Runners-up honors go to a Weil, Gotshal & Manges team led by Drew Tulumello that represents BNSF Railway in a case brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago late last month vacated a $228 million damages award against the railway finding that the question of damages under BIPA is discretionary rather than mandatory—something the Illinois Supreme Court addressed four months after the initial trial in the case. The judge ordered a new trial on the damages issue. The Weil team also included senior associate Claire Chapla and associate Robert Niles-Weed.

Runners-up honors also go to a Mayer Brown team led by Carmine Zarlenga that won summary judgment for client Foster Farms dismissing the company from the antitrust case alleging a conspiracy among poultry companies to reduce the supply of broiler chickens to boost prices. U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin in Chicago found the plaintiffs failed to cite any evidence that Foster joined the alleged conspiracy at any time. The company was among six the judge granted summary judgment to late last month in In Re Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation. The Mayer Brown team also included William Stallings, Oral Pottinger, Stephen Medlock (who left the firm for Vinson & Elkins last year), Katherine Bleicher, Ankur Mandhania and Tara More.

Shout out to Grant Fondo of Goodwin Procter who helped crypto exchange Kraken fend off an IRS request for a wide swath of information about account holders. Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero in San Francisco late last month partially granted the IRS's request, forcing Kraken to turn over user information in cases where customers conducted more than $20,000 in transactions during a calendar year in the applicable period. However, the judge denied the agency's request for further information including user IP addresses, employment data, sources of wealth, net worth and banking details.