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Q&A

What Prompted a Leading E-Discovery Lawyer to Swap Sides of the 'V'

E-discovery expert Benjamin Barnett moved from Dechert to plaintiffs firm Seeger Weiss at the turn of the year.
9 minute read
Conversation

Factoring Risk Into Fixed-Fee Arrangements

We pick up on our conversation with J.Y. Miller and Joe Kilpatrick of Husch Blackwell about their fixed-fee approach as national coordinating counsel in mass torts cases to ask how they handle instances where there's not much of a track record, or where trial is a possibility.
9 minute read
Conversation

The Legwork Behind Building a Nationwide Fixed-Fee Practice

J.Y. Miller and Joe Kilpatrick of Husch Blackwell discuss how certain moves by the firm—including moving away from billable hours-based bonuses—opened the door to more innovative pricing models.
7 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Zuckerman Spaeder Gets a Post-Trial Acquittal for Doctor Accused of Fraudulent Billing for COVID Tests

Just before Christmas, a federal judge in Maryland granted an acquittal motion filed by Gregg Bernstein, Marty Himeles and Samantha Miller of Zuckerman Spaeder, overturning the healthcare fraud conviction of their client, Dr. Ron Elfenbein.
9 minute read
Quick Takes

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

Thompson Hine, Akin, Freshfields, Gibson Dunn, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert, Paul Weiss, Bartlit Beck and Squire Patton Boggs all take home runners-up honors this week.
7 minute read
Expert Opinion

The Rise of the Era of Trade Secret Litigation

Ching-Lee Fukuda, Aimee Fagan and Irene Yang, the co-leaders of the IP litigation practice at Sidley Austin, write that the current landscape for patent litigation likely makes trade secret enforcement an attractive avenue for companies looking to protect their intellectual property.
9 minute read
Analysis

A Litigation Look Ahead: What to Expect From 2024

Technology is where the money is. So, naturally, it's where the disputes will likely be.
5 minute read
Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Lynn Neuner of Simpson Thacher on the Enduring Value of Being a Generalist

"I've always loved being a student, so I enjoy the chance to educate myself about new fields. The clients appreciate that I bring a broad spectrum of skills to the table."
12 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Holding Rudy Giuliani Accountable for Defaming Georgia Election Workers

Willkie Farr & Gallagher partners Michael Gottlieb and Meryl Governski, Von Dubose of DuBose Miller and John Langford of Protect Democracy led a trial team that showed how the lives of Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were turned upside down by Giuliani's lies and won a $148 million verdict.
16 minute read
Quick Takes

One Last Batch of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up for 2023

We're done shouting for the year, so everybody gets a runner-up spot this week.
7 minute read
Quick Takes

Encore! One Last Look at 2023's Litigators of the Week

With one more LOTW set to be named tomorrow, a familiar firm has already clinched the most top spots for the year.
16 minute read

Taking the Temperature of Litigation Leaders in 2023

Here's one last visit with the 16 leaders of Big Law litigation practices and elite boutiques we queried this year as part of our Litigation Leaders Q&A series.
11 minute read
Best Practices

Helping a Witness Prepare for Deposition or Trial Testimony Without Coming Off Over-Prepared

Miami criminal defense lawyer Prya Murad and career Illinois prosecutor William Elward discussed the nuts and bolts of witness preparation last week in a session sponsored by NITA.
4 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Cravath and Fortnite Maker Hit Google With Antitrust Jury Verdict in App Store Fight

Representing Epic Games, Gary Bornstein, Yonatan Even and Lauren Moskowitz of Cravath, Swaine & Moore convinced federal jurors in San Francisco that Google has an illegal monopoly on Android app distribution and in-app payments.
7 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Runners-up this week range from eight-figure plaintiff-side win in a retaliation case to the reversal of a nine-digit asbestos verdict.
4 minute read
Best Practices

5 Oral Argument Tips From Judicial Guests of The Portia Project Podcast

Appellate lawyer M.C. Sungaila, creator and host of the Portia Project podcast, has interviewed nearly 100 women judges about their careers. In the second of two guest columns, she shares what her guests expect out of oral argument.
6 minute read
Analysis

What the Litigation Daily Is Watching Out for in 2024

Last year we were on point when we said to keep your eyes on mass torts and bankruptcy. Here's where we're focusing our gaze for the year to come.
5 minute read
Expert Opinion

Brief Writing Tips From the Judicial Guests of The Portia Project Podcast

Appellate lawyer M.C. Sungaila, creator and host of the Portia Project podcast, has interviewed nearly 100 women judges about their careers. In today's guest column, she shares the types of advocacy her guests find effective and helpful in their decision-making.
7 minute read
News

MoloLamken to Offer Advocacy Skills Academy for Rising 3Ls

The trial boutique, which doesn't have a summer associate program and only hires former clerks, plans to offer one week of advocacy skills training (and $4,500 cash!) to 12 law students this August.
5 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Covington and DWT Push Back Against States' Legal Challenges to TikTok

A judge in Indiana last week knocked out the state attorney general's lawsuits alleging child safety and privacy concerns on the platform. A day later a federal judge in Montana held the state's TikTok ban likely violates the First Amendment.
9 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigators of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Runners-up this week include cases dealing with everything from biometric privacy to presidential immunity.
5 minute read
Analysis

Why Elite Trial Firms Compete in the Associate Salary and Bonus Game

A whole host of trial-centric firms have met or exceeded the Big Law scale set by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Here's a look at how and why.
4 minute read
Analysis

How a Kirkland Partner Relied on 2 Lean Teams During Simultaneous Weeklong Arbitrations on Either Coast

With arbitrations for Silicon Valley venture fund Social + Capital and a portfolio company of Pegasus Capital Advisors pushing off the same week in early June, Kirkland's Josh Greenblatt couldn't be two places at once … but his junior colleagues could.
5 minute read

Bestselling Authors' Lawsuit Against OpenAI Adds Microsoft as Defendant

But Morrison & Foerster partner Joseph Gratz, who represents OpenAI alongside a team from Latham & Watkins, argued that the New York and California classes "overlap entirely."
2 minute read
Analysis

Will the Economic Crunch Give Alternative Fee Arrangements a Needed Nudge?

Maybe, just maybe, this interest rate-driven crunch will be the nudge that finally gives clients and firms the incentive to increase the adoption of alternative fee arrangements.
4 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Cooley Secures an Important Early Win for Meta in Copyright Test Case for AI

Cooley's Bobby Ghajar, Mark Weinstein and Judd Lauter secured a ruling from a judge in San Francisco dismissing a significant chunk of the copyright claims brought by comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors targeting Meta Platforms' LLaMa large language model.
5 minute read
Quick Takes

A Slightly Delayed Edition of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

A patent defense win in East Texas, a big win on royalties for UMG, a boardroom battle in Delaware, class certification in a massive data breach MDL and an antitrust battle over the price of eggs highlight this week's runners-up.
6 minute read
Q&A

Litigation Leaders: David Perez of Perkins Coie on the Firm's 'Customer Service Mentality'

Perez says the firm provides clients "polished, file-ready" briefs for review often a week or more before they're due. "That's pretty rare, and it means a lot of hard work for us, but it shows our clients that we value their time."
8 minute read

Latham Goes Global for Witness Testimony in Case for 'Fully Distributed' Freelance Platform Client

Latham partner Kevin McDonough and associate Megan Behrman led an effort to gather testimony in a civil case in Nevada state court from witnesses in Portugal, Spain, South Africa, and Canada for freelance platform Toptal, whose employees have been remote since the company's founding.
6 minute read
Q&A

Litigator of the (Past) Week: Cravath Closes the Door on $2.5B Suit Against PG&E Over Emergency Power Shutdowns

The California Supreme Court held that plaintiffs cannot sue for damages when a utility shuts power in compliance with state guidelines aimed at reducing the risk of wildfire.
10 minute read
Quick Takes

No Turkeys: A Pre-Thanksgiving Week Batch of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Among the results that landed while the Lit Daily was out, Sullivan & Cromwell got a big win for Bayer on talc liabilities and Baker Botts brought home a $210 million trade secrets verdict for Computer Sciences Corp.
4 minute read
Conversation

Switching Things Up to Appeal to Multiple Generations in the Jury Box

Orrick's Meghan Kelly and Bill Oxley discuss how the firm's jury survey has informed how they shape trial presentations to appeal to jurors across generations and create emotional connections with their clients' cases.
9 minute read
Webcast

Legal Playbook: Integrating Generative AI Responsibly Into In-house Teams

Explore how GAI can streamline researching, drafting, summarizing and analyzing legal work for your in-house team.
2 minute read
News

After Transition 'Missteps,' David Boies Set to Step Aside as Boies Schiller Flexner Chair in 2025

Under a proposed amendment to the firm's partnership agreement set for a vote next month, Boies would serve one more transition year as the firm's leader alongside a chair-elect.
7 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Wachtell and Emery Celli Get $20M-Plus for Wrongly Convicted NY Man Imprisoned for 24 Years

Wachtell's Marc Wolinsky and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel's Richard Emery and Debbie Greenberger represented George Bell, who was wrongfully convicted of double homicide in 1999, in settlements with the state and city of New York.
16 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Runners-up this week include litigators from Baker Botts, Murtha Cullina, Cravath, Latham, Robison, Sharp, Sullivan & Brust, and McDonald Carano.
5 minute read
Research

What a Polarized Jury Pool Means for Corporate Defendants

Meghan Kelly and Bill Oxley, the leaders of the complex litigation and dispute resolution practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, discuss the results of a survey of more than 1,000 potential jurors in venues yielding big verdicts.
8 minute read
Best Practices

Just Breathe: Strategies for Dealing With Contentious Depositions

Judge Matthew McCoyd of DeKalb County Magistrate Court in Georgia says every litigator needs some breathing exercises in his or her metaphorical tool bag.
5 minute read
Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Akin's Joseph Sorkin on Expectations for 'Commitment, Collaboration, Collegiality and Transparency'

"An Akin litigator is collaborative, focused on achieving results for clients in creative ways, and not shy about litigating as aggressively as necessary," says Sorkin, who became head of the firm's litigation practice earlier this year.
10 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: A Defense Verdict for Dow and PPG in Quarter Century-Old Environmental Litigation

Mary Rose Alexander and Robert Collins of Latham & Watkins took the lead for Dow and Jason Levin of Alston & Bird represented PPG in a six-week trial in San Francisco Superior Court that resulted in no damages.
7 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Winston & Strawn and Hagens Berman secured class certification on behalf of three groups of college athletes seeking billions of dollars in compensation related to their name, image and likeness, or NIL, rights from the NCAA and major collegiate conferences.
5 minute read
Editor's Letter

Reflections From the Jury Pool

Tuesday I was part of the venire for a domestic violence case in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland. The experience sparked some thoughts.
7 minute read

Some Thoughts on This Year's TAL Litigation Department of the Year Finalists

Covington, Cravath, Kirkland, Latham, Orrick, Quinn Emanuel, and Williams & Connolly are the finalists for The American Lawyer's Litigation Department of the Year. What were the common threads that set them apart from the competition?
7 minute read
Q&A

Confronting Anti-Corporate Bias in the Jury Pool

Hildy Sastre, the co-chair of the product liability litigation practice group at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, who regularly defends large companies discusses strategies for dealing with anti-corporate sentiment among prospective jurors.
9 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Proskauer Scores a Defense Win for Last Defendant Standing in Broiler Chicken Antitrust Suit

After a month-long trial in a case accusing Sanderson Farms of conspiring with competitors to fix the price of chicken, federal jurors in Chicago deliberated just nine hours before returning for the company and its lawyers at Proskauer Rose led by Chris Ondeck, Kyle Casazza and Colin Cabral.
9 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Covington & Burling won about $260 million in damages in an investment treaty arbitration against the Russian Federation for the Ukrainian company that owned the main electricity supplier and distributor in Crimea prior to the peninsula's 2014 annexation.
4 minute read
Webcast

Beyond the Hype: How AI Will Actually Impact the Legal Profession in 2024

Join this webcast where our expert panel will dissect the current AI landscape and shed light on what legal professionals must know about the AI-driven future of law.
3 minute read
Best Practices

'The Running Feels Like the Work': An Informal Mentoring Relationship Forged During Marathon Training

Susman Godfrey partner Mark Hatch-Miller and associate Betsy Aronson discuss the benefits of preparing for this weekend's New York City Marathon with a colleague.
5 minute read
Webcast

2024 Tech Trends Unveiled: Strategies for Small & Mid-Size Law Firms

[ON-DEMAND ONLY] This event is now available on-demand. If you have previously registered for this event please login here using the email that you…
5 minute read
Analysis

A Couple of Cases for Learning to Communicate Across the Divide

In the face of increasing turmoil on law school campuses, organizers of a program aimed at teaching law students how to effectively communicate across differences are increasing its reach.
6 minute read
Analysis

In Smaller Litigation Shops, New Partners Emphasize a Focus on Trial Skills

Four newly-minted boutique partners who participated in Law.com's "How I Made It" series over the past year highlight the striking amount of practice diversity out there in smaller firms.
6 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: A Bankruptcy Win for Sandy Hook Families Against Alex Jones

Lawyers for families of those killed in the 2012 school shooting won rulings finding that litigation debts Jones accrued through "willful and malicious injury" to their clients cannot be discharged through bankruptcy.
10 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Runners-up honors go to a team at Skadden for knocking out antitrust claims against hoteliers alleging they conspired to adopt algorithmic pricing for rooms on the Las Vegas strip.
5 minute read
Q&A

Sullivan & Cromwell's Renata Hesse on Being a 'Worthy Adversary' to Antitrust Regulators

"You try to do the best job you can to really engage and answer the agency's questions," says Hesse, the co-head of the firm's antitrust practice and a former acting head of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. "But you also recognize that there may come a point where we're just going to have to agree to disagree."
10 minute read
Research

Are Litigators at a Disadvantage When It Comes to Rainmaking Traits?

A new study released last week dubbed "The Rainmaker Genome Project" identified five different categories of business developers. The one with the highest percentage of high performers and the lowest percentage of low performers didn't sound like many litigators we know.
4 minute read

Why Sentencing Is Any Judge's Toughest Assignment

Retired Eleventh Circuit Judge Beverly Martin and Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven González discussed the challenges facing trial court judges in balancing the dual aims of punishment and rehabilitation during sentencing.
4 minute read
Q&A

Litigation Leaders: Ali Cunningham of Hunton Andrews Kurth on Keeping in Mind It's the Client's Case

"We work to understand the client's goals and risk tolerance to formulate a litigation plan that meets the client's case-specific and long-term objectives from the very beginning. In some instances that may mean aggressively fighting every battle along the way, and in others it may mean finding a strategic path to an early resolution."
12 minute read
Q&A

Litigators of the Week: Irell Duo Lands Another Big West Texas Win, This Time $240M for StreamScale

A trial team led by Jason Sheasby and Lisa Glasser of Irell & Manella convinced jurors in Waco, Texas that Cloudera infringed three StreamScale patents related to technology used to efficiently store data.
4 minute read
Quick Takes

Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs

Our first runner-up this week is White & Case partner Jonathan Lamberson who took the lead for Chilisin Electronics Corp. at the Federal Circuit in…
6 minute read
Editor's Letter

Penny for Your Thoughts on the Federal Rule Change Regarding Expert Testimony

The amendment to Federal Rule of Evidence 702, which deals with expert witness testimony, is set to take effect on Dec. 1. How do the changes affect you?
4 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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