First up among the runners-up is a team at AXS Law that hit Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo with a $63.5 million verdict in a libel case they brought on behalf of two Miami businessmen who had accused the politician of targeting their Little Havana nightclub as retaliation for their support of a rival candidate. Earlier this month jurors in the Southern District of Florida awarded Bill Fuller and Martin Pinilla $15.9 million in compensatory damages and $47.6 million in punitive damages finding the commissioner intentionally committed acts that violated their rights to free speech or assembly. The trial team put in video evidence of police officers in tactical gear raiding the club in search of public documents that were available electronically. The AXS Law team includes Courtney Caprio, Jeff Gutchess, Rossana Arteaga-Gomez, Amanda Suarez, Joanna Niworowski and Josh Shore. 

Runners-up honors also go to a Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft team led by Danielle Tully that scored a major post-trial win for AngioDynamics Inc. in a long-running patent fight with CR Bard Inc. over vascular access ports. U.S. District Senior Judge Joseph Bataillon of the District of Nebraska, sitting in Delaware, last week overturned a blanket verdict of willful infringement for Bard and the jury's rejection of Angio Dynamics' invalidity and infringement defenses from last year. In particular, the judge found Bard's patent claims invalid because they were anticipated by multiple pieces of prior art, including Bard's and AngioDynamics's own existing products. The win marked the first time since 2019 that a judge in Delaware has granted judgment as a matter of law to set aside a jury verdict and invalidate patent claims. The Cadwalader team representing AngioDynamics also includes John Moehringer, Michael Powell, Dash Cole, John Augelli, Catherine Taylor, Deanna Thompson, Jenn Rabbino, Michael Glenn, Tyler Ricker and Jess Talar, with local counsel from Potter Anderson & Corroon. 

One last runner-up spot goes to a trial team at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom led by Alisha Nanda that represented trade group Airlines for America in a bench trial challenging the application of the Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law to airline pilots, flight attendants and ground crew employees. Following a nine-day bench trial last September, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston found earlier this month that the federal Airline Deregulation Act preempted the state law when it comes to airline in-flight and ground employees. The Skadden team also included James Carroll, Emily Jennings, Vasundhara Prasad and Amy-Lee Goodman.