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In 2011, big business was under fire on multiple fronts. Nearly three years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, protesters set up camp near Wall Street and lodged “the 99 percent” phrase firmly into the lexicon. The National Labor Relations Board challenged The Boeing Company’s decision to locate its new production line in South Carolina, away from its unionized facilities in the Pacific Northwest. The government took H&R Block, Inc., to trial to block the company’s acquisition of the maker of TaxAct software and—lo and behold—won. And the U.S. Department of Justice took a hard line against AT&T Inc.’s proposed merger with mobile rival T-Mobile USA, Inc., forcing both companies to explore contingency plans. One bright spot for big business: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., with help from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Theodore Boutrous, Jr., made certifying class actions tougher with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that scuttled a gender-based discrimination class.

Even with its ramped-up enforcement—especially on the antitrust front—the government didn’t get a free pass either. After the Securities and Exchange Commission trumpeted its proposed $285 million settlement with Citigroup Inc. over charges that the bank sold investors on a billion-dollar CDO it was betting against, Manhattan federal district court judge Jed Rakoff refused to sign off on the settlement. To approve such a deal would mean becoming “a mere handmaiden to a settlement privately negotiated on the basis of unknown facts,” Rakoff wrote.