Award Trophy

From challenging efforts to un-do the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to prosecuting Bill Cosby to rebuffing DOJ's bid to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, here's the full list of our Litigators of the Week this year.

DECEMBER 21, 2018

Litigators of the Week: A Delicious Win for Gibson Dunn and Squire Patton Boggs

Rachel Brass and Scott Edelman of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Mark Dosker of Squire Patton Boggs

The trio successfully defended ramen noodle companies from Korea that were hit with a $500 million class action for price fixing.

 

DECEMBER 14, 2018

Litigator of the Week: The Paul Weiss Partner Who Made New Law in Delaware

Lewis Clayton, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

The Fresenius decision is likely to influence every deal in Delaware going forward, and earned Lewis Clayton the mantle of Litigator of the Week.

 

DECEMBER 07, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Striking a Blow for Arbitration Fairness—and Jay-Z

Alex Spiro, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

Our Litigator of the Week is Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner Alex Spiro, recognized for his work in a case that involves lack of diversity in the legal profession, mandatory arbitration—and Jay-Z.

 

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

Litigators of the Week: Gibson Dunn's Two Teds Score for the Free Press

Ted Boutrous and Ted Olson, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Ted Boutrous and Ted Olson led a team that jumped into action when the White House revoked the press pass of CNN's Jim Acosta, suing to force the Trump administration to restore his access.

 

NOVEMBER 16, 2018

Litigators of the Week: It's No Secret That Kirkland Trio Crushed This Case

James Hurst, Patricia Carson and Diana Watral, Kirkland & Ellis

More than big money was at stake. James Hurst, Patricia Carson and Diana Watral were determined to protect the “stellar reputations” of their clients, who were accused of being spies and cheats.

 

NOVEMBER 09, 2018

Litigator of the Week: A Win on a Silver Platter

Alexandra Shapiro, Shapiro Arato

Alexandra Shapiro, the co-founder of New York City-based litigation boutique Shapiro Arato, handed federal prosecutors a high-profile defeat in one of the slipperiest areas of the law: Insider trading

 

NOVEMBER 02, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Dodging a Bullet for a Client

Troy Brown, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner Troy Brown shielded his client from a lethal threat: a massive consumer class action.

 

OCTOBER 26, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Steptoe's Susan Esserman Scores for Free Trade

Susan Esserman, Steptoe & Johnson

Esserman led a coalition that included PepsiCo and Reynolds Consumer Products to victory in a high-stakes trade fight at the International Trade Commission.

 

OCTOBER 19, 2018

Litigators of the Week: The Weil Team that Turned the Tide for J&J

Diane Sullivan and Allison Brown, Weil Gotshal & Manges

Diane Sullivan and Allison Brown prevailed before a New Jersey state court jury on behalf of Johnson & Johnson, which faces thousands of suits alleging talcum powder causes mesothelioma.

 

OCTOBER 12, 2018

Litigators of the Week: Opening a New Door in Private Antitrust Enforcement

Lewis Powell III of Hunton Andrews Kurth and Glenn Pomerantz of Munger, Tolles & Olson

No private merger challenge has gone to before a jury—until now. And no judge in such a private action has ordered a divestiture as a remedy to restore competition—until now.

 

OCTOBER 5, 2018

Litigators of the Week: The Boies Schiller Duo Pushing Back Against a Vile Conspiracy Theory

Michael Gottlieb and Joshua Riley, Boies Schiller Flexner

“We hope this case sends the message that litigation can play a role in the defense of objective truth. Free speech is essential to our democratic values, but so is basic human decency.”

 

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Sending a Message to 'The Most Hated Company in Tech'

Yar Chaikovsky, Paul Hastings

“When someone is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from you for worthless intellectual property—you do not settle,” said Paul Hastings partner Yar Chaikovsky.

 

SEPTEMBER 21, 2018

Litigators of the Week: Kirkland Duo Win Big in a Case That 'Sends Chills Down Lawyers' Spines'

Kevin Van Wart and Brad Weidenhammer, Kirkland & Ellis

The fight between Teva and United Healthcare—which turned in large part on a he-said-she-said dispute with a client about authority to sign a settlement agreement—should scare every lawyer.

 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

Litigators of the Week: In 'Nuclear' Showdown over CBS, Cleary's Kotler and Hou on Top

Meredith Kotler and Victor Hou of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

It's not always obvious who comes out on top when cases settle—but this time, the consensus was clear. “Shari Redstone emerges winner.” Cleary Gottlieb's Meredith Kotler and Victor Hou led her litigation team in the fight for control over CBS.

 

SEPTEMBER 07, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Alexandra Walsh Keeps Xarelto Winning Streak Alive

Alexandra Walsh, Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz

Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz co-founder Alexandra Walsh takes the crown as Litigator of the Week, persuading a Philadelphia jury to find for the defense in a bellwether trial involving the blockbuster blood thinner Xarelto.

 

AUGUST 31, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Chris Morvillo Makes New FCPA Law (and Wins One for Dad)

Christopher Morvillo, Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance partner Christopher Morvillo won a precedent-setting ruling from the Second Circuit with major implications for FCPA prosecutions.

 

AUGUST 24, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Morgan Lewis' Geri Edens Wins a Lifeline for Children's Hospitals

Geri Edens, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

A former nurse, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner Geri Edens is helping some of the nation's largest pediatric hospitals stay afloat via a series of successful suits challenging a new Medicaid payment regime.

 

AUGUST 17, 2018

Litigators of the Week: Gibson Dunn's Estrada and Weigel Strike Gold in Venezuela Fight

Miguel Estrada and Robert Weigel, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Miguel Estrada and Robert Weigel's client wasn't the first company to have its assets seized by the government of Venezuela—but the Gibson Dunn duo was the first to come up with a viable way for them to collect what they're owed.

 

AUGUST 10, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Sharing the Limelight–and Reaping the Glory

Mike McKool, McKool Smith

Representing Canadian technology company WiLAN, McKool Smith founder Mike McKool scored a $145 million jury verdict against Apple.

 

AUGUST 03, 2018

Litigator of the Week: An $82M Smackdown for the 'New Kid on the Block'

John Desmarais, Desmarais LLP

New York patent litigator John Desmarais persuaded a Delaware jury to award $82.5 million verdict to client IBM with an unlikely aid: a 30-year-old commercial

 

JULY 06, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Record $625M Award against PwC Proves You Don't Need Big Law for Big Wins

Stephen Sorensen, Thomas, Alexander, Forrester & Sorensen

Stephen Sorensen scored the biggest damages award ever against a global public accounting firm, and broke new legal ground along the way.

 

JUNE 29, 2018

Litigator of the Week: A Justifiably Reliable Winner

Joe McLaughlin, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

In a standards-defining ruling, the Countrywide Home Loans team from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett led by Joe McLaughlin came out on top in a high-stakes fight with Ambac Assurance.

 

JUNE 22, 2018

Litigators of the Week: Cracking the 10-Year Egg Antitrust Case

Jim King, Porter Wright Morris & Arthur and Steven Bizar of Dechert

Antitrust class actions almost never go to trial. But three companies trusted their legal teams to get them through—and the lawyers delivered with an across-the-board win against some of the most prominent plaintiffs lawyers in the country.

 

JUNE 15, 2018

Litigator of the Week: An Antitrust Win for the History Books

Daniel Petrocelli, O'Melveny & Myers

Daniel Petrocelli is not an antitrust expert—but the O'Melveny & Myers partner didn't need to be in order to win the biggest merger challenge in decades.

 

JUNE 08, 2018

Litigator of the Week: In FTC Data Security Fight, Saving the Best for Last

Doug Meal, Ropes & Gray

For Ropes & Gray partner Doug Meal, the challenge for his team was deciding where to stop as they built out their brief for LabMD before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

 

JUNE 01, 2018

Litigators of the Week:  Just Call Them the Jenner Wildcats

Craig Martin and Amanda Amert, Jenner & Block

Faced with hundreds of millions of dollar in potential damages, Northwestern University tapped Jenner & Block's Craig Martin and Amanda Amert to smack down a putative class action challenging the substance and management of its retirement plan

 

MAY 25, 2018

Litigator of the Week: For Paul Clement, Jumping into a SCOTUS Case at the Last Minute is “What We Do”

Paul Clement, Kirkland & Ellis

The former George W. Bush-era solicitor general prides himself and his appellate team at Kirkland & Ellis on being able to climb aboard fast-moving Supreme Court cases at the last minute.

 

MAY 18, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Ted Olson Hits the Jackpot

Ted Olson, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

After a long losing streak in the lower courts, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Theodore Olson's luck changed before the Supreme Court, which sided with him in a seismic sports-betting case.

 

MAY 11, 2018

Litigators of the Week: A Compassionate—But Effective—Product Liability Defense

Phyllis Jones of Covington & Burling; Orlando Richmond, Butler Snow

When Boehringer Ingelheim was hit with a new wave of suits over its blood thinner Pradaxa, it changed course and decided to fight, tapping Covington & Burling's Phyllis Jones and Butler Snow's Rod Richmond Sr.

 

MAY 04, 2018

Litigator of the Week: America's Dad Found 'Guilty, Guilty, Guilty'

Kristen Gibbons Feden, Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young

On leave from her new job as an associate at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, Kristen Gibbons Feden turned the tables on Bill Cosby and his high-profile defense team.

 

APRIL 27, 2018

Litigators of the Week: An Antitrust Unicorn—With $800M on the Line

David Lender and Eric Hochstadt, Weil Gotshal & Manges

“Class actions and antitrust cases never go to trial. Most people don't want to take the risk,” said David Lender, co-chair of Weil's litigation department. “It's the client willing to go to the mat.”

 

APRIL 21, 2018

Litigator of the Week: And Client Number Three Is…

Robert Balin, Davis Wright Tremaine

Not every Litigator of the Week need be the victor of a long, scorched-earth battle in court. Sometimes, all it takes is the perfect interjection. And for that, we recognize this week's winner: Davis Wright Tremaine partner Robert Balin.

 

APRIL 13, 2018

Litigators of the Week: Beating J&J on its Own Turf

Moshe Maimon, Levy Konigsberg; Joseph Satterley and Denyse Clancy of Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood

A trio of plaintiffs lawyers overcame Johnson & Johnson's home court advantage in the first successful case linking Johnson's Baby Powder and mesothelioma.

 

Litigator of the Week: A Video Game Blowout (Sorry Lindsay Lohan)

APRIL 06, 2018

Jeremy Feigelson, Debevoise & Plimpton

Debevoise & Plimpton partner Jeremy Feigelson takes top honors this week for a win that's likely to reverberate throughout the $100 billion video game industry.

 

MARCH 30, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Rosenkranz Revives Oracle Copyright Case Once Again

  1. Joshua Rosenkranz, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner E. Joshua Rosenkranz breathed new life into a case that may be worth many billions to client Oracle Corp.

 

MARCH 23, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Eugene Scalia Scores Again

Eugene Scalia, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Eugene Scalia took out a truly monster-sized regulation: the Department of Labor's fiduciary rule.

 

MARCH 16, 2018

Litigator of the Week: When a $2.38B Payout Is a Win

Todd Cosenza, Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner Todd Cosenza steered a legacy multibillion dollar Lehman Brothers case through years of litigation, coming out on top after a grueling bench trial.

 

MARCH 09, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Taking a Risk Paid Off for Litigator of the Week Jeffrey Kessler

Jeffrey Kessler, Winston & Strawn

One, they say, is the loneliest number. It's even lonelier when you're facing treble damages topping $1.7 billion.

 

MARCH 02, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Copyright from Coast-to-Coast

Dale Cendali of Kirkland & Ellis

Dale Cendali of Kirkland & Ellis won rulings this week in copyright cases for Fox News and Nike—before the Second Circuit and Ninth Circuit respectively.

 

FEBRUARY 22, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Roaring Back From the Largest-Ever Patent Verdict

Jonathan Singer, Fish & Richardson

In late 2016, Gilead Sciences Inc. and a Fish & Richardson trial team led by Jonathan Singer were hit with a $2.5 billion jury verdict, the largest ever recorded in a U.S. patent infringement case. Here's how they turned the tables on Merck.

 

FEBRUARY 15, 2018

Litigators of the Week: A Gig Economy Bellwether Battle

Michele Maryott and Theane Evangelis, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partners Michele Maryott and Theane Evangelis scored a win for GrubHub in a bellwether case that could have a lasting impact on how gig-economy workers are classified.

 

FEBRUARY 08, 2018

Litigator of the Week: A Second Chance in a Crucial Copyright Fight

Michael Elkin, Winston & Strawn

Winston & Strawn's Michael Elkin persuaded the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that Cox deserves a second chance before a new jury–with a higher standard of liability.

 

FEBRUARY 01, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Abbe Lowell, Bob Menendez and the Power of Friendship

Abbe Lowell, Norton Rose Fulbright

Real friends don't have to bribe each other,” said Norton Rose Fulbright's Abbe Lowell. “They help each other because they're friends.

 

JANUARY 26, 2018

Litigator of the Week: A Blow Against Gerrymandering

Mimi McKenzie, Public Interest Law Center and David Gersch, Arnold & Porter

Gerrymandering is one of those topics that can get the blood boiling in most voters. But to defeat the practice in Pennsylvania, Mimi McKenzie, the legal director of the Public Interest Law Center, and David Gersch, who led the Arnold & Porter pro bono team, took a more dispassionate approach.

 

JANUARY 18, 2018

Litigator of the Week: This One's For You, Vince

Robert Giuffra, Sullivan & Cromwell

“To the extent we won this case, it's really not my victory. It's much more a victory for Vince [DiBlasi], and all the other partners at the firm that were trained by Vince.”

 

JANUARY 12, 2018

Litigator of the Week: Keeping the Dream Alive

Jeffrey Davidson, Covington & Burling

Covington & Burling's Jeffrey Davidson took the lead at oral argument for plaintiffs challenging the Trump Administration's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program–and won big.

 

JANUARY 04, 2018

Litigator of the Week: A Most Convenient Win

Abby Rudzin, O'Melveny & Myers

O'Melveny & Myers partner Abby Rudzin scores a big win in an area of the law coming under greater scrutiny as investors cross national boundaries to seek out opportunities in growing markets.