| Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | Stand-out | Morrison versus National Australia Bank | 8 | 8 | 9 | 25 | Defended the bank in a case that eliminated an entire class of securities class action litigation. Meticulous research and an unexpected argument resulted in the US Supreme Court overturning four decades of lower-court case law. |
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| Mayer Brown | Stand-out | Landmark decision on class actions and arbitration | 7 | 8 | 8 | 23 | In AT&T Mobility versus Concepcion, successfully argued that states cannot refuse to enforce private agreements to arbitrate because they preclude customers from bringing class actions. The culmination of a long-term strategy that involved turning state law arguments into federal ones. |
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| Cravath, Swaine & Moore | Stand-out | Challenging subject matter jurisdiction in the Vivendi "F-cubed" securities litigation | 7 | 8 | 7 | 22 | Pursuing litigation rather than a settlement in the first F-cubed case, the firm was at the forefront of redefining the law on the extraterritorial reach of the US Securities Exchange Act. It advised the UK government as amicus curiae in Morrison versus National Australia Bank, and the decision has saved Vivendi $9bn in potential damages. |
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| Kirkland & Ellis | Stand-out | Challenge to BP Lubricants false marking patent case | 8 | 7 | 7 | 22 | When a motion to dismiss the case against the firm's client was denied, lawyers saw that conflicting decisions across the country had set the conditions for a writ of mandamus. The unusual strategy was successful and allowed the Federal Circuit to clarify the law, resulting in a drop in the number of claims. |
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| Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan | Stand-out | New bankruptcy code for Dubai | 7 | 7 | 8 | 22 | Worked with Latham & Watkins and Clifford Chance to draft a new insolvency regime for the emirate. Melded features of US Chapter 11 and UK bankruptcy administration, and led to an agreement to restructure Dubai World’s debt. |
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| Jones Day | Highly commended | New remedies for a losing bidder in a mergers and acquisitions transaction | 7 | 7 | 7 | 21 | When client Nacco lost a takeover contest for Applica, lawyers argued for the right to invoke a deal protection clause. The firm showed that a Delaware common law fraud remedy could be sought for misstatements in the winning bidder's federal securities filing. |
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| Morrison & Foerster | Highly commended | Injunction and settlement to stop teacher layoffs | 6 | 8 | 7 | 21 | Used the California constitution's guarantee of equal educational opportunity. The landmark education rights decision has repercussions for schools across the US. |
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| Paul Hastings | Highly commended | Defence of UBS in a precedent-setting dismissal of investor class actions | 6 | 7 | 8 | 21 | Inverting the normal approach in class action cases, the firm focused on the plaintiffs' damages rather than the merits of the case. The lawyers argued the plaintiffs had effectively already received a full refund of their auction-rate securities investments and could no longer seek damages. |
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| Davis Polk & Wardwell | Highly commended | Antitrust clearance of $37bn Comcast-NBC Universal joint venture | 6 | 7 | 7 | 20 | To address concerns that the vertical joint venture would affect online video distributors, the firm balanced the concerns of both the US Department of Justice and the regulator. Through a complex, 13-month process, lawyers educated the DoJ about the nuances of the online entertainment industry. |
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| Gibson Dunn | Highly commended | Federal challenge to California’s ban on same-sex marriage | 5 | 7 | 8 | 20 | In the Perry versus Schwarzenegger case, the firm made strategic decisions, including bringing on board lawyers from both sides of the political divide to remove partisan politics. |
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| Sullivan & Cromwell | Highly commended | Challenge to MBIA Insurance’s restructuring plan to transfer $5bn in assets to a new company | 6 | 8 | 6 | 20 | Played a crucial role in bringing together an unusual coalition of 11 of the world's largest financial institutions in a successful challenge in the New York Court of Appeals. Clients describe the lawyers' phenomenal strategy and consensus building as key in a case that has far-reaching implications for the insurance industry. |
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| Latham & Watkins | Highly commended | Defending the constitutionality of Hasting College’s non-discrimination policy for student-funded groups | 5 | 7 | 7 | 19 | Christian Legal Society versus Martinez was one of the closely watched cases decided by the Supreme Court in 2010. The precedent was against the college, but the Latham lawyers distilled a clear, concise |
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| Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe | Highly commended | Acer, Nanya and Powerchip Semiconductors victory in a patent litigation | 6 | 7 | 6 | 19 | Skilfully co-ordinating a group of respondents, the firm won a highly contested International Trade Commission case. Lawyers pursued a patent exhaustion strategy and dug deeper into the technical details than previous defendants to successfully challenge the claimant's expert. |
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| Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | Highly commended | Testing the outer limits of the poison pill | 5 | 7 | 7 | 19 | In the Air Products versus Airgas case, defended the most substantial challenge to the poison pill since 1985. The ruling said that the ultimate decision lies with a company's board of directors rather than shareholders. |
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| Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld | Commended | A model for state-owned enterprises outside the US to recover damages as a result of corruption | 5 | 6 | 7 | 18 | The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act includes no private right of action for non-US companies that have been victimised by corrupt schemes. The firm is helping sovereign-owned commercial entities to seek access to the US courts to recover losses attributable to corrupt activities that originate in the US. |
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| Davis Polk & Wardwell | Commended | Resolution of Pfizer shareholder derivative litigation | 5 | 7 | 6 | 18 | Shareholders brought lawsuits alleging misconduct, which led to a $2.3bn fine for the company. To resolve the dispute, the firm and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft helped develop a settlement around the creation of a new regulatory and compliance committee of the board of directors, a first of its kind in the pharmaceutical industry. |
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| Dechert | Commended | Win for Philip Morris in a suit brought by Missouri Hospitals | 5 | 7 | 6 | 18 | Defence strategy against hospital claims that tobacco companies were liable for the unpaid treatment costs for hospital patients. Successfully showed that the hospitals had not lost money from smoking. |
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| Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher | Commended | Chevron’s Lago Agrio litigation | 6 | 7 | 5 | 18 | In Chevron’s environmental litigation in Ecuador, used a federal statute permitting court-ordered discovery in aid of foreign litigations to question the decision in the US on the basis of false evidence. |
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| Proskauer Rose | Commended | Defending challenge to ATP tennis tour’s “Brave New World” restructuring plan | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | The antitrust portion of the case required lawyers to run a complex argument to establish what ATP's relevant market was, whether it had monopoly power and whether its actions were pro-competition. |
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| Weil, Gotshal & Manges | Commended | Legislative strategy for 9 / 11 compensation claims | 5 | 7 | 6 | 18 | Helped Bovis Lend Lease, other contractors and the City of New York resolve thousands of claims made by emergency workers following the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. The James Zadroga Act was signed into law in 2011. |
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| White & Case | Commended | Norex Petroleum versus Access Industries | 6 | 6 | 6 | 18 | Winning the dismissal of a multibillion-dollar Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act action filed against TNK-BP, Russia’s third-largest oil company. |
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