On February 11th, Benchmark Litigation hosted its fourth annual Benchmark Awards ceremony in which it recognized the country’s most distinguished litigators and their firms for their work over the past twelve months.
The event was attended by a record-making 287 guests from as many as 42 different states, a fact which marked the most attended awards ceremony in Benchmark’s history.
Photographs from the award ceremony may be found here: http://hechlerphotographers.zenfolio.com/p677872836
The individual award winners of the evening were, in order of their announcement, as follows:
Hall of Fame Winners:
Evan Chesler (Cravath Swaine & Moore) – Hall of Fame Winner
Robert Giuffra (Sullivan & Cromwell) – Hall of Fame Winner
Practice Area Attorneys of the Year:
George Cary (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton) – Antitrust Attorney of the Year
Mark Perry (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher) – Appellate Attorney of the Year
James Bromley (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton) – Bankruptcy Attorney of the Year
Dane Butswinkas (Williams & Connolly) – General Commercial Attorney of the Year
Mary Beth Forshaw (Simpson Thacher & Bartlett) – Insurance Attorney of the Year
David Pritikin (Sidley Austin) – Intellectual Property Attorney of the Year
Mark Friedman (Debevoise & Plimpton) – International Arbitration Attorney of the Year
Heidi Hubbard (Williams & Connolly) – Product Liability Attorney of the Year
Adam Hakki (Shearman & Sterling) – Securities Attorney of the Year
Karen Seymour (Sullivan & Cromwell) – White Collar / Enforcement / Investigations Attorney of the Year
Mark Lebovitch (Bernstein Litowitz) – Plaintiff Attorney of the Year
Elkan Abramowitz (Morvillo Abramowitz) – Trial Lawyer of the Year
Outstanding In-House Counsel:
Steven Crooke (Layne Christensen) – Outstanding In-House Counsel
David Howard (Microsoft) – Outstanding In-House Counsel
Tonja De Sloover (Energy Transfer Partners) – Outstanding In-House Counsel
Charles Kalil (DOW Chemical Company) – Outstanding In-House Counsel
The firm award winners of the evening were as follows:
State Firms of the Year:
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings – Alabama Firm of the Year
Osborn Maledon - Arizona Firm of the Year
Sidley Austin – California Firm of the Year
Wiggin and Dana – Connecticut Firm of the Year
Abrams & Bayliss – Delaware Firm of the Year
Williams & Connolly – DC Firm of the Year
Bilzin Sumberg – Florida Firm of the Year
Troutman Sanders - Georgia Firm of the Year
Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing - Hawaii Firm of the Year
Gjording Fouser – Idaho Firm of the Year
Kirkland & Ellis – Illinois Firm of the Year
Barnes & Thornburg - Indiana Firm of the Year
Nymaster Goode - Iowa Firm of the Year
Stoll Keenon Ogden – Kentucky firm of the Year
Barrasso Usdin – Louisiana Firm of the Year
Verrill Dana – Maine Firm of the Year
Whiteford Taylor Preston – Maryland Firm of the Year
Ropes & Gray - Massachusetts Firm of the Year
Bodman - Michigan Firm of the Year
Ciresi Conlin – Minnesota Firm of the Year
Brunini Grantham Grower & Hewes – Mississippi Firm of the Year
Greensfelder Hemker & Gale - Missouri Firm of the Year
Crowley Fleck - Montana Firm of the Year
Baird Holm - Nebraska Firm of the Year
Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie - Nevada Firm of the Year
Preti Flaherty – New Hampshire Firm of the Year
Cole Schotz – New Jersey Fimr of the Year
Rodey Dickason Sloan Akin & Robb - New Mexico
Holwell Shuster Goldberg – New York Firm of the Year
Brooks Pierce – North Carolina Firm of the Year
Zuger Kiris & Smith - North Dakota Firm of the Year
Thompson Hine – Ohio Firm of the Year
Crowe & Dunlevy – Oklahoma Firm of the Year
Lane Powell – Oregon Firm of the Year
Morgan Lewis & Bockius – Pennsylvania Firm of the Year
Adler Pollock & Sheehan - Rhode Island Firm of the Year
Nexsen Pruet - South Crolina Firm of the Year
Johnson Janklow Abdallah Bollweg & Parsons – South Dakota Firm of the Year
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings – Tennessee Firm of the Year
Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst – Texas Firm of the Year
Holland & Hart - Utah Firm of the Year
Gravel & Shea - Vermont Firm of the Year
Hunton & Williams – Virginia Firm of the Year
Corr Cronin Michelson Baumgardner Forr & Moore – Washington Firm of the Year
Godfey & Kahn – Wisconsin Firm of the Year
Impact Cases:
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher – recognized for handling the case of Clements v. AT&T
Kaye Scholer – recognized for their representation of Pfizer in an action against their prescription drug, Zoloft
Kirkland & Ellis – recognized for their representation of SIPC when it the SEC brought a case to force SIPC to cover the claims of investors who lost money in convicted financier Alan Stanford’s $ 7 billion Ponzi scheme
Simpson Thacher – recognized for their successful handling of Deutsche Bank’s DB Structured Products division and its various mortgage repurchase put-back actions, for which, in 2015, a New York Court of Appeals unanimously held that the claims of the plaintiffs were barred by the statute of limitations
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan – recognized for their successful representation of ViaSat in a patent infringement and breach of contract suit against Space Systems Loral
Williams & Connolly – recognized for their handling of an antitrust class action against their client AstraZeneca
Sullivan & Cromwell – recognized for their obtaining of a dismissal of federal and state litigation against their client Porsche
Lynn Tillotson Pinker & Cox – recognized for their role in Energy Transfer Partners v. Enterprise and Enbridge
Practice Area Firms of the Year:
Kaye Scholer – Antitrust Firm of the Year
Boies Schiller & Flexner - Appellate Firm of the Year
Kirkland &Ellis – Bankruptcy Firm of the Year
Cravath Swaine & Moore – General Commercial Firm of the Year
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett – Insurance Firm of the Year
McKool Smith – Intellectual Property Firm of the Year
Debevoise & Plimpton – International Arbitration Firm of the Year
Kirkland & Ellis – Product Liability Firm of the Year
Paul Weiss – Securities Firm of the Year
Cleary Gottlieb – White Collar / Enforcement / Investigations Firm of the Year
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.
Following the awards ceremony, the Benchmark Litigation 2017 research cycle is underway. We wish each firm and attorney the best of luck with this year’s research cycle and look forward to reviewing their submissions.