First up among our runners-up for Litigator of the Week this week are the lawyers who successfully turned back the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's attempt to force Marlboro maker Altria Group to sell its minority stake in e-cigarette company Juul Labs Inc., or JLI. In a decision issued last week and made public this week, Chief Administrative Law Judge D. Michael Chappell held that the FTC hadn't shown Altria removed its own e-vapor products from the market because of any agreement with JLI or that the transaction had anticompetitive effects. The ruling follows a three-week trial last summer where Beth Wilkinson at Wilkinson Stekloff handled opening statements for Altria and examined multiple witnesses including the company's current and former CEO and its general counsel, as well as both sides' economic experts. Altria's trial team also included James Rosenthal, Moira Penza and Ralia Polechronis at Wilkinson Stekloff, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz litigation co-chair Jonathan Moses, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer global antitrust group head Debbie Feinstein, partner Robert Katerberg and counsel Justin Hedge. JLI was represented by a team at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton including Dave Gelfand, Jeremy Calsyn, Matthew Bachrack, Linden Bernhardt and Jessica Hollis.

Also getting a runner-up nod this week are the lawyers for current and former members of the United States Women's National Team at Winston & Strawn and Mayer Brown. They helped their clients reach a landmark settlement in their lawsuit seeking to equalize pay between the men's and women's national soccer teams. The U.S. Soccer Federation agreed to pay an equal rate for all games going forward and to fork over $24 million — a $22 million lump-sum payment to the class, which includes 61 women, with an additional $2 million to fund post-career goals and charitable efforts related to women's and girls' soccer. The settlement comes just weeks before the Ninth Circuit was set to hear arguments on the players' appeal of their summary judgment loss on equal pay claims — an appeal where they had amicus backing from the EEOC and players on the men's team. The Winston & Strawn team was led by Jeffrey Kessler, the firm's co-executive chairman, and Cardelle Spangler and included David Feher, Jeanifer Parsigian, Diana Hughes Leiden, Lev Tsukerman, Kerrie Edmondson, Scott Sherman and Drew Washington. The Mayer Brown team was led by Nicole Saharsky, the co-head of the firm's Supreme Court and appellate practice, and included Michael Scodro, Minh Nguyen-Dang and Carmen Longoria-Green.

Latham & Watkins partners Jamie Wine and Michele Johnson previously landed Litigator of the Week honors in May 2020 when a federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed the plaintiffs' equal pay claims on summary judgment, leaving standing only claims for discriminatory working conditions which were settled in the run-up to the appeal. Latham's work on the appeal and settlement was headed up by Wine, partner Melissa Sherry, who was set to argue the appeal, and counsel Sarah Gragert.