First up this week is a pro bono team at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler that teamed up with the Center for Constitutional Rights to represent three Iraqi detainees who were tortured at Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago. After a six-day trial in Alexandria, Virginia, federal jurors this week found that government contractor CACI Premier Technology conspired with military personnel to torture detainees at the prison and awarded the plaintiffs a total of $42 million in damages. Patterson Belknap has dedicated more than 22,000 hours to the case since signing on in 2012. The team representing the plaintiffs included Patterson Belknap partners Muhammad Faridi and Michael Buchanan as well as Baher Azmy and Katie Gallagher of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Shereef Akeel of Akeel & Valentine and solo practitioners Charles Molster III and Mohammed Alomari.

A Susman Godfrey team led by partner Bill Carmody secured a $266 million verdict against McKesson Corp. and AmerisourceBergen for the city of Baltimore in a trial seeking to hold the drug distributors liable for the public nuisance created by the opioid epidemic. The city, which opted out of the broader opioid settlement in multidistrict litigation, previously reached $402.5 million in publicly announced settlements with other defendants before this week’s verdict. The Susman team also includes partners Seth Ard, Sy Polky, Michael Kelso, Adam Carlis, Cory Buland, Geng Chen, Rocco Magni, Krisina Zuñiga, of counsel Tom Boardman and associates Max Straus, Katherine Drews and Jeff Melsheimer.

A team from White & Case led by international arbitration partner Rafael Llano secured a $380 million award for Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica S.A. in an ICSID arbitration against the Republic of Colombia. The arbitration, which concerned the Colombian government's actions affecting the country's telecom concessions, was brought under the Spain-Colombia Bilateral Investment Treaty. The White & Case team included partners Juan Manuel de Remedios, Marièle Coulet-Diaz, local partner Ignacio Madalena in Madrid, international law clerk Paulo Maza Moreno and trainee lawyer Sabina Hidalgo Peralta.

A team at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher led by Reed Brodsky got a summary judgment win for client Tang Capital Partners in securities litigation over warrants issued by Black Rifle Coffee in connection with its February 2022 de-SPAC transaction. Last week, in an 87-page decision, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger in Manhattan found that at the time Tang Capital sought to exercise its warrants there was both an effective securities registration for the stock underlying them and a current prospectus. Those findings handed Tang a win on its breach of contract claim. The decision, however, leaves open for trial the question of damages, where Tang is seeking more than $10 million. The Gibson Dunn team included David Salant and Laura Londoño Pardo.

A team at Latham & Watkins helped NASCAR fend off a motion for a preliminary injunction from two racing teams—including one owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan—seeking to be recognized as chartered teams as they pursue antitrust claims against the stock car series. “At this stage, the teams are no closer to irreparable harm than they are to the command, ‘Drivers, start your engines,’ at the first race of the 2025 season,” wrote U.S. District Judge Frank Whitney in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week. The Latham team includes partners Chris Yates, Larry Buterman and Anna Rathbun and associates Chris Brown, Clayton Wiggins, Christina Gay, Richie Samboy and Serena Candelaria, with support from partners Greg Garre and Frank Saviano as well as local counsel Tricia Magee of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick.

Shout-out to a team at Alston & Bird team that secured a judgment of more than $70 million for generic drug maker Sandoz Inc. earlier this month in a contract dispute with United Therapeutics Corp. After a three-day bench trial in April, U.S. District Judge Brian Martinotti in New Jersey found earlier this year that Sandoz lost profits because of steps UTC took that limited access to external infusion pumps for Sandoz’s generic treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension. The Alston & Bird team included partners Matthew Kent, Jonathan Parente, Andrew Hatchett and Jenny Kramer.

Shout-out to a separate Alston & Bird team that won a $7.3 million verdict this month for client Cigna Health & Life Insurance Co. in a dispute with three clinical labs in South Florida. After an eight-day trial, federal jurors in Connecticut found that the labs caused Cigna to pay millions of dollars in medically unnecessary drug testing services. Partner Edward Kang led the team, which also included Emily Costin, Kelsey Kingsbery, Alex Akerman, Michelle Jackson and Jamie Berger.

Shout-out to lawyers at Boies Schiller Flexner representing victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring, who this year brought claims against Epstein’s lawyer Darren Indyke and his accountant Richard Kahn. This week U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan granted a motion to compel Indyke to hand over certain materials withheld as privileged where the plaintiffs had raised the crime-fraud exception. The judge this week ordered “the production of documents regarding green cards, payments, or marriage or divorce arrangements in connection with a purported victim identified in Doe 3’s motion to compel.” Boies Schiller’s Sigrid McCawley and Andrew Villacastin argued the motion. They were supported by David Boies, Daniel Crispino, Alexander Law, Megan Nyman, Amanda Iserson, Naomi Hardin and Rachael Schafer.

Shout-out to a team at Cooley representing the city and county of San Francisco that won an injunction barring the airport in Oakland from using the name “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.” U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixon in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction against the Port of Oakland, which runs the East Bay airport, finding the San Francisco parties were likely to succeed on their claim that the name caused consumer confusion about affiliation, connection or association between OAK and SFO—San Francisco International Airport. The Cooley team includes partners Bobby Ghajar and John Hemann, special counsel Judd Lauter and associates Ryan Stevens and Jessica Williams. The firm had co-counsel at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, including City Attorney David Chiu, Yvonne Meré, Julie Veit and Christopher Stuart.