Litigation Department of the Year, Professional Liability: Latham & Watkins

What are some of the department’s most satisfying successes of the past year and why? In the past year, we secured a jury trial win for Puma Biotechnology in the first federal securities class action to reach a verdict in nearly 10 years, and litigated multi-billion dollar disputes from both sides of the V—winning more than $1 billion for UBS Securities in a New York Supreme Court bench trial and staving off a $6 billion class certification decision for Facebook. Our collaborative nature also paid dividends for our clients. In a trifecta for our securities litigation & professional liability and Supreme Court & appellate practices, three separate SDNY victories were successfully affirmed in the Second Circuit—for Eaton, Endo, and Ferrellgas. We’re also constantly looking ahead of the curve for our clients. For example, Latham has been at the forefront of the direct listing, an innovative alternative to the IPO. The first and only firm to advise on both the issuer and financial adviser side of a direct listing, Latham is uniquely positioned to help our clients understand the complex and novel Section 11 liability issues raised by this new method of going public.

A prospective client in crisis calls and asks why your team should be retained. What is your answer? For every matter, we proceed with a trial-ready mindset so that, should trial become inevitable, our team is already primed to put on our best case. That is what sets us apart. We have securities and professional liability litigators who are also courtroom lawyers, fully equipped to lead the case through trial. Latham’s global platform and size enables us to quickly build bespoke litigation teams with the specific experience and capabilities the case and client demand regardless of geography. The power of this constellation of talent has been a game-changer for our clients and will continue to be a critical differentiator for us following the Supreme Court’s Cyan ruling, which allows for state court actions to parallel district court disputes. We represent every major bank down to small institutions in state courts all over the country. This national reach is a difference-maker for our clients—in addition to being engrained in the classic New York industries, we are also plugged into the nationwide tech and pharma communities, where a great deal of securities litigation is now generated. Combine these factors with our elite courtroom advocates and seasoned litigators across every practice and industry, and Latham is the firm to call when you’re facing your most critical securities and liability disputes.