Firm overview
Shearman & Sterling LLP distinguishes itself by harnessing the intellectual strength and deep experience of its lawyers across its extensive global footprint. The firm represents many of the world’s leading corporations, financial institutions, emerging growth companies, governments, and state-owned enterprises. Those clients, in turn, continue to choose Shearman & Sterling for its distinctive ability to leverage the knowledge and judgment of one of the world’s largest and most accomplished cross-border legal teams—a team ideally situated to help clients on their complex business transactions.
Our Litigation Practice: Shearman & Sterling’s Litigation Group is strongly positioned to counsel and protect clients in today’s challenging environment. With attorneys in the United States, Europe, and Asia, our team is ready to assist in any crisis, whether the adversary is a government regulator, a competitor, or a well-funded class action attorney.
Never before have clients faced the array of potential controversies that they do today. Prosecutions and enforcement proceedings relating to alleged business improprieties are at an all-time high. Settlements in securities and antitrust class actions regularly break previous records. What were once mundane commercial disputes have transformed into “scorched earth” battles in which adversaries root through millions of emails and electronic documents.
Such challenging times demand attorneys with the experience to counsel clients through difficult problems, and the fortitude to bring a case to trial if that is the necessary course. Our attorneys are experienced in a wide range of substantive areas, including securities, white collar defense, antitrust, anticorruption/FCPA, M&A litigation, patent litigation, commercial disputes, and arbitration. Equally important, we are trial-ready and trial-tested. Our partners include former prosecutors who have tried dozens of jury trials in United States courts. We are equally strong in the arbitration area, handling numerous contested proceedings every year.
Our attorneys are experienced in a wide range of litigation. The key areas in which we practice include:
Securities Litigation: Aggressive regulators and well-funded class action attorneys have ushered in a new era of high-stakes securities litigation. We handle all such matters, including shareholder class actions, SEC proceedings, corporate governance issues, contested takeovers, and shareholder disputes. Our Securities Litigation Practice draws not only on our litigation attorneys with experience in that area, but also on our top-tier corporate transactional practice, which has been involved in cuttingedge securities issues for many years.
White Collar Defense, Regulation and Enforcement: Our white collar team features former federal prosecutors and regulators with extensive experience representing companies, boards of directors, and individuals in internal investigations, civil and criminal enforcement proceedings, and at trial. Recent experience includes major investigations concerning price-fixing, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, insider trading, and other financial fraud.
Antitrust Litigation: We represent clients across a wide range of industries and counsel them on issues involving all aspects of antitrust and competition law. In the US, we regularly represent clients in civil and criminal matters relating to Sherman Act Section 1 price-fixing, group boycott and market allocation claims; Sherman Act Section 2 monopolization claims; claims arising under state antitrust and unfair competition laws; and merger cases. Similarly, in Europe, we have counseled and represented a wide range of clients in relation to cartels, cooperation agreements, dominance cases, mergers, and state aid in front of the European Commission and national competition authorities.
M&A Litigation: Clients rely on Shearman & Sterling to provide a one-stop solution for the most complex M&A transactions, the associated due diligence, as well as any litigation that may ultimately arise. Our litigators work closely with our transactional M&A attorneys and are often involved at the earliest stages of the transaction to provide advice and guidance throughout the process.Our M&A litigators represent corporations, investment banks, boards of directors, special committees, and other major players involved in highstakes transactional litigation.
Commercial Disputes and Business Law: We have represented corporations, partnerships, joint ventures, and other entities in a variety of business-related disputes relating to breach of contract, fraud, professional malpractice, business torts, and insurance and reinsurance matters.
Intellectual Property Litigation: Our intellectual property litigation practice offers a full range of legal services relating to the defense, enforcement and commercial exploitation of intellectual property assets. Our services include litigation and dispute resolution in district courts, at the ITC and before arbitral panels; inter partes and ex parte validity proceedings before the USPTO; and strategic counseling regarding litigation and licensing
Arbitration: Our attorneys handle both domestic and international arbitrations. The International Arbitration Group, centered in Paris, has particular experience in international arbitrations in the areas of investment, construction, energy, business combinations, intellectual property, and general commercial disputes. We have represented parties in arbitrations under the rules of all of the major worldwide arbitration organizations.
