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Commentary

This Column(ist) Had COVID: Some Thoughts on Contingency Planning

Scrambling. Changing travel plans. Figuring out where and how to isolate. Plenty of you have had to deal with the consequences of a positive COVID test. Over our annual summer break, it was the Lit Daily's turn.
5 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: A Complete Defense Win for Distributors in a Federal Opioid Bellwether Trial in West Virginia

Following a three-month bench trial last summer, a federal judge in West Virginia last week handed a major victor to defense teams for the three largest wholesale distributors of prescription painkillers led by Paul Schmidt of Covington & Burling, Enu Mainigi of Williams & Connolly and Robert Nicholas of Reed Smith.
13 minute read

Quick Takes

A Two-Week Haul of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

The runners-up this week are headed up by defense teams that represented the five remaining five chicken industry executives who went to trial for a third time on criminal antitrust charges in federal court in Denver.
11 minute read

Profile

Weil's Diane Sullivan on Making Room at Counsel Table for New Partners

The veteran trial star teamed with new partners Chantale Fiebig and Liz Ryan, who both joined the firm last year, to represent regional grocery and pharmacy chain Giant Eagle in the first bellwether trial involving pharmacy defendants in the national opioid MDL.
5 minute read

Best Practices

Thoughts on Fit and Flexibility From Newly-Minted Litigation Partners at Midsize Law Firms

Litigators from midsize law firms who participated in Law.com's "How I Made Partner" series this past year say finding the right firm and taking on a broad range of assignments can make a big difference in professional success and satisfaction.
7 minute read

Quick Takes

Early Week Shout Outs From Our Time Away — a Surprisingly Busy Week in Litigation Land

With two weeks' worth of wins under consideration for Litigator of the Week this week, here's some shine for noteworthy results from the time around our annual weeklong summer hiatus.
6 minute read

Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Mintz Managing Member Bob Bodian on the Benefits of Litigating While Leading

"Managing partners are under a lot of pressure to protect the organization and to make decisions that don't offend someone with a big book of business. Being a managing partner who also has an active practice gives me more heft, respect and credibility, I believe, that makes it easier to make the hard calls."
9 minute read

Q&A

Litigator of the Week: Wilmer's Mark Fleming Knocks Out a Multi-Billion Dollar Patent Judgment Against Cisco

In a case where Cisco Systems had been slapped with more than $2.75 billion in damages and royalties, the Federal Circuit last week found that company stock held by the trial judge's wife hadn't been "divested" as required under federal law when it was put into a blind trust.
6 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Our first runners-up this week are defense lawyers who got a ruling from Michigan's high court knocking out criminal charges against a state official stemming from the Flint water crisis.
6 minute read

Analysis

An Insurance Claims Perspective on the Rise in Nuclear Verdicts

Alexia Cruz, the claim general counsel at insurer Travelers, predicts analytics will be "instrumental" in identifying cases that could yield nuclear verdicts so defendants and their insurers can put the right amount of resources towards those cases upfront.
6 minute read

Best Practices

A Checklist For Getting and Staying Up-to-Speed on a New Litigation Assignment

Here are some of the items on the checklist Holland & Hart's Andrew Lillie and Mark Gibson use to keep litigation matters they're handling on track.
7 minute read

Q&A

Boies Schiller's Joanna Wright on an Early Abortion Access Litigation Win: 'This Is a First Step in Marshaling the Resistance'

A judge in New Orleans granted a temporary restraining order initially blocking Louisiana's so-called "trigger laws," designed to make abortion illegal in the state immediately upon the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
8 minute read

Analysis

What's Changed?: Checking in With Simpson Thacher's Lynn Neuner and Jonathan Youngwood

"I think technology can definitely be your friend," Youngwood said. "What I hope is that it's used thoughtfully and appropriately."
6 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: The Duo Who Kept Monsanto's RoundUp Defense Winning Streak Alive

George Lombardi of Winston & Strawn and Jennifer Lee of Husch Blackwell led a trial team that won a defense verdict in state court last week in a case where an Oregon man claimed the herbicide caused his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, marking Monsanto's fourth straight win in Roundup cases.
5 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Our first runner-up this week is Roy Black of Black, Srebnick, Kornspan & Stumpf who won the first trial acquittal for a defendant in the government's Varsity Blues probe into elite college admissions practices.
6 minute read

Analysis

Litigation Boutiques: Where Every Partner Knows Your Name

Here's how the half dozen newly-minted partners at litigation boutiques who participated in Law.com's "How I Made Partner" series this past year described their career paths.
7 minute read

Analysis

What's Changed?: Checking In With Kent Raygor of Sheppard Mullin

"If you hadn't before, you better write the best papers you can because that might be your only shot at winning a motion," says the veteran litigator of the growing momentum for judges to decide issues without oral argument.
5 minute read

Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Skadden's Jim Carroll Touts the Value of Having an In-House Trial Consulting Group

"Our trial consultants enable our litigators to deploy best practices on every case, maintaining a comprehensive archive of materials that serve as exemplars for trial presentations."
10 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: The Duo Behind a Landmark Retaliation Verdict Against So Cal Edison and Edison International

A Los Angeles jury awarded $422,377,265 to Alfredo Martinez and $42,200,000 to Justin Page who alerted company officials about harassment in the Torrance, California, office of Southern California Edison – a huge win for David deRubertis of The deRubertis Law Firm and Brennan Kahn of Perona, Langer, Beck, Serbin and Harrison.
11 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

The first runners-up this week are litigators from MoloLamken and CERA LLP who took home a win for plaintiffs in a rare securities class action that made it to trial
8 minute read

Analysis

Can Fewer than 12 Be Greater Than 12? Let's Talk About Smaller Juries

Michael Maguire of ADR Services Inc., Paula Hannaford-Agor, the director of the Center for Jury Studies at the National Center for State Courts, and Orange County, California, plaintiffs lawyer Eric Traut lay out the case for embracing procedures allowing smaller juries.
6 minute read

Q&A

Bruce Proctor of Lixil Americas on the Value That Litigators Bring to In-House Practice

"Our internal litigation expertise causes us to have very realistic views about litigation and the goals to be achieved in any particular instance," says Proctor, the GC of the parent company of water and housing product brands including American Standard, DXV and GROHE.
9 minute read

Quick Takes

An Early-Week Batch of Litigator of the Week Shout Outs

With two weeks' worth of wins under consideration in this cycle of Litigator of the Week, we're giving a little extra shine to a worthy batch of shout outs.
5 minute read

Newly-Minted Second Hundred Litigation Partners Open Up About What It Takes to Make It

Lawyers who recently made partner at firms in the second half of the Am Law 200 have embraced specialization and say that personal development can lead to professional opportunities.
6 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: The Latham Duo Who Won an Acquittal for Former Perkins Coie Partner Michael Sussmann

Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth convinced a federal jury that Sussmann was not guilty of lying to the FBI about his client representations when he shared allegations of possible ties between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank in the run-up to the 2016 election.
11 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Our first runners-up this week at Bracewell won a whopping $1.6 billion in damages in a breach of contract suit against IBM Corp.
4 minute read

Analysis

What's Changed for Litigators?: Checking In With Mintz's Seth Goldman and Skadden's Meredith Slawe

We asked if anyone wanted to talk about what's changed for litigators over the past couple of years. Seth Goldman of Mintz Levin and Meredith Slawe of Skadden Arps were the first two to take us up on the offer.
6 minute read

Best Practices

The 4 Corners of Cross-Examination and Some Tips for Handling Hostile Witnesses

Judge Amy Hanley says maintaining control of the witness is central to a successful cross-examination. Here's how she says to do it.
6 minute read

Q&A

Litigation Leaders: The Founders of MoloLamken on the Firm's 'Brains and Brass Knuckles' Litigation Approach

"We're aggressive, keeping cases moving forward to trial. But we always keep legal issues at the forefront, recognizing they almost always dictate the outcome of cases," says Steven Molo, who founded the firm in 2009 with Jeffrey Lamken.
5 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: A $77.5 Million Plaintiff's Verdict in the 16th and Final Scheduled 3M Earplug Bellwether Trial

The jury verdict that Brad Bradford and Bryan Aylstock of Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz won last week for former soldier Jay Beal was the highest to date for a single plaintiff in the massive MDL and included $72.5 million in punitive damages.
8 minute read

Quick Takes

Another Round of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Mark Ressler and Paul "Tad" O'Connor III of Kasowitz Benson Torres won a $185 million arbitration award for real estate developer client SL Green against Chinese conglomerate HNA Group.
5 minute read

Commentary

Kudos and 'C'mon!': ACTL Just Pulled Off an Impressive Program to Diversify the Trial Bar. Again, Please.

This past weekend a group of fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers gathered in Chicago to help lawyers aspiring to be part of the next generation of trial advocates.
5 minute read

Analysis

Break Out the Org Chart: How Covington Is Managing Its Opioid Docket for McKesson

Paul Schmidt, Andrew Stanner and Laura Flahive Wu of Covington & Burling discuss the challenge of staying on top of the all-encompassing assignment that's called on 50 lawyers at any given time.
6 minute read

Best Practices

Everybody's Uncomfortable During Voir Dire

Read to the end for jury consultant Diane Wiley's go-to question to get at the attitudes of prospective jurors.
5 minute read

Analysis

How the United States Soccer Federation Got to Labor Peace and Equal Pay

Karen Leetzow, the federation's chief legal officer, discusses the "Rubik's cube" of litigation and collective bargaining that led to last week's announcement of new deals with the men's and women's national teams, alongside her lead labor negotiator Nicole Buffalano of Morgan Lewis and her lead litigator Jamie Wine of Latham & Watkins.
6 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: The Irell Duo on a Win Streak for USAA in Mobile Check-Cashing Patent Cases

Jason Sheasby and Lisa Glasser of Irell & Manella scored a $218.45 million damages verdict in Marshall, Texas, last week for USAA against PNC Bank. They previously won jury verdicts of $200 million and $102 million in 2019 and 2020 in cases against Wells Fargo Bank.
4 minute read

Quick Takes

A Fresh Batch of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Our first runners-up at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Greenberg Traurig, and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman got a last-minute temporary restraining order barring the town of East Hampton, New York, from moving forward with plans to close its public airport.
6 minute read

Commentary

A Few Questions for You

A lot has changed about the way I think and work over the past couple of years. What about you?
4 minute read

Analysis

Overcoming Fear of Public Failure and Embracing Mentorship: Asian American Judges Trace Their Paths to the Bench

"Being a first Asian American anything is great," said Judge Holly Fujie of Los Angeles County Superior Court. "But making sure that you're not the last Asian American something is even more important."
6 minute read

Q&A

Skadden Appellate Head Shay Dvoretzky On Making Business Arguments to a Textualist Supreme Court

"I think that's even more true now than it used to be the court seems more willing to follow the statutory text wherever it leads, even if that has adverse policy consequences for businesses," says Dvoretzky, who moved to Skadden to launch its Supreme Court and appellate practice about 18 months ago.
7 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Patterson Belknap Scores a $2 Billion Trade Software Secret Verdict in Virginia for Software Maker Appian

Rival software company Pegasystems referred internally to a developer who had access to confidential Appian code as "our spy." After a seven-week trial, a Virginia state court jury sided with Appian and their trial team led by Adeel Mangi, Muhammad Faridi and Jeffrey Ginsberg of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.
9 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

A Delaware federal jury awarded Quinn Emanuel client Complete Genomics $333 million in damages last week, while also invalidating two patents asserted by competitor Illumina.
5 minute read

Q&A

Sweet Home California? How 2 Former Chicago Prosecutors Came to Lead Jenner & Block's SF and LA Offices

Back when they were AUSAs in Chicago a decade ago, Reid Schar and Brandon Fox talked about their mutual goal to end up in California. Now they're leading Jenner's offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles respectively.
9 minute read

Analysis

Genetic Stop and Frisk? Gibson Dunn Pairs With Legal Aid to Block 'Familial Search' of New York's DNA Database

New York's Appellate Division, First Department issued a 3-2 decision last week siding with Gibson Dunn, Legal Aid and their clients, finding that the state agencies that authorized the practice had overstepped their authority.
5 minute read

Analysis

Keeping Up With Cooley: How Tech's Favorite Litigators Won a Major Defamation Trial for the Kardashian-Jenner Family

Cooley's Mike Rhodes and Michelle Doolin discuss representing members of the preeminent reality TV family in a $100 million defamation lawsuit brought by Rob Kardashian's ex-fiancé, Blac Chyna.
6 minute read

Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Winston & Strawn's Steve D'Amore Says the Firm Always Keeps an 'Eye on Succession'

"We recently transitioned our litigation leadership team to include a new and more diverse generation of leaders, which has empowered our rising stars to take on greater ownership of the litigation department's and the firm's future."
14 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: The Cravath Team Defending Elon Musk from Shareholder Claims Over the Tesla-SolarCity Deal

Delaware Vice Chancellor Joseph Slights last week found the deal process was "far from perfect," but the price Tesla paid for SolarCity was "entirely fair" — a win for Musk and his trial team led by Evan Chesler, Daniel Slifkin and Vanessa Lavely.
12 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

After a two-week trial in Richmond, Virginia, a federal jury this week sided with Sullivan & Cromwell client Columbia University finding that NortonLifeLock Inc. infringed two cybersecurity patents developed by professors at Columbia's Intrusion Detection Systems Laboratory.
4 minute read

Analysis

Another Chapter in the Recent Run of Unsuccessful Federal Antitrust Prosecutions of Individuals

Paul Coggins of Locke Lord and Fort Worth criminal defense attorney Brian Poe talk about defending a bellwether federal wage-fixing case targeting two former officials at a Texas physical therapy company.
5 minute read

Q&A

What's Up With the 60% Jump In Cases Brought Under California's Privacy Law?

Michelle Reed and Natasha Kohne, the co-heads of the cybersecurity, privacy and data protection practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, discuss the firm's report finding a jump in the number of cases filed seeking to enforce provisions of the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, from 91 in 2020 to 145 in 2021.
8 minute read

Analysis

The Making of a Modern Am Law 100 Litigation Partner

Newly-minted litigation partners from the nation's largest law firms say focusing on genuine, personal relationships is key to business development, and associates who aspire to make partner should start thinking like one sooner rather than later.
7 minute read

Analysis

State and Federal Courts Diverge in How They've Tackled the Pandemic

The pandemic fueled an unprecedented surge of cooperation between state courts. Federal court officials, meanwhile, have been deliberating how to address future emergencies.
5 minute read

Podcast

Will DOJ Really Bring Criminal Monopolization Charges?

The Department of Justice has signaled that criminal monopolization cases could be on the horizon. In this week's episode, Axinn's Tiffany Rider illustrated what such a case could entail.
1 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Covington Scores a Major Insurance Coverage Win For Brooklyn Gas Co. Over Gowanus Canal Cleanup Costs

After nearly five weeks of trial, a state court jury in Manhattan sided with Brooklyn Gas Co., represented by Ben Razi, Gretchen Hoff Varner and Mike Lechliter of Covington & Burling, in a dispute over claims for pollution cleanup costs.
11 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigators of the Week Runners-Up and Shout outs

Roberto Finzi and Richard Tarlowe of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Justin Weddle of Weddle Law secured a plea deal for their clients, Anilesh "Neil" Ahuja, the founder and former CEO of hedge fund Premium Point Investments and former trader PPI trader Jeremy Shor that resulted in no prison time.
7 minute read

Analysis

How Kirkland & Ellis Contributed 5,000-Plus Hours to an Investigation Into Discriminatory Policing in Minneapolis

Kirkland donated about 5,300 hours to an investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights following the murder of George Floyd. The state's civil rights enforcer announced Wednesday it found Minneapolis and its police department engaged in "a pattern or practice of race discrimination" in violation of the state's Human Rights Act.
5 minute read

Analysis

Flying Close to the Sun?

2021 was a banner year for the Am Law 100. But will Big Law litigation departments feel the squeeze in its wake?
5 minute read

Analysis

How Do You Build a Mass Torts Practice Where 90% of Partners are Women? For Sidley, It's Been Decades in the Works

In the core team of 20 lawyers in the firm's product liability and mass torts practice, Sidley reports 90% of the partners are women as well as more than 80% of associates.
5 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: The Defense Team that Fended Off Criminal 'No Poach' Charges at Trial for DaVita and Its Former CEO

Lawyers at Morgan Lewis and Wilmer represent the Denver-based dialysis company and a team from Winston & Strawn, Fish & Richardson and McDermott represent former CEO Kent Thiry. A federal jury this week acquitted the defendants on all counts of conspiring with three companies run by DaVita alumni to avoid competing for employees.
13 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

A team of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath intellectual property litigators led by partners David Gross and Chad Drown won a defense verdict for Seagate after a two-week patent infringement trial.
5 minute read

Q&A

Art Imitates Life as a Big Law Trial Lawyer

Retired Alston & Bird trial lawyer Michael Kenny discusses his debut novel "Life's Illusions," which follows the life and career path of a fictional Big Law trial lawyer.
9 minute read

Best Practices

The Case of the Pilfered Pokémon Book: A Lesson in Cross-Examination

Effective cross-examination involves story-telling and comparison and contrast, says Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger partner Doris Cheng.
5 minute read

Commentary

A Few Insights on How We Choose Litigator of the Week

The process, admittedly, is not without its flaws. But there are some things that you can do to help it run better.
7 minute read

Q&A

Litigation Leaders: O'Melveny's Litigation Co-Chairs Call D&I an Existential Issue for the Firm

"We treat diversity and inclusion as though the firm's survival depends on it — because we believe it does," says Apalla Chopra who co-chairs the department with partner Rich Goetz. "It informs the way we recruit, hire, train, mentor, and promote our people, as well as the leadership roles we look to fill."
11 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Defense Lawyers for the Poultry Execs Who Won't Be Facing a Third Antitrust Conspiracy Trial

Federal prosecutors announced late last month that after a second mistrial in their criminal case against 10 executives at poultry companies they were dismissing all charges against half the defendants.
14 minute read

Quick Takes

A Two-Week Batch of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Our runners-up at Hueston Hennigan landed a $175 million damages award against VPX, the maker of the "Bang" energy drink, after an arbitrator found it doesn't contain creatine.
9 minute read

Best Practices

Point to What Your Opponent Did Wrong and Save Some Nuggets for the Witness Stand: Tips for Compelling Openings

"I'll suggest to you that you are not trying to persuade the jury any less in opening statements than you are in closing arguments. It's just that you have to do so within the confines of the rules of evidence and the rules of procedure and the rules of ethics," says Chicago trial lawyer Dan Kotin.
6 minute read

Analysis

The Soft Skills It Takes to Succeed as Part of a Virtual Law Firm Trial Team

The multi-firm, all-star approach to staffing multidistrict and mass torts cases may not be a panacea, but it's got its upsides — especially for litigators who aren't afraid to share the credit.
5 minute read

Quick Takes

Getting a Jump on a Loaded Week of Litigator of the Week Shout Outs

With two weeks' worth of results in the running this week, we're stretching out the shout outs over a couple of columns to give everyone their due.
6 minute read

Analysis

How Are Judges Like Athletes?

Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mildred Cabán of Puerto Rico and retired Minnesota state court Judge Kevin Burke say their colleagues on the bench could benefit from coaching and time in the film room.
4 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Arnold & Porter and Loevy & Loevy Win $14M for Protestors Injured By Police in Denver George Floyd Protests

After a three week trial in federal court, jurors sided with Arnold & Porter's Tim Macdonald and Matthew Douglas, and Loevy & Loevy's Elizabeth Wang in finding police officers used excessive force against their clients during protests after the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
10 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

BraunHagey & Borden brought home a $56 million verdict in a trademark case brought on behalf of San Diego craft brewer Stone Brewing against global beer giant Molson Coors.
5 minute read

Q&A

All They Do is Win, Win, Win: Dissecting a Trial Hot Streak With Kirkland's Adam Alper and Mike De Vries

The duo has reeled off six straight jury verdicts over the past two-plus years, including four plaintiff-side trade secrets wins.
13 minute read

Q&A

Cronos Group's Michael Akavan on Managing Litigation in the Frequently-Changing Legal Landscape Around Cannabis

"Because our company is still in a start-up phase, our legal team tends to be very entrepreneurial—it's not unusual for us to work nights and weekends and we want our outside counsel to be available when we need them," says the Sullivan & Cromwell alum.
8 minute read

Q&A

'It's All Starting Now': Crowell's Ian Laird on the Commercial Disputes Likely to Result from Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Ian Laird, the co-chair of the international dispute resolution group at Crowell & Moring, says he sees potential parallels with a batch of bi-lateral investment treaty arbitrations brought against Russia for expropriations in Crimea.
7 minute read

Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Gibson Dunn's Global Litigation Co-Chairs on Bringing 'Energy, Enthusiasm and Grit' to Law-Shaping Matters

"We play the long game, whether that is identifying and preserving legal issues for appeal as part of a trial team or doing what it takes to ultimately prevail in the appellate chain," says Gibson's Helgi Walker.
11 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Orrick Scores a Market-Moving Reversal at New York's High Court

Rich Jacobsen, Paul Rugani and Danny Rubens of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe are still very much engrossed in the world of residential mortgage securities, where New York's Court of Appeals made new law that benefits their client Credit Suisse last week and other RMBS sponsors.
9 minute read

Quick Takes

Another Stacked Batch of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Adam Alper and Mike De Vries of Kirkland & Ellis kept their two-plus year trial winning streak alive with their sixth straight jury verdict.
6 minute read

Best Practices

A Key to Training Up New Trial Lawyers: Pass On the Opportunities When You Can

"Jurors, I think, tend to get tired of hearing from the same one or two lawyers all the time," says Kirkland's Jim Hurst. "Their ears and eyes perk up when suddenly some new younger lawyer gets up and he or she is doing a good job."
4 minute read

Q&A

Expanding Out of a Sub-Specialty or Creating One of Your Own: A Career Development Conversation With 2 Latham Litigators

Jamie Wine and Andy Gass say that if you don't see someone with the practice that you want to have, that shouldn't discourage you.
10 minute read

Analysis

Two Days. Two Circuits. Two Arguments. 1,100 Miles.

Kannon Shanmugam, the chair of the Supreme Court and appellate practice group at Paul Weiss, argued a major climate change appeal at the Eighth Circuit in St. Paul, Minnesota, last Tuesday morning and defended a massive antitrust settlement the next morning at the Second Circuit in Manhattan.
5 minute read

Analysis

Note to Class Action Lawyers: Engage with the Objection, Not the Objector

The chief judges of California's four federal district courts agree that it's more effective to address the merits of an objection rather than the motives of an objector.
4 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: What the End of Sentence for a Terrorist Tortured at CIA Black Sites Could Mean for Guantanamo Bay's Future

Last week the official overseeing military commissions at Guantanamo slashed 16 years off the sentence of the detainee represented by Katya Jestin of Jenner & Block and Wells Dixon of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Seven of the eight military jurors in their client's case wrote a letter calling his torture "a stain on the moral fiber of America."
10 minute read

Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Lawyers at Covington & Burling have been representing Ukraine pro bono at the International Court of Justice challenging Russia's pretext for invasion.
5 minute read

Analysis

A Rare View From Either Side of a Divided Appellate Panel That's Been Flipped by the Supreme Court

Ninth Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown and her colleague Senior Circuit Judge William Fletcher on Wednesday discussed the Supreme Court's TransUnion v. Ramirez decision, which reversed a decision where Fletcher was in the majority and McKeown dissented.
4 minute read

Analysis

Is a Gig as an AUSA Still the Likeliest Launchpad to Big Law Trial Practice?

Proskauer Rose partner Bart Williams, who went 11 for 11 on trials as a federal prosecutor, is questioning the tried-and-true route to trial experience. (He has no questions about picking up practice tips from co-counsel though.)
5 minute read

Analysis

Kenneth Feinberg Says Court is Where the Action Is. The Settlement Funds He Tends to Oversee Are the 'Aberration'

Arguably the biggest name in alternative dispute resolution says there's no substitute for doing things the old-fashioned way in the U.S.: "You hire your lawyer. I'll hire my lawyer. Judge and jury will decide."
4 minute read

Analysis

Drilling Down on Greenberg Traurig's Trial Boutique Within a Litigation Department

Lori Cohen and William Michael Jr., the co-chairs of Greenberg's trial practice group, discuss the details of the 100-plus lawyer boutique-within-a-firm.
6 minute read

Q&A

Litigators of the Week: The Zuckerman Spaeder Duo Who Challenged the Use of 'Race-Norming' in the NFL Concussion Settlement

The federal judge overseeing the NFL concussion benefits process gave sign-off last week to a settlement that will eliminate the use of race-based norms, a major win for Black retirees who intervened in the case with counsel from Zuckerman Spaeder's Cy Smith and Aitan Goelman.
7 minute read

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Our first Litigator of the Week runners-up this week at Winston & Strawn scored a major appellate reversal for Cox Communications. You might remember…
6 minute read

Latest
Trending

Who Got The Work

J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.

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Who Got The Work

Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.

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Who Got The Work

Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.

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Who Got The Work

Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.

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Who Got The Work

Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.

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