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Q&A

Litigators of the Week: What Trade Secrets? Latham Trial Team Fends Off $260M Claim From Alcoa for UAC

Tony Sammi, Rachel Blitzer and their team at Latham & Watkins, with co-counsel from their former colleagues at Skadden, defended Universal Alloy Corp. from accusations it misappropriated trade secrets from Alcoa to unfairly compete for work making parts for Boeing.
12 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

This week's highlights include an LTL bankruptcy rejection redux.
7 minute read
Analysis

5 Women Litigators Reflect on Their Paths to Partnership at Second Hundred Law Firms

The five newly-minted partners in Second Hundred firms who participated in Law.com's "How I Made It" series this past year illustrate the growing number of pathways to a successful litigation practice.
6 minute read
Profile

'Free Murchik': Junior Quinn Emanuel Lawyers Take on Pro Bono Cat Custody Battle

Quinn associate Sophie Hill and summer associate Danielle Zoellner tried a case in June on behalf of pro bono client Eva Pron. The stakes? Custody of Pron's Abyssinian cat Murchik.
7 minute read
Conversation

How Ryan Dykal of Shook, Hardy & Bacon Weaves Storytelling Into IP Trials

"To get people on your side, you don't respond to what the other side is saying. You tell your own story," says Dykal, who handles both plaintiff- and defense-side intellectual property work.
9 minute read
Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Sheppard Mullin's Robert Friedman on Splitting Leadership of the Business Trial Group Three Ways

"We all have three 'jobs': legal work for our clients; our own business development; and practice group leader responsibility," says Friedman, who splits leadership duties with co-heads Sascha Henry and John Brooks.
10 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Sullivan & Cromwell Helps Turn the Tables for Ocado Group in the 'Robot Wars'

After the U.K.-based maker of a software and robotics platform aimed at online grocers paired with The Kroger Co. to build automated warehouses across the U.S., rival AutoStore went on the patent offensive. But this past week, Garrard Beeney, Marc De Leeuw and Dustin Guzior of Sullivan & Cromwell helped secure a deal that involves AutoStore paying Ocado more than $250 million.
10 minute read
Quick Takes

Another Full Slate of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

A team at Shook, Hardy & Bacon won a nine-digit verdict last week for client Touchstream Technologies Inc. against Google Inc.
7 minute read
Profile

Firefighter-Turned-Lawyer Jake Gardener Takes Up Insurance Fight For NYC Retirees

Jake Gardener, a former firefighter with Ladder 43 in East Harlem, who is now a partner at Walden Macht & Haran, has represented elderly and disabled retirees in legal challenges to the city's attempt to roll back some supplemental Medicare coverage.
7 minute read
Analysis

The Serious Emotional Work Judges Have to Do to Come Across as Dispassionate

"In an odd sort of way, the requirement to be impartial, and the related qualities of dispassion are actually sustained by emotion and emotion work," says Kathy Mack, an emeritus professor at Flinders Law School in southern Australia. "So rather than being opposites, they're actually very deeply enmeshed."
4 minute read
Conversation

'Fight Like Your Life Depended on It': Cooley's Kathleen Hartnett Reflects on a Decades-Long Relationship With a Pro Bono Client

"I think there is some lesson here for the skeptical at times lawyers to just really keep it up and not give up," said Hartnett of her client Nakia Roy, who at times in his decades-long appeals represented himself pro se.
6 minute read
Analysis

The Regional Bank Swoon Yielded a Securities Class Action Boomlet

Cornerstone Research noted in its midyear assessment of securities class actions that the string of bank failures that rocked the markets earlier this year already generated six securities class actions.
5 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: The Defense Team that Showed Ripple's XRP Isn't 'In and Of Itself' a Security

The eyes of the cryptocurrency industry have been on the SEC's case with Debevoise and Kellogg Hansen representing Ripple Labs and Cleary and Paul Weiss representing company executives.
11 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Runners-up this week include lawyers from Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel, Latham, Cravath, Kirkland, Cleary and Cooley.
6 minute read
Analysis

After Steep Pro Bono Hours Falloff in 2021, a Steady 2022

In what our friends at The American Lawyer called a "post-pandemic reset," average hours were flat in the latest Pro Bono Scorecard, after an earlier, precipitous drop from the time when lawyers filled their pandemic-stalled dockets with pro bono work.
5 minute read
Analysis

Paul Hastings Beats Coke's DQ Motion—and the Judge Breaks Out an Apt Metaphor

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Norway compared the Coca-Cola Co. to a "jaundiced-eyed vaudeville actor." It might sound like a stretch, but the comparison is actually quite illuminating once you hear the judge's setup.
4 minute read
Analysis

Getting Judges to Engage With the Science Early in MDLs

Loren Brown and Matt Holian of DLA Piper and Christa Cottrell of Kirkland & Ellis discuss the advantages of having education, explanatory court sessions early in multidistrict litigation.
5 minute read
Best Practices

'Let Them Get There on Their Own': Notes on Closing Arguments from Two Bronx Criminal Law Vets

The MTA Inspector General Office's Shareema Abel and Fordham Law's Adam Shlahet share tips on closing arguments from their time practicing in the Bronx, where they served as a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney, respectively.
5 minute read
Q&A

Litigator of the Week: Beth Wilkinson Takes the Lead for Microsoft in Fending Off FTC Challenge to Activision Deal

After Wilkinson and her team at Wilkinson Stekloff took the lead in a five-day evidentiary hearing, a federal judge in San Francisco refused the FTC's request to pump the brakes on the $69 billion deal.
6 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Runners-up this week include teams from Williams & Connolly, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, and Singer Cashman.
6 minute read
Commentary

In Antitrust Cases, Recent DOJ Losses Don't Tell the Whole Story

In a guest column for the Litigation Daily, Jennifer Fischell and Thomas Schubert of MoloLamken write that even in the wake of recent losses, the Biden Administration has obtained key legal victories with broader ramifications in the labor-side antitrust space.
7 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the (Past) Week: A Defense Win for Gilead and Teva in a Rare Trial on Pay-For-Delay Claims

With Bart Williams of Proskauer and Devora Allon of Kirkland representing Gilead and Christopher Holding of Goodwin Procter representing Teva, the pharmaceutical companies beat back $3.6 billion in antitrust claims at trial in San Francisco stemming from an alleged "pay-for-delay" scheme involving two HIV drugs.
21 minute read

Litigators of the (Past) Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

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…
3 minute read
Q&A

Erin Ziaja of NFP Corp. on Striking a Balance Between an Analytical Approach and Trusting Your Gut

"As lawyers, and particularly as litigators, we really value analytics: Hyper-analytical thought processes, really valuing logic. Sometimes that can weigh on those gut reactions and feelings that we all have—or it can cause you to think through and explain away things because we're always problem-solving and solution-reaching."
11 minute read
Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Miles Scully of Gordon Rees on the Value of Being in All 50 States

"The reason that everybody eats at McDonald's is that you know your Quarter Pounder is going to taste the same in New York as it's going to taste in Alaska," says the name partner of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani. "So the idea was to give our clients consistent service across all 50 states."
12 minute read
Q&A

Litigator of the Week: In Election Law and Arbitration Cases, Big Wins for Neal Katyal and Hogan Lovells at SCOTUS

Katyal, who crossed the 50-argument threshold at the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, scored major wins for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and the watchdog group Common Cause.
13 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Robins Kaplan partner Michael Collyard secured pre- and post-judgment interest on a $564 million jury verdict he won last year against BMO Harris Bank stemming from one the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.
6 minute read
Analysis

The Power of Presence: Insights From 3 LGBTQ+ State High Court Judges

New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Shannon Bacon, Colorado Associate Justice Monica Márquez and Hawaii Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna spoke about their paths to the bench yesterday as part of a Pride Month presentation by the National Judicial College.
5 minute read
Conversation

Chewing on What It Means to Be a Trial Lawyer With Morrison & Foerster's James Brosnahan

"Justice at Trial," a memoir by the storied San Francisco trial lawyer is set for release next month. The Litigation Daily sat down with Brosnahan at his home in Berkeley, California to talk shop.
8 minute read
Profile

How Weil Associate Josh Halpern Argued 4 Appeals in 6 Weeks

Over a six-week span in May and June, Halpern argued appeals in the Second, Fifth and Seventh Circuits as well as New York's Appellate Division, Second Department.
7 minute read
Best Practices

Scoring Points for Your Case With the Other Side's Expert Witness

Mark Drummond, the executive director of the Civil Jury Project at NYU School of Law, and Loeb & Loeb partner Laura McNally share strategic approaches to expert witness cross-examination.
6 minute read
Q&A

Litigator of the Week: King & Spalding Wins $1B-Plus Construction Arbitration Award for Colombian Oil Refinery

After a six-week remote hearing, a team led by Mike Stenglein, the head of the firm's global construction and engineering disputes practice, also beat back more than $400 million in counterclaims from affiliates of the contractor, Chicago Bridge & Iron.
12 minute read
Quick Takes

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

A team at Jenner & Block represented Native American tribes in a Supreme Court case with implications for a wide swath of federal Indian law and policy.
6 minute read
Best Practices

Disarming Bad Facts, or Turning Them on Their Head

Plaintiffs lawyers Rosalyn "Sia" Baker-Barnes of Searcy Denney in West Palm Beach, Florida and Bibi Fell of Fell Law in San Diego offer examples of how they try to get out in front of defense arguments.
6 minute read
Q&A

Fox Corporation's Stephen J. Malone on Providing Advice Informed by a Client's Long-Term Business Goals

"An in-house lawyer needs to understand the organization's mission, products, priorities, leadership, and market strategy," says Malone, a veteran in-house employment lawyer whose portfolio at Fox includes overseeing some litigation.
7 minute read
Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Wilmer's Ronald Machen on the Value of a Strategic Approach

"We try to anticipate the next two or three or four moves on the chessboard," says Machen, who succeeded longtime litigation chair Howard Shapiro earlier this year. "We're always thinking of the long game, of creating the strongest record possible on appeal, whether to overturn or to defend the judgment."
14 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Boies Schiller Lands $290M Settlement From JPMorgan for Epstein Victims

The proposed settlement announced this week comes shortly after another $75 million deal with Deutsche Bank, another financial institution accused of turning a blind eye while providing financial services that enabled Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking ring.
6 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Runners-up this week include lawyers from Hogan Lovells, Quinn Emanuel, Otterbourg, Weil Gotshal and Gibson Dunn.
8 minute read
Analysis

Is Business Development a Numbers Game or All About Relationships? Maybe Both

Newly-minted litigation partners at firms in the bottom half of the Am Law 100 share their thoughts on practice-building and winning clients.
6 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the (Past) Week: S&C and MLB Get Bankruptcy Ruling Forcing Diamond Sports to Pay Full Broadcast Fees

Jim Bromley and Ben Walker of Sullivan & Cromwell helped persuade a bankruptcy judge that MLB had offered to reacquire telecast rights from Diamond Sports Group, which owns regional sports networks that broadcast multiple teams' games.
5 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the (Past) Week Runners-Up

Teams from AXS Law, Cadwalader and Skadden take home runners-up honors.
3 minute read
Quick Takes

An Early Batch of Litigator of the Week Shout Outs

Giving some shine to the firms who scored litigation wins during the LOTW cycle that landed while we were out last week.
6 minute read
Conversation

Talking Songwriting and Litigating With Patent Litigator and LYON$ Frontman Trey Lyons

George Lyons III, or "Trey," became an equity partner at Chicago IP firm McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff late last year. His country band LYON$ dropped its second album this spring.
6 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Davis Polk Gets 2nd Circuit Blessing for Purdue Pharma's Multibillion-Dollar Bankruptcy Settlement

Davis Polk's Marshall Huebner and Benjamin Kaminetzky helped convince the Second Circuit to overturn a district court ruling finding the bankruptcy code didn't authorize liability releases for the Sackler family, the founders of the OxyContin maker.
12 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

A team from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison convinced the Second Circuit to vacate a $570 million trade secrets damages award against their client, IT services firm Syntel.
6 minute read
Best Practices

The Challenges Facing New Litigation Partners in the Am Law 50

Newly-minted litigation partners who participated in Law.com's "How I Made It" series of Q&As said learning the business of law and finding a personal niche were nearly every bit as important as mastering the practice.
7 minute read
Commentary

Is 'No Poach' No More?

Since 2016, when the DOJ's Antitrust Division first warned it would take the novel step of criminally investigating and prosecuting alleged no poach agreements, the agency has had a devastating track record: Zero convictions and acquittals of 13 individuals and one company across four trials.
6 minute read
Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Laurie Carr Mims of Keker, Van Nest & Peters on Preparing for Inevitable Change

"Litigation is inherently unpredictable, and being receptive to change allows you to approach problems from new angles and find creative solutions," says Mims, who became the San Francisco trial boutique's third-ever managing partner earlier this year.
13 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Wilmer Gets a Clean Defense Sweep in Waco for Dropbox in Its First-Ever Trial

The cloud storage and file-sharing platform called on Wilmer's Greg Lantier and Amanda Major to push back against patent claims from Motion Offense, which initially sued a Dropbox customer.
7 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Patterson Belknap litigators got a ruling from a federal judge in New Jersey preserving patent protection for Janssen's Invega Trinza, an antipsychotic drug which generates about $600 million in annual sales in the U.S.
7 minute read
Analysis

More Notes From the Jury Room: What 3 Georgia Litigators Learned During Jury Duty

Three trial lawyers from the Peach State weigh in with practice tips they picked up from their time serving as jurors.
8 minute read
Analysis

Bringing the Courts Into the 'Google Age': An Assessment of the New York Judiciary's Pandemic Response

"I think we have to plan for the contingencies that we know are a virtual certainty that we will [face] in the future," said New York Supreme Court Justice Craig Doran, chair of the committee tasked with building on the court system's pandemic innovations.
5 minute read
Analysis

Notes From the Jurors: Responses to Our Call for Readers' Experiences With Jury Duty

A couple of readers—a litigator and a damages expert—weigh in with some thoughts on jury service.
6 minute read
Best Practices

When a Story Is More Useful Than a Roadmap

Professor Barbara Barron of Hofstra Law says when preparing an opening statement it's helpful to imagine that the factfinder is a five-year-old.
5 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: In Delaware Chancery Trial, Latham Defends Oracle's $9.3B NetSuite Deal

Peter Wald, Blair Connelly and their team at Latham & Watkins defended Oracle founder Larry Ellison and co-CEO Safra Catz from shareholder derivative claims stemming from Ellison's position as a major stakeholder at both companies.
12 minute read
Quick Takes

This Week's Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Plaintiffs lawyers at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll reached a $1 billion settlement with Wells Fargo & Co. in what's poised to be one of the 20 largest shareholder settlements of all-time if approved.
6 minute read
Best Practices

Trial Theme Showdown: Ways to Anticipate Your Opponent's Opening Themes or Make Your Own 'Unflippable'

Digging into opening statements with defense lawyer A. La'Verne Edney of Butler Snow and plaintiffs lawyer Richard Schoenberger of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger.
4 minute read
Analysis

Some Important Tips on How to Win a #MeToo Case

I had the privilege of being part of the team that recently won a $10 million jury verdict in a rape case against two-time Oscar-winning writer and director, Paul Haggis. It was the first-ever case tried under the New York City Victims of Gender Motivated Violence Protection Act. From this and many other #MeToo cases in my firm's practice, here are some tips on how not just to threaten a #MeToo case, but to win one.
8 minute read
Analysis

Want to Know What Sets Your Litigation Department Apart? Maybe Not Trial Work

"What makes you different?" More than half the practice heads we've asked that question as part of our Litigation Leaders Q&As in the past year mentioned trial work first.
4 minute read
Editor's Letter

A Lit Daily Jury Duty Questionnaire

Let us hear about your jury duty experiences and what, if anything, they've taught you in terms of how you do your job as a litigator.
4 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Kaplan Hecker Takes On Donald Trump for E. Jean Carroll and Wins at Trial

A team led by Roberta Kaplan, Shawn Crowley and Mike Ferrara convinced a federal jury in Manhattan to hold the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding their client $5 million in damages.
8 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Out

There's certainly no shortage of high-stakes wins to talk about.
6 minute read
Q&A

Unblurred Lines: Thinking Out Loud With Ed Sheeran's Copyright Trial Lawyers at Pryor Cashman

Ilene Farkas, Donald Zakarin and their team did a lot to ease the nerves of modern music makers last week when they convinced Manhattan jurors that Sheeran's Grammy-winning song "Thinking Out Loud" did not copy "Let's Get It On," the Marvin Gaye hit written by Ed Townsend.
12 minute read
Analysis

Arendi: Apple's Claim That Susman Intentionally Aired Confidential Settlement 'Unsupported, Extremely Troublesome'

In a letter filed with the court over the weekend, Arendi defended its lawyers at Susman Godfrey from what it called "inflammatory and meritless accusations" that they intentionally disclosed confidential settlement information during a patent case against Google.
4 minute read
Best Practices

How This Kirkland Partner Pushed Past a Flat Tire and Glitchy Tech to Deliver a Winning Argument for Sotheby's

"Sometimes you just got to be willing to let those things go and step up and let it rip and trust in the work that you put in," says Kirkland's Jess Krannich.
4 minute read
Analysis

Apple Says Arendi Aired Confidential Patent Deal In Google Trial. Nobody's Reported It Yet. No Harm, No Foul?

Apple is seeking sanctions against Arendi, its lawyers at Susman Godfrey and an expert witness who testified in Arendi's recent patent infringement trial against Google claiming they violated a protective order by airing the amount Apple paid as part of a 2021 settlement during trial.
5 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: In Test Case Over Illinois Genetic Privacy Law, Kirkland Defends Ancestry.com Deal

Kirkland & Ellis partners Martin Roth and Alyssa Kalisky got a win for Blackstone Inc. as the Seventh Circuit upheld a ruling tossing claims brought under the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act after the company acquired Ancestry for $4.7 billion.
10 minute read
Quick Takes

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

Runners-up include defense lawyers who secured a mid-trial ruling in Connecticut tossing out federal prosecutors' latest attempt to bring criminal antitrust charges related to alleged "no-poach" agreements.
8 minute read
Analysis

Notes From an Insurer Win in a Rare Trial Over COVID-19 Business Interruption Coverage Claims

After two weeks of trial, jurors in Santa Monica, California deliberated just 90 minutes last week before finding plaintiffs hadn't proven that the COVID-19 virus caused any direct physical loss or damage to a Venice Beach hotel—a big win for John Phillips and Brett Ingerman of DLA Piper and their client, an affiliate of Allianz.
6 minute read
Commentary

What You're Up Against When Trying to Get the Lit Daily's Attention

In which your columnist turns his reportorial skills on a week's worth of his own email traffic.
7 minute read
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Who Got The Work

Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.

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Who Got The Work

Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.

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Who Got The Work

Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.

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Who Got The Work

David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.

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Who Got The Work

Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.

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