Freshfields is a leading global law firm with over 275 years’ experience advising the world’s most prestigious corporations and financial institutions. We pride ourselves on being a top-tier litigation department with a unique combination of subject-matter knowledge, local presence and strategic foresight.
The Freshfields litigation team represents a diverse set of US and global clients, across numerous industries and sectors, who face billions of dollars in potential exposure. Our clients include many of the world’s most recognizable brands and our roster continues to grow as clients increasingly find themselves in need of sophisticated counsel.
Our team of attorneys brings efficient and innovative solutions to our clients’ most pressing legal challenges. As a critical component of the world’s premier international litigation practice, our US litigators routinely handle complex multijurisdictional and cross-border matters and are alert to the specific concerns and collateral consequences of disputes in non-US regions as well as with global regulators.
We have unrivalled experience defending businesses across a range of industries, and by leveraging our 800-strong global litigation team we excel in complex cases that span multiple jurisdictions within and outside the United States. Our team includes nine former senior litigators from the Department of Justice and United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and senior counsel from the Department of Defense, National Security Agency, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, and the Office of the White House Counsel who together have decades of experience taking dozens of federal and state trials to verdict—an invaluable weapon in securing the best outcomes for our clients.
Practice areas & sector specializations:
Updated Sep 2024
Sidley is an elite global law firm. Harnessing 158 years of legal heritage, we provide strong representation on behalf of clients in more than 70 countries. Our lawyers apply a Built to WinSM client service model to their legal strategies, ensuring the best possible outcomes in complex transactional, restructuring, regulatory, and litigation matters. With 21 offices strategically situated in key commercial and financial hubs across the world, our perspective and our reach are truly global. Our 2,300 lawyers, fluent in more than 80 languages, possess the cultural awareness and cross-border legal acumen needed to bring clarity to a dynamic business landscape.
Follow Sidley on Twitter @SidleyLaw.
Appellate: Sidley is widely recognized as one of the premier appellate firms in the country, and as a trailblazer — regularly addressing intricate, precedent-setting issues in federal and state law in the Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, as well as state appellate and supreme courts across the nation. Since the inception of the practice in 1985, the team, including more than 20 former Supreme Court clerks, has briefed over 220 cases on the merits and argued more than 150 cases before the Court.
Bankruptcy: Sidley’s global Restructuring group is regularly involved in the largest restructurings throughout the world. The team represents companies facing in-court or out-of-court restructurings, official and ad hoc committees of creditors, agent lenders, and participants in distressed M&A processes. Sidley prides itself on the group’s ability to use innovative, bespoke approaches to obtain the best results in complex situations.
Commercial: Clients repeatedly turn to Sidley’s Commercial Litigation team when their most important disputes must be tried. Sidley’s track record of successes is unparalleled in high-stakes, mission-critical cases against well-regarded opponents, no matter the forum. The team’s full-service litigation capabilities are relied upon by leading global companies with household names.
Competition/Antitrust: As a part of the firm’s global antitrust offering, Sidley has a strong and well-respected litigation practice. Sidley lawyers represent clients in their most complex cases, including matters involving antitrust enforcement, merger clearances, claims of collusion, and other alleged antitrust violations. The team has represented domestic and international corporations, trade associations, government entities, professional societies, and individuals in the full range of civil and criminal trials.
Insurance: Sidley’s Insurance Disputes practice advises on significant insurance litigation nationwide across a variety of areas, including regulatory compliance, insurance class actions, reinsurance disputes, ERISA litigation, general commercial litigation, securities and shareholder litigation, and Supreme Court and appellate courts, among other areas.
Intellectual Property: Sidley boasts one of the most distinguished and highly regarded Intellectual Property litigation practices in the U.S., with approximately 80 lawyers and a deep bench of trial lawyers. Handling matters for innovation-driven clients ranging from global Fortune 500 companies to groundbreaking startups, the team develops winning strategies for high-stakes IP litigation involving patents, trade secret and unfair competition, false advertising, copyright infringement, and trademarks.
International Arbitration: Sidley’s Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy practice exemplifies a superior depth of knowledge of the law, regulatory challenges, and culture of the jurisdictions in which the team practices. Operating from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, the team works as a tightly integrated team of practitioners with different cultural and legal backgrounds and broad language capabilities.
Labor and Employment: Sidley is at the forefront of representing employers in major high-profile class and collective action litigation against many of the biggest and most aggressive plaintiffs’ firms in the country. The team is known for winning bet-the-company cases and deftly handling high-value discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, executive disputes, whistle-blower claims, restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation, and investigations involving matters of the utmost importance to companies.
Product Liability and Recall: Sidley’s Product Liability and Mass Torts practice has played key roles in many of the most significant product liability litigations. The team has decades of experience handling claims associated with products, the facilities that manufacture them, and the companies that sell them. We defend clients in state and federal courts and are typically lead counsel in multidistrict litigations and state coordinated proceedings.
Securities: Sidley’s Securities and Shareholder Litigation team stands out for the strength of its work, winning complex securities matters at the trial level and on appeal across a variety of sectors. The team’s deep bench and extensive experience allows Sidley to represent a wide range of clients. This includes major corporations and private companies, boards of directors and board committees, senior executives, financial advisers, investment banks, and auditors.
White Collar Crime: Sidley lawyers have handled investigations in more than 130 countries, collaborating seamlessly across borders and practice groups to offer a cohesive approach to white collar crime and corporate investigations matters. The firm can mobilize teams quickly to swiftly deploy the critical legal support needed to manage sensitive, high-profile investigations and litigation.
Updated Sep 2024
Founded in 1920, Akerman is recognized as one of the country’s premier law firms, with more than 700 lawyers in 25 offices throughout the United States..
Commercial Litigation: Akerman offers a leading trial team that includes litigators across the United States. We represent a diverse range of clients across numerous sectors, with particular strength in the financial services, private equity, insurance, real estate, construction, health and life sciences, and energy sectors. Akerman lawyers regularly appear before judges and arbitrators in class actions, securities, white-collar, fraud and recovery, product liability, intellectual property, employment, bankruptcy, and general business matters.
Appellate: With a bench that includes many former appellate and trial court judges, Akerman’s appellate practice is a national powerhouse with demonstrated success in handling appeals related to complex commercial litigation. Akerman's appellate team frequently assist trial lawyers during all phases of litigation, preserving errors for appeal, drafting motions and responses, and providing strategic advice on the best approach for seeking relief on appeal. They handle numerous matters before appellate courts nationwide in various commercial cases and class actions. We also have experience in administrative appeals involving high profile issues before state agencies. Additionally, Akerman's appellate lawyers represent industry associations as amicus curiae in appellate proceedings when our clients are not a party to an appeal but have a substantial interest in the outcome.
International Litigation & Arbitration: Akerman has a long record of accomplishment in resolving complex multijurisdictional disputes. Our team represents multinational, foreign, and domestic corporations and individuals before U.S. federal and state courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings before a wide range of international arbitral bodies in multiple jurisdictions. Akerman litigators help clients successfully address conflicts in a broad range of sectors, including general commercial disputes, power and energy, construction and engineering, and banking and finance, among many others. Our highly responsive, multilingual team works in tandem with experienced local counsel to provide seamless resolution to disputes throughout Latin America, as well as in Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East.
Employment Litigation: Akerman’s national, multidisciplinary team helps clients navigate claims brought before state and federal agencies and boards as well as trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. Our lawyers regularly defend employers in all types of employment litigation, including complex class-action discrimination cases and collective action wage and hour matters. We also represent employers in connection with administrative charges and audits, and have successfully negotiated and supervised numerous settlements with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Updated Sep 2024
Milbank LLP is a leading international law firm with over 900 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, Beijing, 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 Sep 2024