Mark Hopson, left, and Kristin Graham Koehler, right, of Sidley Austin.

Describe your firm's approach to litigation and your strategy for building successful teams for trials or other matters. At the heart of Sidley's "built-to-win" approach to litigation and trials is our emphasis on bringing together dynamic, cross-functional teams from different disciplines, practices and perspectives to craft novel approaches to help our clients achieve victory. Those teams are able to tap into a deep bench of over 100 former government officials from virtually every agency to offer their unique expertise to these matters. From the outset, we pursue an outcome-oriented approach. We don't approach litigation as a process; we attack it with a strategic approach designed to obtain victory as early and as efficiently as possible.

Discuss the two biggest litigation cases your firm worked on in 2019 and how you reached successful outcomes. Sidley successfully represented AT&T in [the Department of Justice's] appeal to the [U.S. Court of Appeals for the] D.C. Circuit regarding AT&T's $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. It was pivotal to our victory that our appellate team had been very involved at trial, was deeply familiar with the facts, the economics, and the law, and worked seamlessly with the client.

Sidley obtained one of the most favorable rulings in World Trade Organization history on behalf of Airbus. Integral to our success was the strong coordination of a team spanning several continents.

The team's D.C.-based attorneys participated in every aspect of this victory, including formulating the strategy; preparing the written submissions; and participating in the WTO Appellate Body's oral hearing, an honor accorded to very few private-practice attorneys in the world.

What are the most challenging and satisfying aspects of your work in litigation? To work with our clients on their most difficult, sophisticated, bet-the-company litigation matters is both the most challenging and the most rewarding part of our work.

What is the most important piece of advice you'd share with young lawyers? Be open to working on many different types of litigation matters as a young lawyer. You are likely to find yourselves interested in practice areas that you might not have otherwise considered.

Responses submitted by Mark Hopson and Kristin Graham Koehler, partners at Sidley Austin. A leading trial lawyer, Hopson serves on Sidley's management and executive committees, is managing partner of the D.C. office and global co-leader of litigation, he wrote. Koehler, also a member of Sidley's executive committee, is consistently recognized as a leading practitioner in white-collar crime and enforcement, she wrote.

Firm Facts:

Note: The statistics originally provided by Sidley were corrected and updated by the firm on May 27.