Our runners up for Litigator of the Week include Cozen O'Connor partner Michael de Leeuw, who had a pair of notable wins this week.

The commercial litigator secured dismissal with prejudice of a closely-watched securities-related defamation case in New York state court. And the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, sitting en banc, affirmed the dismissal of antitrust claims against his client, AIG Property Casualty Company, in a large multi-district antitrust litigation.

At Nixon Peabody, a pro bono team that included Seth Horvath, Tom Hecht and Tina Solis worked with the American Civil Liberties Union to successfully challenge Iowa's ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgery for transgender individuals.

They persuaded the Iowa Supreme Court that the state's Department of Human Services violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act's prohibition against gender identity discrimination as well as the Iowa Constitution's equal protection guarantee.