District of Columbia

Firm overview

Williams & Connolly is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier litigation firms. Our lawyers routinely handle significant and complex civil, criminal, and administrative cases across the United States and around the globe. The firm maintains a strong tradition of hiring the best and the brightest and training and promoting its lawyers from within, producing closely knit and collaborative teams dedicated to achieving successful outcomes for our clients. 

The firm was founded in 1967 by legendary trial lawyer Edward Bennett Williams. In the tradition of our founder, we share a passionate and principled dedication to excellence and success in all that we do. Over the last five decades, many of the world’s most prominent organizations and individuals have trusted us with their most important and complex litigation, investigation, and arbitration matters.

The firm’s clients include major global companies from virtually every sector, including Pfizer, Disney, Samsung, Intel, Bank of America, Google, The Carlyle Group, Medtronic, AstraZeneca, Genentech, Eli Lilly, 21st Century Fox, and HSBC. In addition, our lawyers have represented numerous law and accounting firms in professional liability and other matters, one reason why the Washington Post has recognized Williams & Connolly as the firm that other professional firms “turn to when they’re in trouble.”

The firm’s robust intellectual property practice successfully represents clients in patent litigation matters worth billions of dollars. In the healthcare and consumer industries, Williams & Connolly serves as national coordinating, trial, and/or resolution counsel for major pharmaceutical, medical device, pharmacy, technology, and consumer products companies in mass torts, multi-district litigation, and class actions. Our lawyers litigate cross-border commercial and other disputes in wide-ranging international litigation and arbitrations. We have handled many of the most complex corporate, financial, and securities disputes stemming from the global financial crisis. We represent companies and individuals in government investigations and prosecutions of all types, including allegations of fraud, corruption, and FCPA violations. Our lawyers also regularly appear before the Supreme Court and state and federal courts of appeals.

Known for our ability to take cases to trial, and the deep bench of lawyers at the firm who have tried civil and criminal matters in courts across the country and internationally, Williams & Connolly is described by Chambers USA as “offering unmatched strength in depth and top-level trial capabilities,” and “[a] class act: a delight to litigate with, and fearsome to litigate against.” In addition, Washingtonian magazine has highlighted the firm’s “uncompromising emphasis on victory.”

Our distinctive approach to litigation has earned the firm top marks from leading publications and ranking services, such as Chambers, Legal 500, The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, and Benchmark Litigation, both for overall litigation prowess as well as for many practice- or industry-specific types of litigation. We hire the top graduates from the best law schools and provide a collaborative training ground for young litigators, providing clients with the highest-quality representation at every level of seniority and with a cohesive team always working to advance their interests. Vault has ranked Williams & Connolly as one of the top law firms for selectivity, partner-associate relations, career outlook, satisfaction, quality of work, and business outlook.  Williams & Connolly maintains a nearly one-to-one partner-to-associate ratio, ensuring that matters are leanly staffed and that our associates gain significant hands-on experience. Our approach to hiring and advancement from within fosters a unique culture that focuses on teamwork, preparation, and tenacity designed to deliver results.

Firm overview

Milbank LLP is a leading international law firm with over 1000 lawyers providing innovative legal solutions for more than 150 years across multiple disciplines and practice areas. We are headquartered in New York and have offices in London, Frankfurt, Munich, Hong Kong, Singapore, São Paulo, Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Updated Nov 2025

Firm overview

King & Spalding helps leading companies advance complex business interests in more than 160 countries. Working across a highly integrated platform of more than 1,300 lawyers in 26 offices globally, we deliver tailored commercial solutions through world-class offerings and an uncompromising approach to quality and service.

Trial and Global Disputes: Our experienced disputes lawyers try and arbitrate high-stakes cases every year across the globe in the most challenging jurisdictions for corporate clients.  Recognized for creativity, meticulous preparation, and top-rate advocacy, our lawyers help clients navigate the litigation lifecycle, working together from day one to identify business objectives, develop a strategy to meet those objectives, and then execute that strategy.  With more than 450 lawyers in 17 offices worldwide, we are uniquely able to staff and manage large and cross-border disputes from filing, to trial, and through appeal.  Our lawyers have a variety of expertise across substantive areas, including Appellate Law, Class Action Defense, Commercial Litigation, Construction & Engineering Disputes, Corporate & Securities Litigation, E-Discovery, Insolvency Litigation, Insurance Coverage & Recovery, Intellectual Property, International Arbitration, Labor & Employment, Product Liability, Professional Liability, and Toxic & Environmental Torts.  Working together—one area of expertise informing another—our disputes lawyers provide clients with seamless and efficient representation in the most complex and sensitive matters.

Capabilities:

• Appellate, Constitutional and Administrative Law 
• Bankruptcy and Insolvency Litigation
• Class Action Defense
• Commercial Litigation
• Construction and Engineering Disputes
• Corporate and Securities Litigation
• E-Discovery
• Insurance Coverage and Recovery
• Intellectual Property, Patent, Trademark and Copyright Litigation
• International Arbitration and Litigation
• Labor and Employment
• Product Liability
• Professional Liability
• Toxic & Environmental Torts

Government Matters: Clients ranging from Fortune Global 50 corporations to high-profile individuals in every region of the world entrust King & Spalding’s Government Matters practice to guide them through rapidly changing regulatory landscapes, complex investigations by U.S. and foreign enforcement authorities, highly sensitive internal investigations and related, often parallel civil proceedings. 

Hundreds of lawyers across the United States, Europe and Asia bring decades of prior government service and industry experience to our regulatory and investigative practices, which serve the financial services, pharmaceutical and medical device, healthcare, energy, automotive and technology sectors in particular. The team includes six U.S. Attorneys, 24 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, and former senior officials from the highest ranks in regulatory and enforcement organizations that are most significant to our clients.

Our experienced team includes former leaders at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Commerce, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Bank of England, the U.K’s Financial Reporting Council and the World Trade Organization.

Capabilities:

• Antitrust
• Data, Privacy and Security
• Environmental, Health and Safety
• FDA and Life Sciences
• Government Advocacy and Public Policy
• Government Contracts
• Healthcare
• International Trade
• National Security and Corporate Espionage
• Securities Enforcement and Regulation
• Special Matters and Government Investigations

Corporate, Finance and Investments: Our Corporate, Finance and Investments team brings a collaborative approach to help clients execute complex, high-value transactions. We have a fully integrated platform with more than 330 lawyers in 17 offices, offering clients the benefit of global specialists with local knowledge and industry expertise. We work side by side with our clients to execute transactions efficiently and effectively—we understand what matters to both our clients and opposite parties and we explain the actual, practical risks to our clients.

Capabilities:

• Activist Defense
• Alternative Capital and Credit Funds
• Capital Markets
• Construction and Procurement
• Corporate Governance
• Emerging Companies and Venture Capital
• Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
• Energy and Infrastructure Projects
• Financial Restructuring
• Investment Funds and Asset Management
• Leveraged Finance
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Middle East and Islamic Finance and Investment
• Private Equity
• Real Estate
• Securitization
• Tax

Updated Sep 2024

Firm overview

The Litigation & Trial Department leverages a global platform to provide unmatched legal services. With over 1000 top-tier litigators, we bring experience, insight, and determination to every client. Our pragmatic approach ensures favorable results through effective collaboration with local counsel, co-counsel, and government regulators. We develop aggressive and creative litigation strategies, often resolving matters before trial. When necessary, clients can rely on our ability to win at trial, arbitration, regulatory proceedings, and on appeal.
Antitrust & Competition: Our distinguished team comprises highly qualified lawyers adept in both local and international antitrust and competition matters. We provide expert counsel on merger clearance, cartel investigations, competition-related litigation, IP antitrust issues, and compliance training. Our team is committed to delivering exceptional client service in cases involving monopolization challenges, rapid-response merger litigation, and innovative, high-stakes theories.

Complex Commercial Litigation: Our team combines trial-ready capabilities and business fluency to tackle complex challenges. We represent public and private companies, financial institutions, private equity firms, governmental entities, and high net worth individuals in commercial disputes. Over the past decade, we have tried or arbitrated hundreds of cases to verdict with an extraordinary success rate in US federal and state courts and arbitration panels. Our team includes more than 350 former federal law clerks and more than 35 former federal prosecutors, providing invaluable institutional knowledge and courtroom experience.

Connectivity, Privacy & Information: Our firm brings together a global team of lawyers addressing the critical legal issues arising from digital technology and services, in disciplines including communications, data privacy and cybersecurity, internet law, and digital copyright. Our team handles high-profile litigation, regulatory investigations and counseling, internal investigations, and technology transactions for clients in multiple industry sectors. We handle matters requiring extensive experience in particular areas of the law governing digital commerce, as well as matters that cut across legal silos to deliver exceptional results for our clients.

Environmental Litigation: We represent clients in administrative and regulatory proceedings, enforcement, litigation, transactions, and legislative matters. We help clients navigate complex agency rulemakings, secure approvals for energy and infrastructure projects, and resolve environmental investigations and compliance issues. Our wide-ranging expertise and unique government experience set us apart, delivering successful outcomes in groundbreaking matters worldwide.

Intellectual Property Litigation: Our litigators have unparalleled experience in IP strategy and disputes, including patent, trademark, copyright, trade dress, and trade secrets. We are actively involved in precedent-setting multijurisdictional litigation on a global scale, including extensive experience across numerous U.S. district courts, as well as proceedings before the Federal Circuit, ITC, and PTAB. Our team is comprised of technically trained lawyers, technical analysts, and dedicated IP paralegals, adept at managing cases in diverse industries across life sciences, technology, and more, including semiconductors, software, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, electric motors, engines, emerging technologies, cloud computing and networking, packaging, building products, and banking technologies, among others.

Securities Litigation & Professional Liability: Our Securities and M&A Litigation team is renowned for its exceptional expertise in handling complex securities class actions, shareholder derivative litigation, and litigation arising from M&A transactions. We have defended more federal securities lawsuits than any other firm in the US in the last five years, and our presence in the Delaware courts is unparalleled among our peer firms (Lex Machina). Recognized as the Securities Group of the Year by Law360 in four of the past five years, and consistently ranked #1 by Chambers and Legal500, our team comprises leading lawyers, former federal prosecutors, and senior SEC staff. We are the go-to firm for Fortune 500 companies, major financial institutions, and the Big Four accounting firms, securing high-profile, precedent-setting victories. We excel at resolving matters before trial through dispositive motions or settlements, and have a proven track record in trial success.

Supreme Court & Appellate: Led by a former U.S. Solicitor General, our Supreme Court and Appellate Practice boasts an outstanding record before the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts. Over the past two decades, our advocates have argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court, representing Fortune 100 corporations, state governments, leading educational institutions, and individuals. Recently, we secured certiorari in nearly a dozen cases and have prepared briefs for hundreds of cases in both federal and state appellate courts.

White Collar Defense & Investigations: Our firm is at the forefront of advising on white collar and enforcement matters, offering unparalleled expertise in high-profile, sensitive cases globally. We leverage deep experience with regulators and prosecutors to guide clients through inquiries and investigations, skillfully defending against enforcement actions and prosecutions. Our track record includes avoiding charges and achieving full acquittals, often defeating government prosecutions before trial. We represent clients in actions by the SEC, DOJ, PCAOB, FINRA, CFTC, state attorneys general, Congress, and other global regulators. Our team excels in export controls, economic sanctions, and national security-related work, including CFIUS reviews and FOCI mitigation. Our defense lawyers include former senior prosecutors and government officials from top agencies.

Updated Oct 2025