Weil, Gotshal + Manges has been recognized as having one of the nation’s best
litigation departments in the January 2004 issue of The American Lawyer, the
nation’s leading legal monthly publication, which announced the results of
its second biennial survey after conducting intensive analysis of the
nation’s top law firms. Weil Gotshal was the only New York-based firm named
to the list comprising the top six litigation departments.
According to The American Lawyer, “Weil Gotshal litigators have an
uncanny ability to get into their clients’ heads-and the Fortune 50 is
taking notice.” The article also notes that the firm’s “litigation client
base includes more than 35 percent of the companies in the Fortune
50-sophisticated clients who use Weil in dangerous cases,” and that “Weil’s
results over the last two years show that its litigators can win major cases
at every stage of litigation….”
“We have long believed that Weil Gotshal is exceptional in our
strong track record for devising creative strategies for winning difficult
and high stakes litigation and crafting complex and creative settlements,”
said Stephen J. Dannhauser, Chairman of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. “We
thank The American Lawyer editorial staff, as well as our clients and
opposing counsel, who were interviewed during the selection process, for
recognizing the factors that place Weil Gotshal’s litigators among the elite
of litigation departments.”
“I am thrilled that ‘judge and jury’ reached this verdict, awarding
Weil Gotshal’s Litigation Department the status as one of the top six in the
United States,” said James W. Quinn, Chairman of Weil Gotshal’s Litigation
Department. “I am also pleased that our litigators were recognized as
having strong business acumen and as being counselors in every sense of the
word. They are strategy-driven and adept at understanding our clients
businesses.”
The American Lawyer noted the following in its feature on Weil
Gotshal:
* “Business strategy could well serve as the guiding principle of the
Weil Gosthal litigation department.” One client quoted in the article
remarked on the firm’s litigators adeptness at understanding the client’s
business and explaining the implications of taking a lawsuit to court.
Another client said Weil Gotshal’s litigators are “aggressive when you want
them to be, reasonable when it’s necessary.’
*
* Weil Gotshal’s results “show that its litigators can win major cases
at every state of litigation, from the dismissal of a declaratory judgment
action filed by Duke Energy Corporation in the Enron bankruptcy to the
reversal of a class certification for General Electric Company in a state
appeals court in Texas.”
* “Unlike so many of its New York brethren, Weil is perfectly happy to
continue the battle to the courtroom when it’s necessary.”
* Among Weil Gotshal’s other significant victories in 2003 were, but
not limited to: a $416.8 million jury verdict for ExxonMobil in a breach of
contract case involving a joint venture with Saudi Basic Industries
Corporation; a $10 million jury verdict for Value Partners against Bain &
Company, Inc. in an unfair competition case involving the defection of Value
Partner’s entire Sao Paolo office to Bain; a jury verdict for ArthroCare
Corporation on a patent infringement case against Smith & Nephew plc
involving 16 patents; and an affirmance of the summary judgment dismissing a
high-stakes antitrust case brought by the Department of Justice against
American Airlines (as co-counsel).
The American Lawyer’s editors invited the nation’s 200 largest firms
to list examples of significant achievements between January 1, 2002, and
June 30, 2003. In choosing the country’s top litigation departments, The
American Lawyer judges looked for high achievement and cases of national
importance in six core areas: pretrial work, trial matters, appellate work,
settlements, pro bono cases and other matters, such as arbitrations.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is an international law firm of more than
1,100 attorneys, including approximately 300 partners. Weil Gotshal is
headquartered in New York, with offices in Austin, Boston, Brussels,
Budapest, Dallas, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Miami, Paris, Prague, Silicon
Valley, Singapore, Warsaw and Washington, D.C.
