Our runners up for Litigator of the Week include a team from Beveridge & Diamond led by Jimmy Slaughter, David Friedland, Tony Michaels, Josh Van Eaton and Roy Prather for a significant preemption win on behalf of Wheelabrator Technologies in Baltimore. 

Their client, which incinerates much of the city's and the region's non-hazardous solid waste—and generates large amounts of electricity and steam—would have been put out of business after the Baltimore City Council passed the strictest clean air standards in the country. Slaughter and his team convinced U.S. District Judge George Russell III in Baltimore to strike down the ordinance based on conflict preemption under Maryland's air pollution control laws.

Sullivan & Cromwell's Robert Giuffra Jr., along with Hilary Williams, Annie Ostrager and Amanda Flug Davidoff, won a major ruling for Goldman Sachs that will compel more than a third of a certified class of 3,322 female associates and vice presidents to arbitrate their gender discrimination claims. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger in the Southern District of New York in an 88-page opinion also required another 20% of the class to affirmatively opt out of their arbitration agreements in order to remain in the class.

Also at Sullivan & Cromwell, Sharon Nelles, Steven Holley, Suhana Han and Amanda Davidoff won dismissal of an amended complaint against Volkswagen, its subsidiary Audi, and Porsche. The automakers faced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit in the Northern District of California targeting their design and development of vehicles.

At Venable, partner Seth Rosenthal led a pro bono effort in persuading D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert Rigsby to grant a new trial for Troy Burner, finding it more likely than not that Burner is innocent of the murder he was convicted of in 1994. In November of 2018, the Venable team secured Burner's release based on a motion under DC's new Incarceration Reduction Amendments Act. 

Also at Venable, Bart Stupak, Moxila Upadhyaya and Justin Nemeroff scored a win for the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, a Native American tribe in the Michigan area. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted summary judgment, ruling that the Bureau of Indian Affairs' rule preventing the band from seeking recognition was arbitrary and capricious.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partners Adam Offenhartz and Aric Wu cemented a win in Delaware's Court of Chancery for Barnes & Noble Education Inc. in a fight with investment fund Bay Capital, which had attempted to nominate a dissident slate of director candidates. On March 30, Vice Chancellor McCormick rejected Bay Capital's remaining claims on summary judgment and took the unusual step of awarding BNED and its directors two-thirds of the fees and costs they incurred. She also called the plaintiff's primary case "a bold-faced lie."

Winston & Strawn's IP practice co-chair Chuck Klein led a trial team to victory on behalf of client Hikma Pharmaceuticals in a drug patent fight with Amarin Corp. Klein convinced the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada to invalidate six of Amarin's patents as obvious, clearing the way for Hikma to launch a generic version of Vascepa, which is used to treat high levels of triglycerides.

Latham & Watkins litigators Max Grant and Greg Sobolski prevailed before the Federal Circuit, which affirmed their lower court win for Schlumberger in an IP fight over fracking technology. In 2017, EnerPol sued Schlumberger in the Eastern District of Texas for patent infringement. The Federal Circuit upheld the trial court's final judgment of non-infringement.

Kirkland & Ellis litigators had a big week. Dale Cendali and Josh Simmons won a copyright fight over NBA player tattoos in video games. And Dan Donovan and Ragan Naresh won summary judgment in a certified class against Chesapeake Energy alleging underpayment of royalties to landowners for natural gas and oil produced from their lands.