside DC litigator Kate Mueting representing Donna Kassman as class representative in a lawsuit filed against KPMG. Mueting, serving as lead lawyer on the case, filed the action to remedy the company’s systemic discrimination related to pay, promotions, and pregnancy, and hold the company accountable for alleged failure to properly investigate and resolve complaints. Mueting and Heisler secured a $10 million settlement on the Equal Pay Act claims. Tennessee’s former Chief Judge Sharp and DC-based chairman of the firm, Sanford, are representing a class of former African American Deput US Marshals and Detention Enforcement Officers in their lawsuit against the US Marshals Service, asserting alleged race discrimination claims against the Service, including candidates who were not hired. The EEOC administrative judge approved and certified the class, and the team has been engaged in discovery since the 2017 order.

     In New York, Russell Kornblith leads a Title IX class action against Harvard on behalf of female students in the Anthropology Department. The case alleges claims of sexual harassment and retaliation. The duo prevailed against Harvard’s motion for summary judgment and motion to dismiss earlier this year. His casework `over the last year also includes an ERISA action filed individually and as a representative of a class of employees working at the consulting firm West Monroe Partners. Kornblith’s clients allege that the company and its executives used layoffs and other avenues to cash out shares of former employees in their ESOP. The case is active in litigation after he prevailed against the opposing counsel’s motion to dismiss. Alexandra Harwin has also taken action against 401(k) mismanagement, filing breach of fiduciary duty claims under ERISA on behalf of 200,000 UnitedHealth Group employees and plan participants. Harwin obtained class certification and a settlement conference is set to occur this year. On the employment side of her practice, she is lead counsel representing Graham Chase Robinson in a case against Robert De Niro and Canal Productions, his corporate entity. The lawsuit alleges claims of hostile work environment and retaliation. Harwin is actively gearing up for trial.

     New York’s Michael Palmer is leading the case on behalf Siddarth Breja, former Senior Vice President of JUUL, alleging whistleblower retaliation against the company after he complained about unlawful practices. Co-chair of the firm’s whistleblower and qui tam practice group H. Vincent McKnight provides strategic specialty knowledge and assistance on the case.

     Hailing from the San Francisco office, Danielle Fuschetti serves as the firm’s co-chair of the discrimination and harassment practice group. In that area, she is the lead lawyer representing an individual plaintiff against Xilinix, a pioneer in adaptive computing and leader in the semiconductor industry. The lawsuit alleges sex-based pay disparities, hostile work environment, and sex discrimination claims, in addition to alleged intellectual property theft of marketing materials. Fuschetti is actively litigating the case and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, unjust enrichment damages in connection to the IP and trade secrets theft, which is estimated to be roughly $350 million, in addition to other damages and affirmative relief. In addition to discrimination claims, Fuschetti is also involved in 401(k) mismanagement litigation. She is a member of the team as class counsel and represents individual plaintiffs in an action against Walgreens. The plaintiffs, who are participants in Walgreen’s $10 billion 401(k) plan, alleged that the company failed to remove a set of ten target retirement date funds that underperformed in their investment benchmarks. Fuschetti obtained a settlement of $13.75 million. Currently, other cases on her docket are against large nationwide companies including JUUL and Oracle, both of which are actively being litigated. Fellow San Francisco litigator Felicia Gilbert successfully resolved a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed on behalf of a former engineer against tech giant Honeywell represented by a nationally recognized labor and employment-focused law firm. Baltimore’s Deborah Marcuse is recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a Top 50 Labor & Employment Litigator for her recent work.

With offices in New York and DC, Schulte Roth & Zabel is praised by peers for its “very high-quality” work, primarily in the financial services sector. The firm is noted for its novel mix of practice concentration, its cutting-edge client base and its approach to cases. “Schulte has really come to dominate in certain areas,” observes one peer. “They have always been a go-to for private equity and hedge funds, and now they have cornered the market in areas like cryptocurrency as well.” Cases in these areas are noted often for imposing “steep learning curves that demand a fast-moving and forward-leaning approach to litigating them effectively,” in the words of one peer, concluding “Schulte delivers.” Another notes, “You’ve got to understand – Schulte has a very different client base than a lot of big New York firms, and these are clients that are more willing to litigate hard and take gutsy positions.” The firm’s demonstrated strengths in the securities and white-collar areas have been prominently on display in a number of matters for a diverse spectrum of clients. A peer testifies, “I've worked with SRZ litigators on a variety of litigation matters over the years. Most recently, we've been looking at cross-border securities litigation matters. The partners there have a range of skills that range from litigation to structuring and tax.” Schulte is also actively growing its “next-generation” ranks; this past year it has brought on a new “young hot-shot” partner Julia Beskin from her former post at Quinn Emanuel.
     In addition to a vibrant general commercial and securities practice, New York’s Michael Swartz is the co-head of the firm’s litigation practice and has emerged as one of the foremost authorities on cryptocurrency litigation. This niche acumen was on display when Swartz logged a huge win for Pantera Capital, which purportedly established the first bitcoin fund in the US, in a battle with another top cryptocurrency investment fund manager, Polychain Capital. After Polychain learned that Pantera, a 5% owner of Polychain, had formed its own, competing Initial Coin Offering fund in the liquid altcoin space, Polychain reacted by amending its operating agreement to give it the ability to terminate Pantera’s ownership interest for cause on the ground that it competed with Polychain. Following a week-long hearing, Pantera prevailed in July 2022. In January 2023, the Chancery Court issued a final judgment that awarded Pantera all of its fees incurred in the Chancery Court action plus interest, amounting to more than $7 million. Swartz also (along with increasingly prominent future star Taleah Jennings) represents Eric Bischoff in two litigations concerning an ownership among the shareholders – all family relations of the client – of the Boar’s Head cold cuts company. “Michael Swartz is a go-to on ‘the Street’ for shareholder activist litigation,” testifies a peer. Also based in New York, Robert Ward represents Denver Wewatta, an affiliate in the LCN Capital Partners portfolio, in a dispute concerning a purchase agreement for a major commercial with an affiliate. Ward also represents Aero and its affiliates, who commenced litigation in Delaware Superior Court, raising contract claims arising out of a purchase agreement on behalf of affiliates of private equity firm Mill Point Capital against the seller of a company acquired by Mill Point’s Aero affiliates. Ward is championed by peers not only for his acumen but also his demeanor; one insists, “Bob Ward is not only a great litigator but also just one of the nicest. He stays calm, which, when you’re dealing with hard-fought New York commercial real estate matters, is not always easy to do.” Peers also insist, “You’ve got to look at William Gussman. He cut his teeth on M&A and does a lot of work with Cerberus, which may be Schulte’s biggest client. No one knows the rules and can create an advantage like Bill.”
     The firm’s white-collar and securities enforcement practice is commanded by Peter White and Charles Clark, both of whom operate out of New York as well as the firm’s smaller DC office. White and Clark represent Murchinson, a Canadian investment advisor and hedge fund, who bought additional shares issued by a distressed Greek shipping company and resold them to the market. Due to a high level of volatility in the value of these shares, shareholders brought three separate class actions against Murchinson before the Eastern District of New York, alleging fraud. In the wake of the suits, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also launched an investigation. The Schulte duo leads the client in all three class actions as well as the SEC investigation. White is also, on a pro bono basis, representing prominent Baltimore attorney Ken Ravenell, a near-unanimously revered criminal defense lawyer who has represented some of the city’s highest-profile defendants. Ravenell was arrested and charged following a years-long investigation by the government on allegations of racketeering and money laundering. Based in New York, Craig Warkol is recognized for his securities enforcement acumen. “He has been at the SEC and has been a US Attorney,” confirms one peer. “I consider him very experienced and talented, skilled and knowledgeable.”   

 

 

Founded in 2018 and operating out of a single location in New York, Selendy & Gay is a litigation boutique that spans well beyond the city’s borders and has generated buzz among fellow litigators from all corners of the country. This is undoubtedly due to the star power of its personnel; partners Philippe Selendy and Faith Gay were both “dynamos” at their former firm  Quinn Emanuel before decamping to forge what peers now address as “one of the most talked-about litigation shops.” The firm’s compact size and lack of bureaucracy allows it freedom to experiment with “cases that fall outside the boundaries of the ‘traditional’ cases that bigger firms deal with” as well as greater flexibility on rates. “They have been taking on some interesting work, like public interest cases, which they couldn’t have done before,” observes a peer.
     Gay, known for a diverse practice that combines commercial and white-collar matters, is representing a class of public servants in a sweeping federal class-action suit against the student loan servicer Navient for misleading borrowers as to their eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a federal program adopted in 2007 to help bridge the gap between the cost of higher education requirements for public service positions and the lower salaries those positions offer. Since then, 28,000 public servants have applied under the program, but only 96 people have actually received loan forgiveness. Effectively, according to recently released data, 98% of borrowers who submitted applications for this program have been rejected since October 2017.

     Selendy, who generated celebrity status through his nearly uninterrupted series of eye-popping settlements with a “who’s who” of banks while at his former firm, has continued to enjoy a strong profile as a “creative and forward-thinking securities and commercial litigation star,” particularly on the plaintiff side of the “V.” Supporting this claim is Selendy’s prominence in the burgeoning cryptocurrency area, a field in which he  is engaged in several cases. In one, he represents National Public Finance Guarantee against eight major banks to hold them accountable for alleged inequitable conduct in Puerto Rico's municipal bond market, which  contributed to Puerto Rico's economic collapse. The clients, bond insurers that have been presented with, and fully honored, over a billion dollars in claims after the municipal debt underwritten by the banks became unsustainable on their terms for the Commonwealth and its agencies and they defaulted on their obligations. In another case, Selendy represents cryptocurrency investors in a putative class action alleging that the controllers of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex falsely represented that their purportedly “stable” cryptocurrency Tether was backed by US Dollars in order to control the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in an elaborate market-manipulation scheme that cost investors hundreds of billions of dollars. Working with the latter case with Selendy is Caitlin Halligan, an appellate star formerly with Gibson Dunn who peers view as a significant augmentation to the firm’s bench. Halligan handled an appeal in a lawsuit filed by a former New York police officer on behalf of hundreds of thousands of New York City public employees and retirees, alleging that health insurance company Group Health Incorporated violated New York’s consumer protection law by disseminating marketing materials that misrepresented critical aspects of out-of-network coverage. The New York Court of Appeals found in Halligan’s client’s favor, a significant victory for consumers. Halligan also, along with David Elsberg, represents the BVI Liquidator of the Fairfield Funds, the largest feeder funds into the Madoff Ponzi scheme, in prosecuting over 250 clawback actions in the Southern District of New York commenced against Funds’ redeemers, including many major financial institutions. The clawback actions, pending in the Bankruptcy Court, seek the return to the Funds of over $6 billion in overpaid redemptions. In December 2018, the Bankruptcy Court dismissed claims seeking restitution under BVI common law and contract theories. Halligan and Elsberg are in the process of appealing those decisions in the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

A fully integrated international conglomerate, Shearman & Sterling has been at the forefront of some headline-making litigation on a global basis and is routinely recognized as a leading legal entity by disputes lawyers from such locales as Europe and Southeast Asia. With most of its 20 offices being based in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, some would even argue that the firm is too globally integrated to even be relegated to assessment on just a one-country level. Nonetheless, within the States the firm is called upon most often for its experience and acumen with matters of the securities and white-collar and FCPA enforcement variety and is quickly developing a leading profile in the antitrust space as well. 
     New York’s Adam Hakki remains a perennial peer favorite, with glowing reviews offered on a unanimous basis. Hakki’s practice is largely focused on, but not limited to, the securities, antitrust and governance fields, with experience in both the criminal and civil capacities. A team led by Hakki (and also involving Agnès Dunogué and Lyle Roberts) won a significant and complete victory for Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS) in a high-profile and closely watched securities class-action arising from the 2021 collapse of Archegos Capital Management, a family office run by billionaire investor Bill Hwang, who later was indicted for his conduct. (ViacomCBS was one of the companies whose share prices were adversely affected by the liquidation of Archegos.) The litigation claimed that the offering documents for March 2021 securities offerings by ViacomCBS should have disclosed that Archegos had obtained concentrated and leveraged synthetic positions in ViacomCBS stock via total return swaps entered into with investment banks, which also acted as underwriters for the offerings, and that those swaps needed to be liquidated due to Archegos’ financial distress. Hakki also achieved a significant victory for Twitter in shareholder litigation relating to the fraught acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk. The shareholder plaintiff agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case a few days before pre-trial briefs were due. Hakki has also balanced an active portfolio of antitrust cases along with his securities matters. One example involved a victory on behalf of Intercontinental Exchange and various subsidiaries in a LIBOR-related antitrust action brought on behalf of group of consumers purportedly injured as a result of an alleged price-fixing conspiracy.
     Shearman’s US bench is brimming with others noted for their antitrust prowess. A frequent teammate of Hakki’s, Jeffrey Resetarits, is generating a good deal of traction in antitrust as well as securities. “Keep your eye on him,” advises a colleague at one of New York’s top firms. “We’ve been seeing more of him lately and we are very impressed. He and Adam Hakki had a nice win [in March 2019] in a matter involving CDOR [Canadian Dollar Offered Rate.]” New York’s Richard Schwed is representing JetBlue Airways Corporation in two high-profile DoJ lawsuits concerning alleged anti-competitive activity in several capacities. Todd Stenerson, based in the DC office, led a team (including DC’s David Higbee) that achieved a significant victory for Booz Allen in the DoJ’s attempt to block its $440 million acquisition of EverWatch. In December 2022, the DoJ dismissed its lawsuit, officially ending the litigation after the court permitted the parties to close the transaction. One fellow leader in the antitrust space enthuses, “Todd is a very creative and out-of-the-box thinker. He will just generate idea after idea in a very thought-provoking way that benefits all involved.”
      Stephen Fishbein, whose practice straddles white-collar crime and enforcement with antitrust elements, secured a victory on behalf of an individual in a significant criminal insider-trading case. In December 2022, the Second Circuit ruled, among other things, that the evidence was insufficient on the two counts on which the client was convicted and dismissed the fraud charges.

Skadden has long been a totem of excellence in the legal community as a full-service one-stop shop. “You appreciate their professionalism,” states an admiring contemporary. While the firm’s offerings are by no means restricted to litigation, the depth and coverage of its dispute-resolution team has etched a status for the firm as one to be reckoned with. “There’s a good deal of diversity there – Skadden seems to do a little bit of everything, even though there are some areas for which they are better known.” The firm’s litigation roster, large and comprehensive already, proved itself to be in growth mode over the past year; Skadden made the strategic hire of Manuel Cachán to its Los Angeles office. Cachán, a trial lawyer with a diverse commercial practice, has earned his stripes in several major product liability cases as of late, beating stiff odds and making headlines for these wins. A peer declares: “Manuel worked in tandem with [universally revered Proskauer trial lawyer] Bart Williams, getting excellent on-the-ground training in really hard cases, and has emerged as a top trial lawyer in his own right. He was a very good scoop for Skadden.” Another contemporary testifies: “I did a lot of work with him on Monsanto and I was very impressed. I would put him on any list [of trial lawyers.]” Cachán makes his debut on Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America this year. Even prior to Cachán’s recruitment, Skadden boasted trial firepower in the product liability area, largely on the strength of DC’s John Beisner and New York’s Allison Brown, the latter of whom has been “knocking it out of the park” for Johnson & Johnson, according to peers. “You don’t win that many of those talc cases unless you’re really good.”

 

One of the alluded-to practices for which Skadden has been most celebrated is securities. Jay Kasner has long been a leading figure in this area and continues to be. A peer marvels, “Jay is still humming along strong! He still shows up and delivers the goods like someone half his age. I don’t know how he does it.” Perhaps more remarkably, Kasner has demonstrated his prowess with newer and more novel industries like cryptocurrency. He recently represented Coinbase, which was sued in March 2022 by plaintiffs who alleged that the company operates as an unregistered securities exchange because 79 digital assets traded on the platform are actually securities. The plaintiffs sought to rescind their transactions and to recover monetary damages, including the transaction fees they paid, as well to force Coinbase to register as a national securities exchange or broker-dealer. In February 2023, the claims were dismissed in their entirety, with prejudice.

 

While Kasner remains the firm’s most seasoned securities partner, others are quickly becoming the names of the next generation. Scott Musoff has become particularly prominent in terms of visibility and activity. “Scott Musoff is awesome,” extols a peer. “[He’s the] nicest guy in the world, easy to work with, and still relatively young.” The duo of Kasner and Musoff represented BMW AG and certain of its current and former executives and directors in a securities class action concerning allegations regarding the client’s sales practices, which were under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for inflating the client’s North American sales figures. The Skadden pair eventually negotiated a payment of $1.75 million in exchange for releases and a denial of liabili­ty. Musoff also paired with Boston partner James Carroll to triumph on behalf of Intercept Pharmaceuticals and certain of its officers, securing the dismissal of all claims of a putative securities fraud class action in the Southern District of New York alleging that the company misled investors about its liver disease drug Ocaliva by making false and misleading statements about the drug’s safety, tolerability and performance. Susan Saltzstein is also noted for a securities practice incorporating timely issues. A peer states: “I’m seeing a lot of new 10b-5s securities class actions that are not your standard stock-drop cases and RMBS-type work from the 2008 era. These are more alleging that the company failed to disclose #MeToo issues at the management or executive level, issues with individuals that would clearly have a material impact on the company’s value. When these things go public and people demand scalps to be claimed, and those scalps are of the guys who publicly run the company…there are allegations of failure to have policies in place, proper compliance, etc. So, this is an interesting development. Plaintiffs are getting creative and really making hay with these kinds of claims, and I know Susan Saltzstein had a bunch of these cases in the defense role. She is perfect for them.”

Peers also insist that, “Skadden plays in the antitrust space pretty effectively.” DC’s Steven Sunshine and New York’s Boris Bershteyn scored for Sabre against US Airways, who alleged that certain terms in a 2011 contract between the parties unreasonably restrained trade, and that Sabre engaged in unlawful monopolistic conduct. In April 2022, a three-week jury trial commenced in the Southern District of New York and in May, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Sabre and awarded US Airways only $1 in damages on the monopolization claim. Neither party is appealing the decision.

 

Sullivan & Cromwell boasts a pedigree as one of the most revered legal brands on the global stage. A towering full-service firm, with concentration on both East and West Coasts through its offices in New York, Washington DC and two offices in California – Palo Alto and Los Angeles. While its offerings extend beyond litigation, Sullivan & Cromwell’s dispute-resolution depth and acuity is called into service by some of the firm’s biggest blue-chip clients. “When people talk about law firms to someone who’s not a lawyer, often they will just randomly throw out ‘Sullivan & Cromwell’ as an example because the name carries that much weight, like Coca-Cola or Apple,” marvels one peer. “We should all be so lucky.” Speaking to the firm’s A-list client base, another peer quips, “Goldman Sachs has them on speed-dial. S&C has that premium work on lockdown.”
    

     Supporting this assertion, Sullivan & Cromwell scored a win for this client in August 2023 when the Second Circuit Appeals Court reversed the certification of a class of Goldman Sachs shareholders in a case dating back to the 2008 financial crisis and alleged conflicts of interest in Goldman Sachs investment vehicles relating to subprime mortgages. Plaintiffs claimed that those alleged conflicts contradicted generic statements made by Goldman Sachs about its corporate principles and conflicts management procedures, which had supposedly inflated the price of Goldman Sachs stock. Robert Giuffra, a mainstay of the New York office, provided lead counsel. “Bob Giuffra is high-energy and fast, but savvy” observes a peer. “He knows when to try a case and he also knows how and when to pull back. I’ve seen judges get stunned by his courtroom abilities – like, who has this much stamina? So, you almost get thrown off guard when you see how measured and reasonable he is. Maybe it’s a tactic – if so, it works.” Giuffra also represented Tenaris SA, a manufacturer of steel pipe, in resolving multi-year investigations by the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission. They concluded in June 2022 when the DoJ closed its investigation without taking action, and the company settled with the SEC by agreeing to pay a reduced penalty of $78 million without admitting or denying wrongdoing. Giuffra also continues to represent Volkswagen in a suit brought by the SEC in March 2019, three years after Volkswagen entered into its landmark multibillion-dollar settlements in the US. Sharon Nelles acts with Giuffra on the Volkswagen representation and is another multifaceted brand-name New York partner. “Sharon is pretty universally loved, and for good reason,” states one appreciative peer. “Great personality, no ego. Although her demeanor is almost the opposite of Bob Giuffra – she seems so relaxed and easygoing that I think it takes people off guard when they see how ready for the fight she is.” Richard Pepperman is another New York partner with a varied practice who also regularly handles Goldman work. In one recent case, the plaintiff, a participant in Goldman Sachs’s 401(k) plan, on behalf of himself and other similarly situated individuals, alleged that Goldman Sachs breached its fiduciary duties and engaged in impermissible prohibited transactions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by offering Goldman’s own proprietary mutual funds in its 401(k) plan, which the plaintiff claimed both performed worse and were more expensive than non-Goldman alternatives. In September 2022, summary judgment was granted in Goldman Sachs’s favor on each claim.

 

     Sullivan & Cromwell has been making strides in other areas as well. Its bankruptcy capacity benefited from the additional horsepower provided by James Bromley, who joined the firm four years ago and had a lead role in the unprecedented sprawling and cross-border Nortel bankruptcy a decade earlier. Bromley and future star Jacob Croke provide lead counsel to the 102 chapter 11 debtors of embattled crypto hedge fund FTX in matters relating to its sudden implosion and November 2022 bankruptcy filing, including conducting a comprehensive internal investigation and responding to multiple global investigations. New York future star Dustin Guzior acts with Steve Holley for Bayer on issues related to Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto, which created one the largest agricultural input suppliers in the world. To secure merger clearance for the acquisition, the DoJ required Bayer to divest certain assets. In 2018, therefore, Bayer sold seed and herbicide assets for €5.9 billion and its global vegetable seeds business, certain seed treatments and digital farming activities for up to €1.7 billion to BASF, who then filed a request for arbitration in 2019, seeking indemnification under the asset purchase agreements, arguing that certain cost items, including personnel costs, had not been appropriately disclosed and allocated to some of the divested businesses. During the two-week, in-person hearing held in Frankfurt in November 2021, Bayer showed that it had provided adequate information on the cost structure of those assets. The Sullivan & Cromwell pair scored a favorable judgment from the ICC in August 2022. Guzior is also acting with intellectual property star Garrard Beeney in representation of Columbia University in securing a unanimous verdict in its favor in a two-week patent infringement jury trial against NortonLifeLock in the Eastern District of Virginia. Beeney also acts with Marc DeLeeuw, who makes the leap from future star to litigation star in this edition, in representing Ocado Group. The pair secured a December 2021 trial win before the Chief Administrative Law Judge of the International Trade Commission in a patent dispute with its competitor, AutoStore. In March 2022, the Commission unanimously affirmed Ocado's victory at trial and terminated the investigation in its entirety. In June 2022, Ocado scored another win against AutoStore, convincing a panel of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to invalidate three of four claims of AutoStore’s patent that was at issue in the earlier ITC investigation.

 

Historically known as an “old-line Houston firm” (and still a dominant force in that metropolis), within fairly short order Susman Godfrey has reinvented itself as a litigation juggernaut with national ambitions, which it has fulfilled through its offices in New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles. These offices, while newer, have quickly become key players in their respective markets due to each being populated by high-level trial talent juggling a hybrid of plaintiff and defense commercial, antitrust, securities and intellectual property litigation with exceptionally high stakes.

Susman is universally revered for its dedication to a prized culture – developed and fostered by founding partner and (since-deceased) trial lawyer extraordinaire Stephen Susman – that grooms the “elite corps” of litigation. Peers acknowledge the firm’s strategic expansion with typical admiration. “Susman Godfrey is a like a litigation boutique that has gone haywire - in a good way! They didn’t just grow for the sake of adding headcount. They put fabulous people in all stations.” Eschewing market trends, the firm marches to the beat of its own drum. One peer marvels: “Susman Godfrey is so innovative! They really bring the best of breed in terms of skills, and it’s top-to-bottom. It’s not just a bunch of old guys. Their younger people are every bit as impressive.” Another confirms, “It’s always fun litigating against Susman Godfrey. Then it’s real, then it’s more traditional court work, more hand-to-hand combat, as opposed to the paper pushing and procedural distractions you get from other firms.” Clients are equally effusive in their praise for the firm. One testifies: “They prepared for trial from day one and [they] dedicate a team of exceptionally talented and highly intelligent attorneys to each matter. They achieved greater success [in our case] than anyone could have predicted at the outset.” Another cheers the firm’s “strong understanding of relevant cases that supported our case to be able to leverage research; strong customer service; great depo[sition] prep so I always felt comfortable going in front of a judge or in my depositions, and great relations within the courthouse.”

No stranger to high-profile, newsworthy cases that regularly log headlines in the legal publications, Susman Godfrey landed front-and-center in the middle of a case few could ignore even outside the legal community: the representation of Dominion Voting Systems as trial counsel against Fox News in a defamation lawsuit, initially valued at $1.6 billion, alleging that Fox and the other defendants gave life to a manufactured storyline about election fraud to boost ratings and propagate the lie that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged, among a series of other false statements about Dominion. The Susman team, composed of New York’s Stephen Shackelford, Houston’s Justin Nelson, and Los Angeles’s Davida Brook, landed a milestone victory in April 2023, securing a $787 million settlement on Dominion’s behalf. This win proved a watershed moment for defamation cases of this variety, sending shockwaves throughout the legal, political and news and entertainment landscapes. The case follows similar matters filed against other figures alleged to have played a role in these fraudulent election claims, such as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell (MyPillow CEO), and others.

The firm’s groundbreaking courtroom action for the year certainly doesn’t end with Dominion. New York trial evergreen Bill Carmody is co-lead counsel representing a class that filed a massive action against Google for misrepresenting its privacy settings when users employ “incognito mode.” This lawsuit, valued at more than $5 billion, cleared a major hurdle in 2021 when a judge denied Google’s motion to dismiss. The case is ongoing, with a jury trial set to begin in November 2023. Houston’s Vineet Bhatia secured a favorable award for the client, Flutter Entertainment, in November 2022 when an arbitrator nearly doubled the exercise price of Fox Corporation’s option to acquire 18.6% of Flutter’s portfolio company, FanDuel Group. This high-stakes arbitration resulted from Fox’s assertion that it should be entitled to the same purchase price as Flutter paid for its share of FanDuel in December 2020, which would have come out to $2.1 billion, with an implied company valuation of $11.2 billion. The arbitration took place over several weeks in the summer of 2022, with the arbitrator finding that Fox’s payment must be based on a substantially higher FanDuel valuation of $20 billion as of December 2020, plus an additional 5% interest per year. At the time of the decision, this equated to a valuation for FanDuel of $22 billion and an option exercise price of $4.1 billion for Fox – nearly twice the amount that Fox argued it should be required to pay. New York’s Jacob Buchdahl is lauded by one client as “exceptionally smart and innovative, great on his feet in court. [He] Exudes confidence, is trustworthy, [and is] a great team leader.” Buchdahl represented an initial seed investor in a case that has been described as one of “stock theft” involving the unicorn South American start-up Rappi. The client was allegedly all but denied his ownership of more than 600,000 shares, valued at tens of millions of dollars, and was prevented from participating in a lucrative 2019 tender offer. Buchdahl filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court, seeking a declaratory judgment that the client was the true owner of shares of Rappi in dispute. After obtaining a denial of the defendants’ motions to dismiss, Buchdahl then overcame a motion for summary judgment and prepared to go to trial in September 2022. The case settled on the weekend before trial was scheduled to commence, with the client receiving the bulk of his shares.

Based in the firm’s Los Angeles office, Kalpana Srinivasan is hailed as someone who has “done a tremendous job building out that office, particularly in IP and plaintiff work.” Srinivasan represents Caltech – the California Institute of Technology – in pursuing its seminal wi-fi patents for infringement against Samsung’s mobile and other devices. The case is scheduled to be tried in September 2023 in the Eastern District of Texas. “I’ve seen Kalpana quite a bit,” confirms a peer. “She is very good on her feet.”

 

Full-service law firm Thompson Hine is equipped with a team of litigators routinely sought out by clients to handle their most complex product liability and business disputes. With offices in Georgia, Illinois, DC, and New York, along with a significant footprint in Ohio featuring four distinct locations, Thompson Hine has developed a reputation for exemplary representation and success. A client describes the firm’s bench of litigators as, “subject matter experts who provide extremely responsive communication, client services, and trial advocacy.” The same client shares their praise for Atlanta-based partner Marla Butler. “Marla is a superb strategist and partner to our company,” notes the client. “She and her team work harder, smarter, and more efficiently than most other firms I deal with. Marla has a mastery of IP law and related issues, and she is a delight to deal with. Marla is humble, open to creative ways of solving problems, and is an authentically terrific person.”

     Cleveland-based product liability litigator Elizabeth ‘Missy’ Wright is national counsel for a major automotive manufacturer in separate cases related to alleged defective products. Timothy Coughlin is a fellow Cleveland partner who chairs the mass & toxic tort group and leads chemical industry group. In a recent case, he utilized his industry knowledge in developing expert opinions. William Hubbard focuses on the construction industry, representing a wide variety of clients. He defends Elliott Bay Design Group, a naval engineer and architect firm, in a lawsuit alleging that they improperly designed a new ferry boat for Miller Boat Line. The plaintiff sought over $4 million in repair costs and lost income. Hubbard brought a third-party claim against the shipyard that built the vessel. The case challenges whether Ohio’s anti-indemnification statute applies to the construction of a vessel.

     Dayton-based Christine Haaker serves as the vice-chair of the group for the office. Haaker has served as defense counsel to several high-profile entities in numerous business disputes. Anthony White serves on the Executive Committee while maintaining a practice involving class actions, most notably on behalf of a freight transportation company.

     In the group’s DC office, Eric Heyer has emerged as one of the office’s leading litigators with a growing expertise in the growing nicotine vaping industry. Heyer represents Wages & White Lion Investments (d/b/a Triton Distribution) in a rare petition for rehearing en banc granted by the Fifth Circuit. The case involves a marketing denial order (MDO) issued by the FDA against a group of flavored marketing products under the Administrative Procedure Act. In 2021, prior to the latest petition for rehearing, the Fifth Circuit stayed the MDO and published an opinion finding that the FDA acted arbitrarily and capriciously. However, in July 2022, a different three-judge panel upheld the FDA’s actions in a 2-1 vote. The case is similar to pending cases in the Second and Ninth Circuits, and one Heyer won at the Eleventh Circuit in August 2022.

Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz operates out of its one and only office, in New York, but the firm’s prestige is undeniably national, and increasingly international, in scope. “Everyone knows Wachtell, or knows about them, and for very obvious reasons. They are masters at what they do.” The “what they do” is a reference to the firm’s famed M&A dispute practice, which, coupled with its transactional corporate practice, has allowed Wachtell to do nothing short of corner a market. “Wachtell has decided that they want to pivot to doing work that is strictly focused around public company M&A work – that is where you get the premium work.” One peer marvels, “Increasingly, when I look at Wachtell, I am stunned by the growing level of diversity. I’m seeing a lot more international arbitration, which was never considered Wachtell’s forte, but with cross-border deals falling into dispute, [the firm’s services] are more in demand.” The firm has also been particularly active in the bankruptcy space – for which Emil Kleinhaus receives near-universal plaudits – and remains busy in the white collar and investigations area as well, which has historically been the domain of John Savarese, still the firm’s dominant partner in this area.

William Savitt, one of the firm’s most celebrated and universally revered partners (he was perhaps the youngest partner to score a “Hall of Fame” award at the Benchmark Litigation awards in 2022), continues to sustain a record-breaking streak of milestone litigation work, particularly in Delaware. Savitt led a team (which also included Sarah Eddy, Ryan McLeod and Anitha Reddy) which was engaged by Twitter in June 2022 to enforce its $44 billion merger agreement with Elon Musk. After the Wachtell team secured a steady stream of pre-trial wins, Musk unconditionally reversed course, and the deal closed in October 2022 on its originally agreed terms. “That was the most comprehensive corporate trial of the year,” ventures a peer, “and it ended in complete capitulation for Elon.” Further burnishing his unassailable reputation for courtroom acuity, Savitt, along with Eddy, triumphed on appeal for Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, the defendant in a Delaware corporate dispute that had been soundly beaten at trial in late 2021, with an eye-popping judgment of $700 million logged against it. Savitt and Eddy scored a stunning reversal upon appeal in December 2022, wiping the record-breaking decision off the books entirely. “This was the largest class action ever in Delaware,” asserts a peer. “The Wachtell team were litigating as much against the trial judge as they were the lawyers on the other side. They were able to pick their way through the facts and present a challenging legal argument.” Although younger, both Reddy and Eddy have their own admirers in the litigation community. “These are the future leaders of their fiduciary duty and corporate governance practice,” declares a peer. Reddy has “tremendous ability with clients and is taking on more cases as first chair,” and Eddy “rose to be Chief of Appeals, which is a big deal. She has really emerged as one of Wachtell’s top-flight civil litigators, and she can write great appellate briefs.”

 

Elaine Golin leads a team representing Cardinal Health in the corporate governance capacity, regarding its litigation exposure resulting from the opioid epidemic, which has threatened many entities in the pharmaceutical distribution industry with bankruptcy. Golin and her team managed a complex derivative and class-action docket and then engineered an unprecedented and innovative global resolution for the entire industry with a coalition of state attorneys general. The settlement promises to put the vast bulk of litigation risk behind the industry, likely saving several companies from bankruptcy, while guaranteeing settlement payments for those affected by the opioid crisis. A peer marvels, “The way they not only won, but shepherded this for the entire sector, was unbelievable!” A team consisting of Savitt, Eddy and Jonathan Moses – another Wachtell mainstay – represented Brad Pitt in his dispute with Angelina Jolie concerning their rosé wine-producing entity, acting on matters stemming from Europe as well as domestically.

 

 

Operating two offices in Denver and St. Louis, Wheeler Trigg & O’Donnell is recognized for having an established footprint in the Midwest. The firm hosts a number of highly skilled litigators skilled in a number of complex civil and commercial matters. Managing Partner Carolyn Fairless, one of Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation, won a complete defense jury verdict for a leading auto parts maker in federal court in Kentucky in a nine-year-old breach of contract claim brought by a sub-subcontractor—a third-party beneficiary to the contract in question. The suit alleged the client’s termination of the contract entitled the plaintiff to millions of dollars in damages and penalty payments per the terms of the agreement. The firm was hired just six months prior to the trial, which the Court had twice dismissed in separate rulings, only to see the plaintiff successfully appeal to the Sixth Circuit. After the firm’s intervention, a successful defense verdict was rendered. John Fitzpatrick is highly regarded for his mass tort practice. Fitzpatrick served as lead counsel for Intermountain Power in highly complex litigation, successfully negotiating a settlement on favorable terms for his client concerning a consortium of 18 dairy farmers who alleged that stray electricity from the client’s power system depressed dairy herd production in excess of $1 billion in damages. Firm president Hugh Gottschalk successfully represented IBM in a Denver court in a dispute involving tax assessments by the City of Golden, with the court invalidating previous penalties levied against the company. Habib Nasrullah is lead counsel to long-time client McKesson, the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America. The firm was hired as national settlement counsel to handle all litigation involving its subsidiary Northstar Rx and its chemotherapy drug Taxotere. The cases were consolidated in federal multidistrict litigation in New Orleans, and Nasrullah was able to prove Northstar Rx was not liable for the alleged damages, and plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the subsidiary without any payment by the client. Michael O’Donnell is lead counsel to Skyjack, who hired the firm to take over its entire portfolio of U.S. product liability litigation including over 20 active matters with the vast majority involving claims resulting from lift accidents. The firm has resolved most of the original portfolio and is handling all of Skyjack’s new cases going forward. High-stakes litigator Theresa Wardon Benz obtained a complete defense verdict for client Michelin in a product liability lawsuit that received national attention. Michael Williams currently represents Whirlpol in a multistate consumer class action lawsuit involving allegations of defective dryers. A new addition to this year’s list is Kathryn Reilly, who focuses her practice on complex commercial and antitrust litigation. Among her current matters, Reilly is representing clients in a federal class action lawsuit involving alleged collusion to keep au pair wages artificially low.

While it operates from offices in Washington, DC, New York, and Los Angeles, Wilkinson Stekloff remains the essence of “litigation boutique.” More specifically, a litigation boutique with a uniquely pronounced emphasis on high-end trial work. Formed in 2016 by veteran DC trial celebrity Beth Wilkinson upon her departure from Paul Weiss, Wilkinson Stekloff has been arguably the most buzz-worthy of law firms, and the appearance of Wilkinson and other firm partners at the forefront of a series of high-stakes trials has more than justified the hype. Wilkinson’s long-held position in the coveted Top 100 Trial Lawyers list remains secure in this edition of Benchmark; she is referenced by other members of that list as an equal on a near-unanimous basis. “Beth Wilkinson is my role model, and she continues to just kill it,” declares one. “She typifies what a trial lawyer is. She is what I aspire to be, she has a real plain-spoken nature in communicating with juries and with clients.”

Wilkinson continues to demonstrate the skills that have earned her these accolades. “She has popped up on a few of these contested-merger cases,” confirms one antitrust-focused contemporary. In one such example, Wilkinson and Rakesh Kilaru act for Microsoft after the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint in December 2022 to block Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. In another, Wilkinson, Brian Stekloff, Kilaru, and Moira Penzarepresent Altria Group and certain of its subsidiaries in multiple cases arising out of Altria’s minority investment in vaping entity Juul Labs. Stekloff continues to serve as national trial counsel for Monsanto in federal litigation arising out of claims that its popular herbicide Roundup causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “Brian can do some of the best crosses I’ve ever seen,” raves a contemporary. “He’s so talented and so likeable.” In another Monsanto-related matter, Cali Arat served as trial counsel in a first-of-its-kind case to go to trial, involving claims that both exposure to the herbicide Roundup from at-home use and exposure to PCBs through the food chain independently and together caused the plaintiff’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Both Penza and Arat also made their respective debuts on Benchmark’s Top 250 Women in Litigation list this year, joining Wilkinson, who has been recognized in this list every year since 2016.

From its sole office in Washington, DC, Williams & Connolly generates national-level recognition and prestige – arguably the only single-office firm in DC to do so. The firm also stands out in the variety of litigation services on offer, with star partners in nearly every capacity, including but not limited to commercial, securities, product liability, white-collar crime, intellectual property, antitrust, appellate, and even an increasing presence in the international arbitration space. Perhaps more impressive still is the firm’s dedication to, and recognition for, trials. “Day in, day out, Williams & Connolly just does great trial work,” offers one peer in summation. Indeed, the firm has a remarkable five candidates on Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyer list.

One such trial star, Heidi Hubbard, generates considerable acclaim across the board, particularly, but certainly not exclusively, from the product liability capacity. “We just love her,” extols one fellow Top 100 Trial Lawyer. “She had a recent reverse-payment win, which are so complicated and don’t go to trial very often. She has Amazon. [She is] Lovely to work with and super smart.” The alluded-to matter found Hubbard, along with Benjamin Greenblum, logging a July 2022 trial victory on behalf of Endo Pharmaceuticals in an alleged reverse-payment antitrust class action in which plaintiffs claimed billions in damages. The three-week trial adjudicated claims of class plaintiffs challenging a patent settlement. Plaintiffs alleged the settlement unreasonably delayed the entry of Impax’s generic version of Opana ER and sought more than $5 billion in treble damages. After less than three hours of deliberation, and despite the fact that co-defendant Impax settled for $265 million three days into the trial, the jury returned a verdict in Endo’s favor.

 
Another Top 100 Trial Lawyer, Enu Mainigi continues to serve as lead and national counsel for Cardinal Health in all things opioids, including civil litigation, Attorney General litigation and investigations, Congressional investigations, and other matters relating to the company’s distribution of opioid medications, and secured multiple landmark victories on behalf of the company over the past year. She secured a complete defense victory for the client in a federal bench trial in West Virginia. In July 2022, the court ruled in favor of the client, rejecting the plaintiffs’ contention that the distributors’ actions constituted a public nuisance and ruling that the distributors substantially complied with their duties to report suspicious opioid orders, and held that plaintiffs failed to prove that the distributors did not maintain effective controls against diversion. 

 

Yet another Top 100 Trial Lawyer, Joe Petrosinelli, secured a complete victory on behalf of Pfizer in one of the largest personal injury multidistrict litigations (MDLs) ever – the closely watched product liability MDL concerning the antacid medication Xantac, with plaintiffs claiming that use of Zantac causes cancers. This massive MDL included approximately 50,000 claims against multiple pharmaceutical defendants, coordinated proceedings in several state courts with another 30,000 cases, and cases pending in a dozen different states. The MDL Court appointed Petrosinelli as one of four co-lead counsel for all defendants, and as coordinating counsel for all defense groups. The first case set for trial in the overall litigation was set for August 2022, but two weeks before, the court granted Pfizer’s motion for summary judgment on several claims against it on statute of repose grounds, after which the plaintiff voluntarily dropped his case.

 
Robert Van Kirk, still another Top 100 Trial Lawyer, along with future star Jessica Rydstrom,
represents industrial supply company W.W. Grainger in a myriad of matters arising out of a chemical plant explosion in Houston that occurred in April 2019, allegedly as a result of the failure of a piping fixture sold under a Grainger brand. The claims include product liability, property, bankruptcy and insurance matters, as well as various government investigations. The product liability claims involve nearly 20 different complaints brought by about 200 individual plaintiffs who allege they were hurt or suffered other damage in the explosion. Those cases have been consolidated in a state MDL proceeding. There are also separate property damage, bankruptcy and insurance claims brought by the now defunct former owner of the plant and its insurers. The parties settled the majority of the action in early 2023, with a subset remaining to be tried in May.

Williams & Connolly also boasts considerable firepower in the appellate capacity. Lisa Blatt enjoys a reputation as one of the top Supreme Court strategists in the country, with peers and clients turning out in full throat to sing her praises and a full plate of high-level appointments to support this acclaim. While Blatt’s celebrity is undisputed, the firm is also grooming a next generation of talent in this capacity. Sarah Harris is developing an elevated profile among peers in the DC appeals community. “Sarah is spectacular and she’s only going to get better,” insists one contemporary. Harris secured an important victory for CVS Health subsidiary Caremark and others before the Ninth Circuit in a case concerning whether claims brought by pharmacies run by federally recognized tribes were subject to arbitration. In August 2022, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order granting the client’s petition to compel arbitration of a dispute with the Chickasaw Nation and five pharmacies that the Nation owns and operates. The Ninth Circuit held that the parties had validly delegated to the arbitrator the authority to resolve threshold issues regarding the scope and enforceability of the arbitration provision and rejected the Nation’s argument that tribal sovereign immunity precluded enforcement of that delegation provision. 

 

 

A global business firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been steadily increasing its litigation profile in both market share and in a literal headcount and geographic footprint sense. “I would have no hesitation sending anyone to Willkie,” insists a peer. “They are a firm on the rise.” While its core strength in the US has historically been New York – and remains so – the firm has branched out and developed other domestic locations as well. It opened a Chicago office in 2020, officially planting its flag on the Midwest legal landscape, continued developing its DC resources, and has doubled down on its expansion in California, where it now has three offices (Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.) “The biggest disrupter in the LA market recently has been Willkie Farr,” quips a peer in an observation on the firm’s build-out of that office. “I feel like anything that’s not nailed down, they’re trying to take!”

Willkie’s bet on California has paid dividends; the firm has attracted star partners in each office. In Los Angeles, the office’s managing partner Alex Weingarten is a peer favorite. “Alex was at Venable before moving to Willkie,” states a peer, who goes on to confide, “I was trying to get him to come here! He’s a terrific litigator who has some high-profile entertainment clients. [He’s] Unbelievable!” Weingarten for nearly a decade has represented the co-trustee of a family trust who was embroiled in a long-running, multi-generational family dispute concerning who was behind a conspiracy to steal tens of millions from the trust, built by the Chinese immigrant grandparents through a successful real estate venture. After reaching a settlement in 2018, in which the trustee’s mother essentially agreed to forfeit $30 million due to the likelihood of her being behind the conspiracy, the mother then changed her mind and spent four years attempting to void the settlement. In March 2022, Weingarten triumphed in convincing the California Court of Appeal to enforce the settlement. A peer also notes that multi-faceted commercial litigator Simona Agnolucci “left [revered San Francisco litigation boutique] Keker [Van Nest & Peters] to open Willkie’s San Francisco office. She’s a player.” Working on a team with DC’s Michael Gottlieb and Mark Stancil, Agnolucci secured a decisive victory in the US District Court for the District of South Carolina in obtaining a dismissal of nationwide class claims brought against Navy Federal Credit Union, a federally chartered, member-owned, not-for-profit credit union serving the military, veterans, and their families. A federal class action was first filed in the Southern District of California, alleging on behalf of a nationwide class that Navy Federal breached its agreement with certain of its customers by charging debit card users a small fee for certain overseas transactions. After Willkie filed Navy Federal’s motion to dismiss, the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed her complaint. Almost in parallel, another nearly identical lawsuit was filed by different plaintiffs in the District of South Carolina, which met with a similar voluntary dismissal. Willkie’s hot streak in recruiting continues; this past year the firm lured Koren “Kori” Bell, a celebrated white-collar crime-focused partner formerly with local boutique Larson, to its bench. A peer also insists, “Let’s talk about [San Francisco-based IP-focused future star] Barrington Dyer – he’s great!”

Willkie’s insurance practice has made a substantial rise as well. A peer advises, “Look into Christopher St. Jeanos – ask around about him! He’s a stand-up lawyer, and I think he’s only in his mid-40s! My litmus test when it comes to dealing with counsel is ‘Are you just a paper tiger?’ And Chris is not – he’s the real deal.” Another testifies that St. Jeanos is “doing AIG work and all the Marsh work, and he is at the upper echelon in terms of quality.” St. Jeanos and long-time insurance star Mitchell Auslander (both based in the New York office) obtained a significant victory for AIG in litigation concerning McKesson, one of the leading distributors of prescription opioids in the US and a target of the sweeping litigation against all entities in the chain alleged to have contributed to the national epidemic. McKesson, which recently agreed to contribute $7.4 billion to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits brought by government bodies across the country, sought coverage from AIG for its defense costs, judgments, and settlements incurred in the opioid lawsuits. At issue in the litigation are AIG policies with $375 million in total policy limits. The Willkie duo scored when the Northern District of California held, for the first time, that a wholesale drug distributor’s conduct in distributing opioids was not an “accident,” and therefore not covered under commercial general liability policies issued by AIG. The same pair also logged victory for this same client in similar claims brought by Purdue Pharma. 

New York-based securities partners Todd Cosenza and Tariq Mundiya are representing Curo in a shareholder-derivative suit regarding the company’s plans to transition Canadian borrowers from one type of loan to another. The derivative litigation is follow-on litigation from a 10b-5 case in the District of Kansas that has settled. Individually, Cosenza recently achieved a significant win, obtaining dismissal of a derivative action against the independent directors of Wells Fargo in a case arising out of alleged failures by Wells Fargo and its board to comply with several consent orders issued by banking and other federal regulators in the aftermath of the financial services company’s high-profile 2016 customer account fraud. Mundiya defended Resideo Technologies against claims arising from Honeywell’s 2018 spin-off of Resideo and the earnings guidance provided in 2019, upon which Resideo’s stock price fell precipitously, leading to class-action litigation in Minnesota and derivative litigation in Delaware. “Tariq is very good on the M&A side of things,” confirms a peer.

The chairman of the Chicago office, Craig Martin, joined Willkie in 2020 from Jenner & Block and has continued to build out the firm’s Windy City office. Martin’s practice encompasses a wide spectrum of commercial litigation, quasi-white-collar work, intellectual property, and pro bono human rights issues. “Craig brought over a team from Jenner with him to Willkie and he’s been very successful.”

 

 

With a network of international and domestic offices, WilmerHale has built a reputation as a global powerhouse. Nationally, the firm’s original mainstay in Boston continues to secure near-unanimous recognition in litigation, and the New York, DC and California offices have further bolstered the firm’s top-tier standing. It is lauded for its litigation capabilities nationwide, particularly antitrust, white collar, securities and appellate, as well as intellectual property, one of the firm’s most notable practices. The firm has also developed a name for itself in the international arbitration space. “Wilmer is one of the foundational groups in the business,” insists a peer. “A lot of this is through its London office but it is also really gathering strength in the US as well. Keep an eye on this.” Further amplifying the firm’s service offerings, WilmerHale litigators continue to demonstrate a keen prowess with trials, with several key courtroom wins on display from practitioners in several offices and across varied practice areas.

In the firm’s famed IP practice, Boston-based but nationally recognized Bill Lee needs no introduction; he continues to be universally regarded as a celebrity of the patent litigation community. “I tried two Qualcomm cases against him,” testifies a former opponent. “Bill is quite senior but still very active and still very good.” Lee, along with Denver’s Mindy Sooter and DC’s Amy Wigmore, achieved a significant victory for Comcast in a patent-infringement case brought by NexStep, who sued Comcast in 2019, claiming half a billion dollars in damages for allegedly infringing nine patents relating to a variety of technologies, including remote controls, home automation, and customer-service technology. In May 2022, following a four-day trial in Delaware in late 2021 involving the two patents not eliminated by an earlier summary judgment, the court issued a post-trial decision resulting in a clean sweep of non-infringement for Comcast. Lee also teamed up with Boston’s Lisa Pirozzolo in representing Exelixis in ANDA litigation connection with generic challenges to the client’s oncology-therapy product. A bench trial was held in Delaware in May 2022, and a decision on that case is pending. This same duo also represents Exelixis in two additional actions against the same opponent alleging infringement of additional patents covering this same product. These cases are set for a consolidated bench trial in October 2023. Boston’s Joseph Mueller has emerged as “a real contender as a credible successor to Bill Lee”, according to IP contemporaries. “And he’s a trial lawyer! He does the openings, the closings, the putting on of the main witnesses. [He has] Incredible gravitas – he’s the head of the entire litigation group, which is the biggest department in the firm.”

The firm’s unassailable IP roster is bookended on the West Coast by Sonal Mehta, one of the youngest and most championed stars of the Bay Area/Silicon Valley patent community. Mehta, who earned her stripes at celebrated (but now defunct) San Francisco litigation boutique Durie Tangri, has been lead counsel on several groundbreaking patent actions in the past several years and as of late has become a go-to for social media juggernaut Meta – corporate parent of household names Facebook and Instagram – in several cases involving issues of antitrust, privacy and breach of contract, sometimes involving intersection of any of these three.
Wilmer boasts trial firepower in the securities and commercial space as well, with New York’s Hallie Levinbeing a frequent mention as a standout in these capacities. Levin is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and put her courtroom acuity on display when she led a team (which also included New York’s Peter Neiman) that secured a complete defense verdict for Reckitt Benckiser in June 2022 following a 17-day jury trial in which the plaintiff sought nearly $500 million in damages. The case involved plaintiff Absorption Pharmaceuticals’ product, Promescent, a spray for the treatment of premature ejaculation. Several years earlier, the client conducted due diligence on a potential transaction to license the Promescent product. After identifying an FDA compliance issue in the formulation, Reckitt elected not to pursue a transaction and later launched its own version of the spray. Absorption claimed that Reckitt’s due diligence process was fraudulent and designed to extract purportedly secret information from Absorption. The plaintiff also alleged that Reckitt disclosed and used trade secrets internally after the company decided not to pursue the transaction. The same WilmerHale pair also achieved a victory for T-Mobile following a five-day bench trial in Delaware Chancery Court in August 2021. The Vice Chancellor granted T-Mobile’s request to enjoin Cox Communications from partnering with any mobile network operator other than T-Mobile to provide wholesale wireless services to Cox. This request stems from a 2017 agreement between the two entities concerning an exclusive provision Cox had with Sprint, subsequently acquired by T-Mobile. Cox breached that agreement by entering into a wholesale wireless agreement with another mobile network operator instead and then sued T-Mobile in January 2021 for a declaration that the relevant provision of the settlement agreement was unenforceable. The Wilmer duo responded by filing counterclaims for breach of the settlement agreement, the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, as well as alternative-equitable claims. T-Mobile requested an injunction enforcing Cox’s exclusivity obligation and sought damages in the alternative. In October 2021, the court held that the agreement was enforceable, that Cox had breached, and issued an injunction prohibiting Cox from providing mobile service with any operator besides T-Mobile. Cox appealed, and in March 2022, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed, but remanded for the Court of Chancery to determine whether Cox negotiated in good faith. T-Mobile filed supplemental counterclaims, and the case remains pending.

 

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher is a full-service firm with a labor and employment practice that is nationally recognized by peers and clients, often for its class action expertise. One peer says, “They’re really outstanding in what they do. They play in all spaces very well. They’ve got a terrific employment practice.”

The firm’s roster includes two of this year’s Top 20 Lawyers in Labor and Employment. Jason Schwartz is noted for having “a very big litigation practice,” representing clients like Amazon, Lowe’s and UBS over the past year. Although he is recognized for his well-established wage-and-hour practice, Schwartz has also handled numerous discrimination cases as well as a workplace-safety matter during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another top litigator is Joshua Lipshutz who has secured several victories for Uber in ongoing misclassification lawsuits. His recent win successfully transferred the case from the District Court of Massachusetts to California, which was followed by a rejection of the plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction motion to reclassify Uber drivers as employees. Lipshutz additionally secured a motion to compel arbitration. The plaintiffs have appealed the decisions to the First Circuit. In recent years, the firm has attended to matters for several law firms that have faced labor and employment claims. Michele Maryott and Catherine Conway are representing Morrison & Foerster in a discrimination case. The team successfully evaded a class certification and are litigating the individual claims of two plaintiffs. Recently, former US Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia returned to the firm. Harris Mufson also recently joined the firm's New York office. The former Proskauer partner defended the National Bank of Pakistan in a whistleblower retaliation matter that was dismissed in district court. Mufson defended the dismissal at the Second Circuit, which affirmed the lower court’s ruling and rejected the plaintiff’s arguments during the appeal.

The nationally recognized labor and employment practice at Hunton Andrews Kurth is accomplished in both employment litigation and traditional labor disputes. The firm’s reach extends across the US with offices in active markets like California, Texas, Georgia, and DC. This year, Virginia-based partner Kurt Larkin is distinguished for his exceptional work in traditional labor, handling collective bargaining negotiations, union organizing, and high-stakes NLRB disputes. Larkin has worked alongside the employment team in matters that involve labor issues, recently pairing up with employment litigator Emily Burkhardt Vicente in several matters. As a member of the Los Angeles office, Burkhardt Vicente has dedicated a significant portion of her practice to litigating FLSA class and collective actions and PAGA claims. Her employment litigation practice also spans other areas, as she and the co-head of the unfair competition and information protection task force Roland Juarez have handled trade secrets cases in the Southern District of California. Juarez is among the firm’s experts in employee mobility litigation. The LA office also houses Michele Beilke and Julia Trankiem who bring a wealth of experience in handling California employment litigation. The duo previously represented a client in a JAMS arbitration. Beilke in particular is well-versed in handling arbitrations, as well as jury trials. San Francisco-based partner M. Brett Burns is consistently tapped by national companies to handle their complex employment class and collective actions across the US. While Burns is especially known for his wage and hour expertise, he has recently been a lead partner in a class action and investigation that involves one of the EEOC’s high priority issues.

     On the other coast, the DC office features a host of lawyers recognized for their successful labor and employment litigation practice. Susan Wiltsie is among the group’s OSHA experts with vast experience in handling defense against citations, litigation, and whistleblower-related claims. Ryan Bates has recently been active in trade secrets litigation, as well as class and collective actions ranging from wage and hour to independent contractor claims. Kevin White is the co-chair of the firm’s labor and employment practice. He splits his time between handling both employment litigation and labor disputes. White’s labor practice has had him engaged in matters alongside the firm’s traditional labor experts. Robert Quackenboss has developed a niche and successful practice defending clients in class actions alleging that background checks violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). In the Northeast, Boston-based Christopher Pardo represents clients in the region with multiple recent cases in New York district courts. He litigates a vast array of employment matters, recently including trade secrets and restrictive covenants, pay frequency violation allegations, and Title VII discrimination claims.

     In addition to Larkin, Ryan Glasgow operates out of the Virginia office. His breadth of experience is broad and diverse; however, he has developed a specialty in defending employers against wage and hour class actions. Farther South, the firm’s Georgia office is Robert Dumbacher, another of the firm’s partners who seamlessly splits his time between labor relations and employment litigation. Kurt Powell is also a partner within the Virginia office. His practice focuses on employment litigation with a recent matter being a collective action under the Fair Labor Standards Act in the Northern District of Georgia. Juan Enjamio of the Miami office serves a host of industry-leading national clients. His recent cases have included class and collective actions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and defending clients in the rare intersect of immigration and employment litigation – allegations of discrimination brought by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients.

     The firm’s practice spans two offices in Texas. In Houston, Scott Nelson received praise from a peer who attests to the partner’s reputation in mentioning that they “think highly of him.” Nelson has defended a client in recently filed independent contractor case throughout Texas’ district courts.The Dallas office features Amber Rogers, a traditional labor lawyer representing management in multifarious labor disputes. She is experienced in collective bargaining, elections and representing clients in unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board. Alan Marcuis is the co-head of the unfair competition and information task force alongside his counterpart Juarez in California. His practice is a mix of traditional labor disputes and employment litigation.

Weil Gotshal & Manges houses a labor and employment practice with a nationally known reputation for handling complex cases. The firm is equipped with “fantastic litigators” as noted by a peer in the practice area. Another peer regards the firm’s labor and employment practice as “always strong” and “always recognized” for having a “great group”. Although the firm’s base is in New York, the practice operates on a national scale, taking on cases in major hubs for labor and employment litigation. The firm’s reputation has garnered major market clients like Goldman Sachs, Discovery and Country Fresh.

The firm recently expanded their bench to include John Barry as the head of the employment litigation practice. Last year, he represented a client in a non-compete lawsuit filed against a former senior executive who was the founder of the company the client acquired. Barry secured an injunction and successfully negotiated a settlement.

Gary Friedman is a seasoned litigator with ample experience in employment litigation. Friedman is in the trenches of handling a complex wage and hour case filed in Superior Court in Los Angeles by plaintiffs who are seeking to include the client, Community Brands, as a liable employer based on joint employment and misclassification theories. The plaintiffs were hired by subsidiaries of the cloud-based software solutions company.

Friedman also recently prevented a high-stakes wage-and-hour class action that would have sent ripples through the air medical industry. The firm was retained to address losses on significant issues at trial court that were being appealed. The client was exceptionally satisfied with the favorable settlement that Friedman and his team obtained after the appeal and they retained the firm for several other wage and hour cases in the District of Arizona, the District of Colorado, and the Southern District of Illinois.

Nicholas Pappas is highly experienced in resolving complex employment cases, particularly in the area of restrictive covenants and trade secrets. The cases that he works on are often dealing with high-ranking individuals and major market companies. Recently, Pappas successfully represented global restricting consultancy AlixPartners in a cross-border restrictive-covenants case involving former Managing Directors from the Paris and Milan offices of the company. In the case related to the Paris office, the conflict resulted in a favorable settlement. Pappas and the team filed suit in the Delaware Chancery Court against the Managing Director in the Milan-based case. After significant wins at court, including a denied motion to dismiss by the defendant, the team is preparing to handle some claims in Delaware court while others are stayed due to claims filed in Italy. In addition to his significant restrictive covenant and trade secrets practice, Pappas is also experienced in handling other employment claims. He has recently been involved in a sexual harassment case as well.