Our runners up include a team from Latham & Watkins that won a $1 billion trial victory for UBS. Litigators Andrew Clubok, Elizabeth Deeley, Susan Engel  and Kuan Huang prevailed before the New York Supreme Court in a breach of contract case against hedge funds affiliated with Highland Capital Management. 

After a July 2018 bench trial, Justice Marcy Friedman in a decision made public on Jan. 29 found that two Highland funds breached their contracts with UBS and owe UBS more than $1 billion arising out of a failed securitization.

Proskauer Rose's Martin Bienenstock notched a win in litigation related to Puerto Rico's $125 billion bankruptcy. Bienenstock represents the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, which for two years has been fighting with bondholders represented by Jones Day and White & Case. 

At issue: $2.9 billion in bonds issued in 2008 by the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the bondholders are non-recourse creditors—a decision that limits their recovery significantly and preserves assets for Puerto Rico as a whole.

Mayer Brown partners Andrew Pincus, Archis Parasharami and Donald Falk scored a preliminary injunction on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which filed suit in California's Eastern District to block enforcement by state officials of California AB 51. 

The new law would have imposed criminal and civil penalties on businesses that entered into arbitration agreements with workers as a condition of employment. According to one estimate, the statute was targeted at more than two-thirds of California employers. 

A plaintiffs team led by Michael Canty of Labaton Sucharow; Joel Edelson of Edelson PC; and Paul Geller of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd reached a $550 million settlement (still subject to approval) with Facebook in what they say is the largest cash settlement ever in a privacy-related lawsuit. 

The three firms jointly litigated the case for nearly five years before U.S. Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California, as well as before the Ninth Circuit. The suit alleged that Facebook collected biometric information in the form of face prints for the purpose of supporting its "face tagging" feature, in violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act.

Lawyers from Paul Hastings and Arnold & Porter represented Airbus before U.S. authorities in reaching a $4 billion global settlement to resolve allegations of corruption and bribery.

Paul Hastings' Robert Luskin and Nat Edmonds took the lead before the Justice Department, while Arnold & Porter's John Barker and Nicholas Townsend served as lead counsel in settling with the Department of State. Clifford Chance and August Debouzy represented Airbus in France, and Dechert handled the U.K. portion.