It was tempting to recognize Alex Berengaut of Covington & Burling, Ted Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Lindsay Harrison of Jenner & Block as Litigator of the Week runners up for their role in securing a landmark ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court held that the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

But Lit Daily for several years has not considered Supreme Court wins for Litigator of the Week—because if we did, then we'd just constantly pick Supreme Court cases. We figure SCOTUS advocates get plenty of recognition as-is, and that we'd focus instead on lower court cases—Lit Daily's bread-and-butter.

That means our runners up this week are Latham & Watkins litigators Michele Johnson and Colleen Smith, who beat back a shareholder class action against San Diego-based Oncternal Therapeutics. 

At issue: Oncternal's 2019 reverse merger with GTx. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York dismissed the case on Tuesday, ruling that the plaintiffs did not adequately allege a material misrepresentation or omission in the proxy statement.

Tying for runner-up are Latham partners Sean Berkowitz and Nicholas Siciliano, who also got a securities class action dismissed.

They represented Wisconsin-based water heating equipment maker A.O. Smith, which found itself the subject of a short-seller attack. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman of the Eastern District of Wisconsin on Wednesday dismissed the suit, rejecting allegations that the company or its managers made false or misleading statements or omissions.