Runners-up honors go to Manisha Sheth and Steig Olson of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Greg Asciolla of DiCello Levitt. They got the green light to pursue antitrust claims in a no-poach case against Raytheon Technologies subsidiary Pratt & Whitney and its subcontractors in the jet propulsion systems industry. Plaintiffs claim the defendants conspired to restrict competition in the market for aerospace engineers and other skilled workers. Critically, U.S. District Judge Sarala Nagala in Connecticut last week found that the alleged relationship between the defendants in the labor market is horizontal in nature. That means the defendants face claims of a per se violation of the Sherman Act although their relationship with respect to making and distributing aerospace products is vertical—meaning there the more burdensome "rule of reason" analysis would apply.

Our next runners-up are Stefani Wittenauer and her team at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner who put the brakes on a multi-plaintiff Roundup trial originally set to push off in the City of St. Louis, the same venue where J&J was hit with a $2 billion verdict in a talc case involving multiple plaintiffs. Last week the Missouri Supreme Court granted an emergency writ petition on behalf of client Bayer's Monsanto and issued a preliminary writ of prohibition putting a halt to a multi-plaintiff Roundup in the city midway through jury selection finding St. Louis County was the proper venue. Wittenauer developed the strategy behind the last-minute writ and drafted the petition, consulting with partner Lee Marshall. The Bryan Cave team handling legal and appellate preservation issues for the underlying trial includes Wittenauer, Randy Soriano, Peter Bay, Emma Cormier, Lauren Simon and Tim Howard.

Sticking with the mandamus theme for a moment, shout out to David Carpenter, Collin Wedel, Yolanda Garcia and Jack Yeh of Sidley Austin. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas last week granted a petition for a writ of mandamus the Sidley lawyers brought on behalf of athletic wear company ASICS reversing a lower court ruling that had allowed discount retailer Shoebacca to assert a $100 million claim in a Texas subpoena proceeding on issues already being litigated in California. The Texas appellate court called Shoebacca's attempt to assert claims pending in the California case "tantamount to forum shopping." The Sidley team on the matter also includes partner Phillip Aurentz, senior managing associates Lauren De Lilly and Rara Kang, managing associates Peter De Golia, Tatiana Fields and Melina Bales, and associates Chelsea Wu and Annabeth Reeb. Sidley's co-counsel on the matter at Enoch Kever includes Craig Enoch, Shelby O'Brien and Sara Berkeley Churchin.