Latham Most Celebrated Litigation & Trial Team by American Lawyer
The stellar series of litigation successes Latham lawyers achieved for clients in 2023 earned the firm the highest number of honors in The American Lawyer’s prestigious Litigators of the Week column. In total, the firm’s 1,100-lawyer Litigation & Trial Department was recognized in the weekly column a record-breaking 49 times in 2023, leading all firms and strengthening Latham’s reputation as a premier litigation powerhouse.
Latham’s exceptional year included winning the Litigators of the Week title four times:
- The firm’s antitrust litigators sunk a pair of high-profile antitrust cases on behalf of client World Aquatics (formerly Fédération Internationale de Natation), the global governing body for aquatic sports, alleging it leveraged its position as the global governing body for aquatic sports to prevent the creation of a top-tier professional swimming league.
- A securities litigation team knocked out a stockholder derivative lawsuit at trial which challenged Oracle’s US$9.4 billion acquisition of NetSuite, Inc. alleging Oracle’s Larry Ellison and CEO Safra Catz breached their fiduciary duties by causing Oracle to overpay for NetSuite, a company Mr. Ellison co-founded and in which he was a substantial investor, by billions of dollars.
- An intellectual property trial team secured a complete defense jury verdict on behalf of Universal Alloy Corporation (UAC), in a highly technical US$260 million aerospace trade secrets dispute with Alcoa — now Arconic, Inc. — over airplane wing parts known as stretch-formed spar chords, ending almost a decade of litigation.
- A multi-discipline trial team of complex commercial and environmental litigators secured a defense verdict for The Dow Chemical Company, ending two-and-a-half decades of litigation by the City of Modesto in a case where many of the legal issues are cutting-edge in California and around the country.
“We are immensely proud of our record-breaking performance this year, and it is particularly satisfying that the 49 cases honored span the gamut of practices, industries, and regions,” said Michele D. Johnson, Global Chair of Latham’s Litigation & Trial Department. “These results crystallize that Latham is truly unmatched as a litigation powerhouse, fielding best-in-class talent in every discipline, in every sector, and in every region to tackle the most complex legal challenges and achieve the best business outcomes for our clients. Partnered with our elite corporate team, Latham is everywhere for our clients, from the boardroom to the courtroom and back again.”
Among the 49 victories honored were antitrust, appellate, complex commercial, crypto, environmental, intellectual property, product liability, securities, trade secrets, white collar, and other matters for companies that serve the automotive, entertainment, financial services, life sciences, sports, and technology sectors, and more.