On February 27th Benchmark Litigation hosted the first part of it ninth annual US awards in which it recognized the country’s most distinguished litigators and their firms for their work over the past twelve months.
This year for the first time the brand is having two seperate ceremonies, one on the East coast at the Pierre, New York on February 27 and one on the West coast at The St Regis, San Francisco on March 5.
In New York the sold-out audience saw Katherine Forrest of Cravath Swaine & Moore and Ted Wells of Paul Weiss inducted into the Benchmark Litigation Hall of Fame. Wells also took the coveted award of "Trial Lawyer of the Year."
Another highlight of the evening was Simpson Thacher's Jonathan Youngwood collecting the Pro Bono award for his firm for its work in the Brown v. Madison County case concerning racially motivated policing.
Firms from over half of the states plus DC were represented in the room. More firms will be attending the inaugural West Coast ceremony on March 14. Please click the link below to see the shortlist for that ceremony or email rebecca.synnott@euromoneyny.com for more details.
Benchmark US Awards West Coast Ceremony shortlist
Photographs from the New York award ceremony may be found HERE.
Congratulations to the winners, all of which are listed below:
STATE FIRM AWARDS
Alabama Firm of the Year
Lightfoot Franklin & White
Arkansas Firm of the Year
Quattlebaum Grooms & Tull
Connecticut Firm of the Year
Wiggin and Dana
Delaware Firm of the Year
Ross Aronstam & Moritz
District of Columbia Firm of the Year
Williams & Connolly
Florida Firm of the Year
Podhurst Orseck
Georgia Firm of the Year
King & Spalding
Illinois Firm of the Year
Kirkland & Ellis
Indiana Firm of the Year
Faegre Baker Daniels
Iowa Firm of the Year
Nyemaster Goode
Kansas Firm of the Year
Rouse Frets Goss White Gentile & Rhodes
Kentucky Firm of the Year
Stites & Harbison
Louisiana Firm of the Year
Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver
Maine Firm of the Year
Preti Flaherty Beliveau & Pachios
Maryland Firm of the Year
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
Massachusetts Firm of the Year
Choate Hall & Stewart
Michigan Firm of the Year
Bodman
Minnesota Firm of the Year
Blackwell Burke
Mississippi Firm of the Year
Brunini Grantham Grower & Hewes
Missouri Firm of the Year
Polsinelli
New Hampshire Firm of the Year
Nixon Peabody
New Jersey Firm of the Year
Sills Cummis & Gross
New York Firm of the Year
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
North Carolina Firm of the Year
Smith Anderson
North Dakota Firm of the Year
Zuger Kirmis & Smith
Ohio Firm of the Year
Ulmer & Berne
Pennsylvania Firm of the Year
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr
Rhode Island Firm of the Year
Adler Pollock & Sheehan
South Carolina Firm of the Year
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
Tennessee Firm of the Year
Bradley
Texas Firm of the Year
Gibbs & Bruns
Vermont Firm of the Year
Paul Frank + Collins
Virginia Firm of the Year
Hunton Andrews Kurth
West Virginia Firm of the Year
Bowles Rice
Wisconsin Firm of the Year
Gass Weber Mullins
PRACTICE AREA FIRMS OF THE YEAR
Antitrust Firm of the Year
Winston & Strawn
Appellate Firm of the Year
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Bankruptcy Firm of the Year
Proskauer
General Commercial Firm of the Year
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
Insurance Firm of the Year
Blank Rome
Intellectual Property Firm of the Year
Williams & Connolly
International Arbitration Firm of the Year
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Product Liability Firm of the Year
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
Securities Firm of the Year
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
White Collar Crime/Enforcement/Investigations Firm of the Year
Debevoise & Plimpton
Boutique Firm of the Year Firm of the Year
Kaplan Hecker & Fink
Plaintiff Firm of the Year
Pomerantz
Trial Firm of the Year
Bartlit Beck
LABOR & EMPLOYMENT AWARDS
Labor & Employment Management-Side Firm of the Year
Seyfarth Shaw
Labor & Employment Management-Side Attorney of the Year
Elise Bloom
Proskauer
Labor & Employment Employee-Side Firm of the Year
Sanford Heisler & Sharp
Labor & Employment Employee-Side Attorney of the Year
Shannon Liss-Riordan
Lichten & Liss-Riordan
PRACTICE AREA ATTORNEYS OF THE YEAR
Antitrust Attorney of the Year
Kevin Orsini
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Appellate Attorney of the Year
Willy Jay
Goodwin
Bankruptcy Attorney of the Year
Martin Bienenstock
Proskauer
General Commercial Attorney of the Year
Orin Snyder
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Insurance Attorney of the Year
Robert Horkovich
Anderson Kill
Intellectual Property Attorney of the Year
Max Tribble
Susman & Godfrey
International Arbitration Attorney of the Year
Michael Kim
Kobre & Kim
Product Liability Attorney of the Year
Allison Brown
Skadden
Securities Attorney of the Year
Adam Hakki
Shearman & Sterling
White Collar Crime/Investigations/Enforcement Attorney of the Year
Sean Hecker
Kaplan Hecker & Fink
Plaintiff Attorney of the Year
Bill Reid
Reid Collins & Tsai
Trial Lawyer of the Year
Ted Wells
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
HALL OF FAME
Katherine Forrest
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Ted Wells
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
IMPACT CASES
- New York v. ExxonMobil (Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison)
- US v. Bogucki (Kaplan Hecker & Fink)
- CNN v. Trump (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher)
- Title Source Inc. v. HouseCanary Inc. (Susman Godfrey)
- O’Connor v. Uber (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; Lichten & Liss-Riordan)
- In re the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (Proskauer)
- Boston Cab Dispatch v. Uber (Boies Schiller & Flexner)
- Brown vs. Madison County (Simpson Thacher & Bartlett)
- Fiat Chrysler settlements (Sullivan & Cromwell; Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein; and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton)
- Sears Chapter 11 (Weil Gotshal & Manges; Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison; and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld)
Pro Bono Firm of the Year
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Once again, we at Benchmark Litigation extend our congratulations to all of the evening’s winners and attendees and thank our guests for their continuing support of our projects.
The new Benchmark Litigation research cycle is already underway. Firms can register their interest, find full timelines and a list of FAQs, and download all relevant documents HERE.
