The American Lawyer today named the litigation department of Kirkland & Ellis as the magazine’s 2007 Litigation Department of the Year. In addition, the magazine named law firm winners in three specialty litigation areas: Jones Day (labor and employment); Shook, Hardy & Bacon (product liability); and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr (intellectual property). The winners of the biennial awards were selected by the magazine’s writers and editors following evaluation of entries submitted by the Am Law 200, the nation’s top-grossing law firms. A special report in the January 2008 issue of The American Lawyer profiles the four winners, the runners-up, and, in the Department of the Year contest, 18 additional firms who merited special attention. Complete listings of winners and profiles are available online at www.americanlawyer.com and www.law.com.
Kirkland & Ellis’ selection reflects the number of high-stakes, high-impact trials its lawyers have won since the start of 2006. Over that period, Kirkland tried 30 cases to verdict, winning more significant trials than any other firm evaluated. Kirkland’s victories included wins for defendants NL Industries, Inc., in an important lead-based paint case and for AlliedSignal, Inc., proving to a Florida state court jury that their client was not responsible for the failure of a respected local business. Its work for Motorola, Inc. allowed the company to avoid forfeiture of $3 billion in payments received from Iridium LLC. The firm also won pretrial dismissal of a major case against client Union Carbide Corporation and won a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Buckeye Check Cashing Company v. Cardegna that strengthens the enforcement of arbitration clauses.
“Kirkland’s litigators have long had an excellent reputation,” said Aric Press, editor in chief of the magazine. “This year their record of success before, during and at trial was simply outstanding.”
Jones Day (labor and employment) was cited for its success in using court-approved health care settlements with employees to fix GM's balance sheet—and to make America's industrial dinosaurs attractive to private equity investors. Shook, Hardy (product liability) has become a “go-to” firm for major pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, serving with notable success as national counsel or national coordinating counsel for 31 drugs and medical devices marketed by 13 companies since 1970. WilmerHale (intellectual property) has represented clients in multiple jurisdictions and at all levels of the justice system, up to and including the U.S. Supreme Court, with consistently good results, including its work on behalf of Broadcom Corporation in its unprecedented and ambitious patent litigation assault against the industry's largest patent gatekeeper, Qualcomm Incorporated.
Other finalists for Litigation Department of the Year profiled in the issue include groups at Akin Gump; Covington & Burling; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; and Williams & Connolly.
The American Lawyer is the legal industry’s leading monthly magazine. Read by partners at corporate law firms, in-house counsel, government lawyers, and litigators at firms of all sizes, its features about attorneys and the work they do has led to 23 National Magazine Award nominations and five coveted awards for general excellence, essays and criticism, and single-topic issues. To subscribe or request back issues of The American Lawyer, please call (800) 755-2773. The magazine is published by ALM.
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