Encore!: One Last Look at 2023’s Litigators of the Week
We’re fixing to call it quits for 2023 here at The Litigation Daily. We have one last Litigator of the Week for the year slated to run tomorrow before we turn the lights out on the newsletter for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. But we‘re going to keep up our holiday-time tradition of toasting all the year’s weekly winners before we go dark.
According to our handy tracking spreadsheet, almost 50 law firms and non-profit organizations grabbed a piece of the LOTW pie this year. But, once again, some firms took a larger slice than others. Cooley; Covington & Burling; Davis Wright Tremaine, Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Proskauer Rose and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr all took home two wins in 2023. (One more firm will join the two-time winner ranks tomorrow, but we’re not telling you who. We just love that feeling of being Santa on Christmas Eve knowing who is on the nice list!)
With a sliver more pie, Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Sullivan & Cromwell tallied three LOTW titles apiece during the year. Three firms—King & Spalding, Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins—tied for the second most wins with four, a heckuva haul for anybody. But for the second year in a row the litigators at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan once again took home the most wins this year, once again landing the top spot a honking six times.
On top of the repeat firm winners, this year we saw three individual lawyers win multiple litigators of the week: Quinn’s Alex Spiro for his work on a pair of Tesla trials, DWT’s Ambika Kumar for her work on a pair of social media First Amendment cases, and Kirkland’s Britt Kramer for both her work for paying and pro bono clients.
Here’s one last look at their work along with all the rest of our 2023 winners (again, sans tomorrow’s).
In Case of ‘Phantom Damages,’ a Come-From-Behind Defense Win for TransUnion
Kirkland’s Mark Premo-Hopkins and Britt Cramer chipped away at claims from one of TransUnion’s former software partners even as Cramer was being treated for cancer. Shortly after the New Year, the judge in the case reduced a $18.3 million jury award to $0.
Beating Back an Antitrust Challenge for Swimming’s International Governing Body
Latham partners Chris Yates and Aaron Chiu won summary judgment for the organization formerly known as Fédération Internationale de Natation, or FINA, on claims it conspired with national federations to boycott an upstart professional swimming league.
Standing Strong for Under Armour’s Trademarks Without Going Overboard Against Upstart Armorina
Douglas “Chip” Rettew of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner helped client Under Armour avoid coming off like a Goliath in front of a Baltimore jury by asking for just $1 in damages in an infringement trial involving the company’s Armour-based trademark.
DOJ Can’t Reopen a Previously-Settled Antitrust Case Against the National Association of Realtors
Quinn’s Bill Burck and Mike Bonanno and Cooley’s Ethan Glass helped NAR get a ruling holding the government to the terms of a settlement agreement reached during the Trump administration, that the the Biden Administration Justice Department attempted to sidestep.
The Third Circuit Zapped J&J’s Talc Bankruptcy Move Finding a Lack of ‘Financial Distress’
Jeffrey Lamken of MoloLamken, Jonathan Massey of Massey & Gail and Michael Winograd of Brown Rudnick co-led the appellate team for the official committee of talc claimants in an appeal securing the dismissal of the bankruptcy of Johnson & Johnson affiliate LTL management—a win that opened the trial courts back up to talc-related claims against J&J.
A Defense Verdict in the Multibillion Securities Trial Over Elon Musk’s Go-Private Tweets
Despite a summary judgment ruling finding Elon Musk’s 2018 tweet that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private was false and misleading, Quinn’s Alex Spiro, Andrew Rossman and Bill Price got a defense verdict finding Musk and the company weren’t liable for $12 billion in alleged investor losses.
A Wrongfully Convicted Missouri Man Who Served 28 Years Is Freed
Charles Weiss and Jonathan Potts of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner were appointed special prosecutors in Lamar Johnson’s case, harnessing a new Missouri law allowing prosecutors’ offices to step in to intervene in wrongful conviction cases.
A Directed Defense Verdict in the First Trial Over Heavy Metals in Baby Food
Covington’s Phyllis Jones, Michael Imbroscio and David Sneed convinced a federal judge in Texas to pull the plug on a trial against The Hain Celestial Co. due to a lack of expert evidence on general causation.
In Trial Run-Up, a $1.345B Settlement With Banks the For Receiver in Stanford Ponzi Litigation
The deal, which included $1.2 billion from TD Bank, brought the total recoveries achieved by a Baker Botts team led by partner Kevin Sadler to more than $2.7 billion in the litigation stemming from Allen Stanford’s Ponzi scheme.
Google Wins a Case Against a Botnet Case and Sticks Defendants with Attorney Fees
King & Spalding’s Laura Harris, Sumon Dantiki and Andrew Michaelson won case-terminating sanctions and a fee award of more than $500,000 against two Russian defendants accused of infecting a network of computers with malware to mine cryptocurrency and steal user information.
After SCOTUS Reversed a Non-Unanimous Murder Conviction, an Acquittal on the Retrial
After her colleagues at O’Melveny & Myers knocked out Evangelisto Ramos’ prior 10-2 conviction on second degree murder charges at the U.S. Supreme Court, new partner Rebecca Mermelstein week won a unanimous “not guilty” verdict in March back at the trial court.
An Appellate Win Over Texas Agency’s Electricity Pricing Moves During 2021 Winter Storm
Allyson Ho and Mike Raiff of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Bill Moore of Enoch Kever got a blockbuster decision for client Luminant Energy Co. finding that the state’s Public Utility Commission violated its statutory mandate by setting and keeping power rates artificially high for four days in February 2021.
Madison Square Garden Revives Its ‘Lawyer Ban’
King & Spalding’s Randy Mastro convinced a New York appellate court to reverse a preliminary injunction ruling that had blocked parts of a Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. policy barring lawyers suing the company from attending events at venues including MSG and Radio City Music Hall.
Wiping Out a Half Billion Patent Verdict for Apple
Wilmer’s Bill Lee, Mark Fleming and Lauren Fletcher got a ruling from the Federal Circuit upholding a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board invalidating two patents that VirnetX asserted against Apple. A day later the appellate court vacated a $502 million infringement verdict VirnetX had won against Apple based on those patents.
Slashing a $137M Racial Discrimination Verdict Against Tesla by Nearly 98%
Quinn’s Asher Griffin, Alex Spiro and Kathleen Sullivan convinced a federal judge in San Francisco to toss the initial damages verdict against Tesla. In the retrial, jurors awarded $3.2 million to a Black former contract worker at the company’s plant in Fremont, California.
A $787.5M Settlement for Dominion in Defamation Suit Against Fox News
On the eve of what was set to be a blockbuster trial in Delaware Superior Court, Fox News agreed to pay more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to settle claims it knowingly aired lies about Dominion Voting Systems, represented by a team led by Stephen Shackelford, Davida Brook and Justin Nelson of Susman Godfrey.
A Pair of Big Wins for Motorola and Cellphone Makers in Brain Cancer Cases
Terry Dee of Winston & Strawn had a leading role for Motorola Mobility and its cellphone maker codefendants in a pair of wins this spring—one in D.C. Superior Court and another in federal court in Louisiana.
In Test Case Over Illinois Genetic Privacy Law, a Defense Win Over Ancestry.com Deal
Kirkland 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.
Taking On Donald Trump for E. Jean Carroll at Trial
A Kaplan Hecker & Fink 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.
In Delaware Chancery Trial, Defending Oracle's $9.3B NetSuite Deal
Peter Wald, Blair Connelly and their team at Latham 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.
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.
Second Circuit Sign-Off for Purdue Pharma’s Multibillion-Dollar Bankruptcy Settlement
Marshall Huebner and Benjamin Kaminetzky of Davis Polk & Wardwell 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.
MLB Gets a Bankruptcy Ruling Forcing Diamond Sports to Pay Full Broadcast Fees
Sullivan & Cromwell’s Jim Bromley and Ben Walker 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.
A $290M Settlement From JPMorgan for Epstein Victims
The proposed settlement announced came shortly after David Boies and Sigrid McCawley of Boies Schiller Flexner secured a $75 settlement from Deutsche Bank, another financial institution accused of turning a blind eye while providing financial services that enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring.
A $1B-Plus Construction Arbitration Award for Colombian Oil Refinery Reficar
After a six-week remote hearing, a King & Spalding 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.
Big Wins at SCOTUS in Election Law and Arbitration Cases
Neal Katyal of Hogan Lovells, who crossed the 50-argument threshold at the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, scored major wins within the same week for cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and the watchdog group Common Cause.
A Defense Win for Gilead and Teva in a Rare Trial on Pay-For-Delay Claims
With Proskauer’s Bart Williams and Kirkland’s Devora Allon 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.
Taking the Lead for Microsoft in Fending Off FTC Challenge to Activision Deal
After Beth 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.
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 Andrew Ceresney of Debevoise & Plimpton and Michael Kellogg of Kellogg Hansen representing the company and Matthew Solomon of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Martin Flumenbaum of Paul Weiss representing company executives.
Helping 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 Sulivan & Cromwell’s Garrard Beeney, Marc De Leeuw and Dustin Guzior helped secure a deal that involved AutoStore paying Ocado more than $250 million.
What Trade Secrets? Fending Off $260M Claim From Alcoa for UAC at Trial
Tony Sammi, Rachel Blitzer and their team at Latham, 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.
Reviving Sex-Trafficking Suit Against Salesforce
Warren Harris of Bracewell convinced the Seventh Circuit to reject Salesforce’s argument that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shielded the company from a participant liability claim stemming from its relationship with the shuttered website Backpage.
A Resounding Class Certification Win for Goldman Sachs at the 2nd Circuit
The court sided with a joint defense team led by Bob Giuffra at Sullivan & Cromwell and Kannon Shanmugam of Paul Weiss in finding a mismatch between the targeted drop in Goldman’s stock price and the bank’s generic statements about conflicts of interest and business ethics.
In Antitrust Case Against Big Banks, Plaintiffs Land a $499M Settlement and Market Changes
Quinn’s Daniel Brockett and Steig Olson and Michael Eisenkraft of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll pursued multiple banks with claims they colluded to prop up fees in the stock lending market after reaching an earlier $81 million deal with Credit Suisse affiliates.
In Largest MDL to Date, 3M Settles for $6B With Veterans Claiming Hearing Damage
Bryan Aylstock of Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz and Christopher Seeger of Seeger Weiss, the co-lead plaintiffs’ counsel in the 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation, said the settlement was evidence of an MDL process that worked.
Clearing a Path for Amgen’s $27.8B Acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics
The FTC and six state attorneys general dropped their challenge to the merger just 10 days after a Cravath team led by David Marriott and Daniel Zach representing Amgen and a Cooley team led by Jacqueline Grise and David Burns representing Horizon filed opposition briefs pushing back against the agency’s preliminary injunction bid.
A $16B Win for Energy Company Shareholders in Expropriation Suit Against Argentina
A federal judge in Manhattan sided with Paul Clement of Clement & Murphy, Mark Hansen and Derek Ho of Kellogg Hansen, and Reggie Smith of King & Spalding by landing on the high end of the damages sought over the Argentine government’s 2012 move to seize majority control of YPF.
A First Amendment Win for Internet Firms Blocking Calif. Child Protection Law
Davis Wright Tremaine partners Ambika Kumar, David Gossett and counsel Adam Sieff persuaded a federal judge in San Jose that the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act—a law passed last year with bipartisan support aimed at protecting children when they’re online—likely violates the First Amendment.
Illinois Jurors Hit Prison Officials With $19M Verdict in Sexual Abuse Case
Britt Cramer of Kirkland, Christina Sharkey of Quinn Emanuel, and Nicole Schult of Uptown People’s Law Center represented a former prisoner who testified about her sexual abuse at the hands of a counselor at the Logan Correctional Center near Springfield, Illinois.
Fending Off the FTC’s Pyramid Scheme Claims for Neora
Foley & Lardner partners Ed Burbach, Craig Florence and Michelle Ku represented Neora in a bench trial in Dallas that resulted in a decision completely vindicating Neora’s business model.
Helping Google Flip a $32.5M Verdict From Patent ‘Pretender’ Sonos
Sean Pak, Melissa Baily and Iman Lordgooei of Quinn Emanuel got a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco knocking out the jury award finding the patents underpinning it were invalid because of “an unreasonable, inexcusable, and prejudicial delay” of more than 13 years from the initial patent filing to approval.
A $240M West Texas Patent Win 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 store data efficiently.
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 led by Chris Ondeck, Kyle Casazza and Colin Cabral.
In a Quarter Century-Old Piece of Environmental Litigation, a Defense Verdict for Dow and PPG
Latham’s Mary Rose Alexander and Robert Collins 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.
$20M-Plus for Wrongly Convicted NY Man Imprisoned for 24 Years
Marc Wolinsky of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Richard Emery and Debbie Greenberger of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel represented George Bell, who was wrongfully convicted of double homicide in 1999, in settlements with the state and city of New York.
Closing the Door on $2.5B Suit Against PG&E Over Emergency Power Shutdowns
Cravath’s Omid Nasab convinced the California Supreme Court that damages shouldn’t be on the line when a utility shuts power in compliance with state guidelines aimed at reducing the risk of wildfire.
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 federal 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.
Pushing Back Against States’ Legal Challenges to TikTok
Covington’s Megan Crowley and Emily Ullman convinced a judge in Indiana to knock out the state attorney general’s lawsuits alleging child safety and privacy concerns on the video-sharing platform. A day later, with Covington’s Alex Berengaut representing Tiktok and DWT’s Ambika Kumar representing users, a federal judge in Montana held the state’s TikTok ban likely violates the First Amendment.
Fortnite Maker Hit Google With Antitrust Jury Verdict in App Store Fight
Representing Epic Games, Cravath’s Gary Bornstein, Yonatan Even and Lauren Moskowitz convinced federal jurors in San Francisco that Google has an illegal monopoly on Android app distribution and in-app payments.
