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Litigator of the Year
crisis. Mainigi, along with lawyers for co-defendants, secured a complete defense victory for Cardinal Health following a three-month, 70-witness federal bench trial in West Virginia in the first distributor trial in the nationwide opioid litigation. Plaintiffs alleged the distributors’ wholesale distribution of prescription opioids created an opioid epidemic, causing a public nuisance in West Virginia. Mainigi did the opening and closing arguments in the case, along with questioning some of the key witnesses. In July 2022, the court issued a nearly 200-page opinion in Cardinal’s favor—a win that has been instrumental in reshaping the landscape of the opioid litigation for distributors, allowing space for case dismissals and manageable settlements. In another case for Cardinal Health involving the opioid crisis, but with a different legal argument, Mainigi and team led a first-of-its-kind trial over claims against drug distributors brought under the Georgia Drug Dealer Liability Act by family members of individuals who became addicted to opioids. In March 2023, the jury returned a complete defense verdict in Cardinal’s favor. Demonstrating her repeated work for longstanding clients, Mainigi again represented CVS Health, this time in a 2022
Enu A. Mainigi
Williams & Connolly
Grand Prize Winner
By ALM Staff | Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM
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A frequent finalist in our litigator of the Year contest, Enu Mainigi is no stranger to handling the most pressing and complex litigation issues facing the courts hand society at large. In the past year, she has added significant wins to an already long list of impressive victories. In April 2023, Mainigi, as lead counsel, won a jury trial for Fifth Third Bank in defending against a certified class action claiming the bank’s early access loan program overcharged class members. Certified class actions are rarely tried by large defendants because the stakes are so high. But this case would prove to be Mainigi’s second win in such a case, following her victory for CVS in a certified class action in the Northern District of California, which was recently upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In Fifth Third Bank, the jury found the bank did breach the agreement, but that the voluntary payment doctrine applied, leaving the bank with zero liability. In perhaps an even more high–profile set of matters, Mainigi led teams defending distributors of prescription painkillers on several different litigation fronts related to the nation’s opioid
arbitration brought by Humana, which argued CVS inappropriately charged Humana clients higher-thanallowed prices for certain presecription drugs. The arbitrator dismissed all of Humana’s claims, finding in favor of CVS. Other recent matters Mainigi handled include the dismissal of a civil antitrust action against CVS brought by the New York Attorney General over the company’s pricing program and the settlement for Bank of America in a New York case against Ambac stemming from the financial crisis. Of Williams & Connolly’s overall litigation-only approach, Mainigi has said “In the traditional trial litigation world, I think we are kind of like Kentucky Fried Chicken. We do one thing and we do it right.” ■
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Adam Hakki
Neal Katyal
David Marriott
Craig Primis
William Savitt
The USSF took recommendations made in the report and established a task force for implementation led by Mana Shim, a player whose courage to come forward to reporters at The Athletic in 2021 led to the investigation. Shim now leads a new Participant Safety Taskforce at U.S. Soccer. “One of the things that is most gratifying is that change is taking place right now at the U.S. Soccer Federation with Mana Shim, who was one of the two players who came forward and spawned this whole investigation,” Yates says. ■
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Yates then led an all-woman team of King & Spalding lawyers in 2022 that did 200 interviews, reviewed nearly 100,000 documents and secured the cooperation of dozens of third-party witnesses despite not having subpoena power. She says it was important to have an all-female team because investigators would be asking players about intimate, personal details. She notes most NWSL team owners and most coaches—some named as abusers in the report—were men. The 172-page “Report of the Independent Investigation to the U.S. Soccer Federation Concerning Allegations of Abusive Behavior and Sexual Misconduct in Women’s Professional Soccer” was released in early October 2022.
Brian Wallach
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players had endured for decades—it had spurred change,” Yates says. Yates worked for 27 years with the U.S. Department of Justice—rising to become the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. After leaving the attorney general’s office, she joined King & Spalding in 2018 and leads its crisis management practice and is a partner in its special matters and government investigations practice. After media reports surfaced in 2021 about an alleged pattern of abuse of female players, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF)—the official governing body of U.S. soccer—hired Yates and King & Spalding and gave it “free rein” to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations.
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What resulted was a report Yates says is likely “unprecedented” in sports in its breadth and scope because of the number of players and the time frame involved. However, Yates says she does not want to take sole credit for any awards because the investigation and report were a “team effort” by 15 King & Spalding lawyers who “gave every single ounce of themselves” to complete it. “What I hope the impact has been is when the truth was spoken about what these players had experienced, and we attempted to do it in a way that would name names and state the facts in a way that you couldn’t look away from it or sweep it under the rug—because that’s what these
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It was clear from the opening sentences that a 2022 report produced from a yearlong investigation Sally Yates led into sexual abuse in U.S. women’s pro soccer would pull no punches. “On April 21, 2021, the head coach of Racing Louisville, Christy Holly, requested that a player, Erin Simon, attend a game film session with him alone. She knew what to expect. ... He told her he was going to touch her ‘for every pass [she] f----d up.’ He did,” the report stated. Yates, a partner with King & Spalding and former U.S. deputy attorney general, led an investigation for the firm into allegations of systemic abuse of female players over a decade by coaches at all the teams in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).
ENU A. MAINIGI
Sally Yates
David Cross
Michael Gottlieb
John Gleeson
Roberta Liebenberg
Will Stute
Herbert Washer
WINNER
Gary Naftalis
GRAND PRIZE WINNER
In a case critical to underwriters and the companies who indemnify them, a Utah appeals court accepted Hakki’s argument that federal forum provisions in a Delaware company’s bylaws mean that even claims against underwriters of securities offerings for that company can only be sued in federal court. Importantly the court ruled that Delaware, not the forum law, governed the question of whether to extend the effect of the provision to underwriter defendants. And in his third notable win of the year—the very closely watched Waitr case—a Louisiana federal court dismissed all claims against Hakki’s client, Jefferies LLC, in the first case seeking to hold a financial advisor to a SPAC liable under the federal securities laws. ■
Shearman & Sterling
Winner
By ALM Staff | Photo by Matt Greenslade
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It was a year of first impressions for Adam Hakki of Shearman & Sterling—whether it was the blockbuster cases he handled, the new role as firm leader or guiding his firm through a merger with Allen & Overy. Amid significant work on law firm management matters, Hakki had three notable cases in the securities litigation arena among a number of other matters that kept the litigator busy. In perhaps the most closely watched securities class action of the year, Hakki won total dismissal for his client, Paramount Global in a multi-billion dollar case in New York Supreme Court under Section 11 of the Securities Act. An issue of first impression, plaintiffs sought to hold the company strictly liable for allegedly not disclosing in multi-billion dollar stock offering documents that Archegos, Bill Hwang’s family office, held a concentrated position in the company’s stock that was on the precipice of liquidation. Hakki persuaded the court that, despite arguments of strict liability under Section 11, Paramount Global could not be held liable for derivative trading activity in its stock. The judge dismissed the case against Paramount, while sustaining the claims against all other defendants.
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continue his practice, to write and to teach but wouldn’t close the door on another stint in public service, particularly if President Joe Biden wins a second term. “If the right opportunity came up, I’d go back into government,” he says. ■
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then the White House, and his personal path would cross with some of the defining names, moments and controversies in the United States in the 1980s, 1990s and the 21st century: Iran/Contra, Monica Lewinsky and the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, to name a few. It’s the breadth of those experiences and expertise that makes his career remarkable, says Dana Remus, a partner at Covington & Burling and former White House counsel for President Joe Biden. “He has just served in so many different places, within the government, which I think is part of
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W. Neil Eggleston, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, always hoped for a legal career that included a significant stint in public service. And if he’d just pursued a lucrative job in private practice, after clerking for the U.S. Supreme Court, working as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York and ultimately becoming that office’s top appeals lawyer, you’d have to admit he made good on that dream. But Eggleston outdid himself. His stretches in government would last another 30 years beyond his role as a prosecutor; he would go on to take jobs with the U.S. House of Representatives and
ADAM HAKKI
Enu Mainigi
Separate from his regular practice work, Katyal has made major strides in the pro bono field, specifically working pro bono as Special Prosecutor in the George Floyd murder case—a case he has worked on for the past three years. He and a team of associates put together the legal strategy for the trial and all of the motions that went with it. Former police officer Derek Chauvin, who was charged with the murder of George Floyd, appealed his conviction and Katyal argued on behalf of the state in January this year. By April, the Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Chauvin’s conviction, sentencing him to 21 years in prison. Outside of his pro bono work, he is currently representing Yale in an affirmative action challenge and running appellate and legal strategy for Google in their antitrust cases. His trajectory over the past few years shows no signs of slowing. ■
Hogan & Lovells
In the last several years, appellate and complex litigation lawyer Neal Katyal has shown time and again just how dedicated he is to his work and clients, as well as how much of a force he is in the courtroom. In April this year, he gave his 50th U.S. Supreme Court argument, shattering the recent record of 32 arguments by Former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Thurgood Marshall. An accomplishment in its own right. Among some of these 50 cases he argued, specifically this year, include Tyler v. Hennepin County, Coinbase v. Bielski, Delaware v. Pennsylvania, Cruz v. Arizona and Moore v. Harper, which dealt with a critical issue of state legislature's rights to set election law. The other cases included issues of which states have rights to nonphysical abandoned property and government seizure over unpaid taxes. In addition to his work in the Supreme Court, which was nearly 10% of the previous docket, there were several commercial cases he argued. These cases include the Citibank miswire, the Hawaii Supreme Court case against Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi regarding Plavix and Myers v. California Board.
Frazier cites the influence of lawyers during the Civil Rights Movement, such as A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., who fought institutional racism during their careers and with whom he crossed paths. “I was very fortunate to be surrounded by people who took the broad view of what lawyers can mean to society,” he says. Some say adversity can build strength and perseverance to overcome and to appreciate the opportunities one is given. Frazier is Exhibit No. 1.
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In 1995, a federal appeals court overturned Cochran’s conviction and found that Alabama courts had a systemic practice of excluding Black jurors. “It is the thing I’ve done personally that’s been most rewarding,” Frazier recalls. “That’s the height of my career—no question.” That sentiment doesn’t surprise Merck’s executive vice president and general counsel, Jennifer Zachary, one bit. “Social justice is a thread that runs through his entire life,” Zachary says. “He led that way, as well.”
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But even those extraordinary achievements are not what Frazier considers to be the zenith of his professional career. Esteeming the law as a high calling for the benefit of the individual and society, Frazier points instead to his pro bono representation of Alabama death row inmate James Willie “Bo” Cochran. Cochran was wrongly convicted of killing a white man in Birmingham in 1976. Frazier led a team of colleagues at what was then Drinker Biddle & Reath, in Philadelphia—and remained on the case after joining Merck’s legal department in 1992.
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Against all odds, the son of a janitor from North Philadelphia earned degrees from Penn State University and Harvard Law School. He became a trial lawyer, then a corporate lawyer at one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. And then he became its chairman and chief executive officer—the first Black person to serve as CEO of a major pharmaceutical company. Those credentials alone would have more than justified former Merck & Co. CEO Kenneth Frazier’s selection as a recipient of The American Lawyer’s 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.
NEAL KATYAL
Marriott also helped secure a trial victory for Louis Dreyfus Company in September 2022, defeating the DOJ’s attempt to block the company’s sale of Imperial Sugar to U.S. Sugar—the first merger challenge brought under the Antitrust Division’s new chief and a rare agency loss in a horizontal merger case. In January 2022, Marriott represented five trusts created by the late Washington Post owner Katharine Graham in successful petitions challenging the constitutionality of a D.C. tax statute; secured a favorable settlement for Alcon in a seven-year dispute involving more than 50 putative class actions; and resolved litigation for Unilever challenging the sale of Ben & Jerry’s Israeli business interests. ■
Cravath, Swaine & Moore
By ALM Staff | Photo by Ryland West/ALM
Cravath swaine & Moore's David Marriott led DNA sequencing innovator Illumina to a rare trial win against the FTC before the commission’s own administrative law judge. The ALJ rejected the agency’s high-profile challenge to Illumina’s $8 billion acquisition of GRAIL. The first vertical merger challenge litigated by the FTC in over 40 years, the action was closely watched as a test case for the FTC’s approach under the Biden administration. As of the time of this writing, Illumina was still fighting to keep the deal alive, appealing an FTC reversal of the ALJ’s ruling as well as filing an appeal of the European Commission’s ruling that Illumina divest GRAIL. The case was the first merger challenge in which a defendant prevailed before the FTC’s ALJ and is a rare, if not unprecedented, instance of antitrust litigation involving primarily pre-commercial products. Marriott continues to represent Illumina on appeal to the Fifth Circuit. During the same time period, Marriott also argued and won a complete summary judgment victory for Viatris, defeating a securities class action related to the marketing, pricing and classification of EpiPen and alleged conduct concerning generic drug price fixing and market allocation. The decision represents one of the few resolutions of a federal securities fraud litigation at summary judgment entirely in favor of defendants.
Project, a pro bono group of lawyers representing defendants facing consecutive sentences mandated by Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section 924(c)—formed when Gleeson joined the firm in 2016. Section 924(c) mandates consecutive minimum sentences when a firearm is used in a violent crime. Before the First Step Act of 2018, second or successive convictions resulted in a mandatory consecutive sentence of 25 years. In the summer Gleeson joined Debevoise, firm leaders called an “all-hands-on-deck meeting” to discuss what lawyers at the firm could do about
“We may not believe this is an appropriate sentence for that particular person and for the conduct they might have been involved in,” Reeves continues. “We cannot impose illegal sentences, but we can express our disagreements for what we’re required to impose. Sometimes, these mandatory minimums and the way they have to be applied and the way they have to be stacked consecutive to other sentences, to many judges, become too much.” In 2014, Gleeson convinced then-U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch to vacate two of the three convictions against Holloway. Such were the origins of Debevoise & Plimpton’s Holloway
for the Eastern District of New York from 1994 to 2016. “Similar sentences rankled other judges the way it rankled me.” Judges are often compelled to impose sentences that run counter to their personal morality, says U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves of the Southern District of Mississippi and chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. “John is acutely aware of how the system affects everyday people,” says Reeves, who encountered Gleeson for the first time when Gleeson was appointed to the commission in 2022.
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From the moment Judge John Gleeson handed down a 57-year prison sentence to Francois Holloway, Gleeson says it “haunted” him. Holloway had been charged in 1995 with three counts of carjacking, using a gun during a violent crime and partaking in an illegal business. Prosecutors offered him a plea deal that would have seen him released in 11 years but Holloway faced an additional 46 because he insisted on a trial. “He got repaid with almost half a century in prison for exercising his constitutional right,” says Gleeson, who served on the U.S. District Court
DAVID MARRIOTT
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outcome was the company making a one-time payment in exchange for a release from future obligations. In another win for Honeywell, Primis led a successful effort in a precedential False Claims Act case in the D.C. Circuit. In a case that lasted 14 years, Craig persuaded the court to adopt a dollar-for-dollar setoff of common damages among defendants in multi-defendant FCA cases, establishing new law for all FCA cases and eliminating Honeywell’s exposure for statutory damages under the FCA. Among other wins in the last two years, Primis led Boeing’s defense of civil litigation stemming from the 737 MAX crashes, achieving dismissal of a class action brought by international airline pilots seeking lost wages, while leading the company’s defense of a securities class action after narrowing the case substantially on a successful motion to dismiss. ■
Kirkland & Ellis
From antitrust to high-stakes commercial cases, Kirkland’s Craig Primis was battling in court for a range of clients on a range of issues in the last two years. Among other matters, Craig led two trials in 2022 with billions at stake, won a precedentsetting D.C. Circuit appeal, and led Boeing’s defense of multiple class actions concerning Boeing’s 737 MAX. In a year when antitrust enforcement action is at a recent high, Primis led UnitedHealth’s trial defense of its $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare, fending off an attempt by the DOJ to block the merger. In a September 2022 order, the court rejected all of DOJ’s theories and allowed the merger to proceed. The decision was a blow to the administration’s goal of more aggressive enforcement. Primis also led a trial for Honeywell against the NARCO Asbestos Trust. In the world of asbestos bankruptcy trusts, Honeywell was a unique “evergreen” trust where the company paid out claims with no cap on total liability. Honeywell sued to seek changes to the administration of the trust, which the company argued was plagued from its creation. During the trial, the court agreed with Honeywell’s suggestion that the best
corporate governance practice group, recalls the study as “shocking,” spotlighting an issue she herself had faced throughout her career. “I’ve personally been in that situation where I’ve been the lead women lawyer and there’s 20 other lawyers on the case and they’re all white men,” Resnick said. “I think she made a point that had not been made before as eloquently as she and [co-researcher] Stephanie [Scharf] did … I think that promoted change.” Liebenberg has since continued her groundbreaking research with the help of Scharf, founder of the consulting firm the Red Bee Group.
Liebenberg & White, in 1992, departing in 2000 for her current firm, Fine, Kaplan & Black. “Law has always been sort of not only [my] craft but also an opportunity to make a difference in the world … law can be a very powerful tool and vehicle for social change,” Liebenberg says. Her experience participating in male-dominated courtrooms resonated with many female lawyers, especially when Liebenberg published a 2015 study examining the gender breakdown of lead attorneys on trials titled First Chairs at Trial. Stephanie Resnick, the co-chair of Fox Rothschild’s directors and officers liability and
“I opened the door and looked around and said, ‘Oh, this must be the conference of how to break through the glass ceiling,’” she joked. Graduating from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of law in 1975, Liebenberg has held a host of positions and leadership titles throughout her lengthy legal career. Starting as an associate at Hunton & Williams, she helped found the Metropolitan Richmond Women’s Bar Association before making partner at Philadelphia-based firm Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen. Liebenberg then went on to found the first all-women-owned law firm in Philadelphia, Mager,
Once a Maryland schoolteacher, Roberta Liebenberg rose to prominence in the antitrust community and she’s followed that success by dedicating her life to research and advocacy for gender equality in the legal profession and beyond. In her own opinion, Liebenberg views her visibility in the antitrust field as one of the main ways she has spurred change in her career. Playing a notable role as trial counsel for the plaintiff class in In re Urethane Antitrust Litigation, which secured a record settlement of over $1 billion for the plaintiffs, Liebenberg recalls “in that first status conference … it was just a sea of blue suits.”
CRAIG PRIMIS
Rosemary Alito
Neil Eggleston
Kenneth Frazier
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alleged corporate governance failures. Savitt persuaded the New York courts to dismiss the action, derailing the plaintiff-side campaign, with a half-dozen dismissals against other European companies following in its wake. Savitt also struck a blow on behalf of Amazon.com against the flood of books-and-records suits that now precede derivative litigation. Amazon fought back when plaintiffs claimed fiduciary breach arising from alleged antitrust violations. Savitt tried the case to verdict and won. In addition, Savitt obtained multiple federal-court 10(b)-5 dismissals for Raytheon Technologies; orchestrated settlements for Dell, Inc., Cardinal Health and L-Brands, and represented Brad Pitt and the winery Chateau Miraval in litigation arising from Angelina Jolie’s purported sale of the winery to vodka-maker Stoli. ■
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
By ALM Staff | Photo by Todd France
When Elon Musk threatened to back out of his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, stock prices tumbled and Twitter sprung into action, hiring Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz litigator William Savitt to save the deal. Savitt moved fast, filing an expedited case in the Delaware Court of Chancery, getting the case on a four-month trial track. He matched the multiple twists and turns of the case from Musk’s team and earned a string of pre-trial wins. After a very public back and forth, Musk ultimately moved forward with the deal under the initial terms, and Savitt secued billions of dollars for Twitter’s stockholders. While the Twitter litigation may have had the world’s attention, Savitt was busy on other big matters amid it all. Boardwalk Pipeline Partners was hit with a $700 million verdict—the largest class-action verdict in the history of Delaware law. Boardwalk hired Savitt for the appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court. Notwithstanding the deferential standard of review and the trial court’s extensive adverse findings of fact, the Supreme Court agreed with Savitt and reversed, eliminating the record-setting liability. Bayer AG was the first target in a string of suits against European companies, aimed at suing them in U.S. courts for
Rakoff suggested they sit down at the typewriter and at least do an outline. Naftalis said it was late, and suggested that Rakoff go home. So he did. Rakoff found out later that Naftalis didn’t start working on the summation until 2 a.m., seven hours before his presentation. “The next morning, off the top of his head and without a single note, he gave one of the greatest summations I have ever heard at any point in my career,” Rakoff remembers. “It was brilliant. There are not even a handful of lawyers that could have pulled that off. And he [Tramunti] was convicted.”
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Naftalis and Rakoff met when the latter joined the SDNY offices in 1972. The trial, featuring Lucchese crime family associate Carmine Tramunti, was about to conclude when the judge asked both sides to have closing arguments ready the next morning. “I thought we were going to go back and plan the closing argument,” Rakoff recounts. “But Gary said it was late in the afternoon, let’s get some dinner. Around 7:30, he says he wants to call Jay Goldberg [defense lawyer for Tramunti] and feel him out as to what he will say. The call lasted two full hours. Both are cagey, smart guys, and both were trying to figure the other one out.”
And he did it, as Mary Jo White of Debevoise & Plimpton, another generational litigator, says, with a set of tools not often found in one box. “He does everything extremely well,” she notes. “And he cares about people. He is a thought leader in the profession. He is a true trial lawyer, a counselor to lords and executives. And smart as they come by a significant margin.” That intellect was on display during a mafia trial Naftalis was involved in while at SDNY. He was working with another SDNY prosecutor, one by the name of Jed Rakoff, who would later become a lifelong friend and federal judge.
There isn’t a whole lot that Gary Naftalis, now 81, hasn’t accomplished in his legal career. He was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He tried mob cases in the 1970s with Robert Morgenthau. He defended Michael Eisner (successfully) in a landmark shareholder derivative suit. He has his name on the shingle of a prominent Big Law firm. When it came to “bet the company” litigation in the securities industry, Naftalis was (and some say still is) the man to go to. He was and is actively involved in the pro bono program at his longtime home of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. Over 50 years of practicing law, Naftalis has seen, and done, if not “all of it,” then “most of it.”
WILLIAM SAVITT
was seeking over $125 million in damages from injuries that occurred during “extreme workouts” during his time at the university. The case could have posed a major threat in the NCAA’s position in college sports, potentially putting the organization at risk for liability for every injury at every university that occurred at every practice or workout across the country. After a four-week long trial, the jury found the NCAA did not cause the injuries of this player. During these difficult cases, Stute went above and beyond to protect his client from being sued for what would have been well over $200 million in damages. ■
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
By ALM Staff
As a nationally recognized trial lawyer, Will Stute has obtained numerous wins during his career. But in the last year alone, his record for client the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was particularly noteworthy. With tens of millions of dollars at stake for the NCAA during each trial and their business model and reputation on the line, Stute succeeded in beating multiple claims involving sportsrelated injuries. In the case Gee v. NCAA, which was the first trial in the nation that involved claims that the NCAA was responsible for concussion-related consequences from playing football in college, Stute and the NCAA were able to prove that the former football star’s medical condition and death later in life could not be linked to actions the organization could have taken. The jury handed up a complete defense win. This case set a precedent for hundreds of cases like it that were pending in the country. Then in a similar case just a few months later, Finnerty v. NCAA, Stute secured another complete defense verdict, this time for the second concussion case to reach trial in the nation, which involved a star quarterback from the early 2000s. Prior to these two cases, Stute and his team also secured a high-profile win for the NCAA in Brenner v. NCAA. This case from May 2022 was brought by a former football player who
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WILL STUTE
get to the merits, and that clients, like Credit Suisse, who have both confidence in their position and the determination to defend, can win.” Washer represented Credit Suisse in another case alleging the bank provided financing to Russian Oligarchs and attempted to hide evidence of that fact. Washer employed a defense that led to dismissal of the case even before a motion to dismiss was filed, arguing the lead plaintiff was not qualified to represent the class given his limited financial interest. Washer also achieved numerous other litigation victories in 2022, obtaining dismissals in a shareholder derivative action, various lawsuits brought against the underwriters of Chinese issuers, a securities class action involving alleged manipulation of an exchange traded note issued by Credit Suisse, lawsuits involving alleged manipulation of U.S. Treasuries and the ICE LIBOR benchmark, among others. ■
Cahill, Gordon & Reindel
In October 2022, Herbert washer, co-chair of Cahill, Gordon & Reindel’s executive committee and chair of its litigation department, led a trial team that secured a landmark jury trial victory for Credit Suisse in connection with a case alleging it and 15 other banks had violated federal antitrust laws by fixing prices in the $5 trillion-per-day foreign exchange currency market. The other 15 banks settled, collectively paying $2.3 billion, which plaintiffs said represented the third largest antitrust class action settlement in history. But Washer and Credit Suisse decided to take their chances at trial. It was an uphill battle to be sure. Working against Washer was: a certified class, a stack of guilty pleas from other banks and traders who admitted to wrongdoing, another stack of traders set to plead the Fifth when questioned about what they did, and reams of chatroom transcripts with seemingly incriminating communications. While class actions against banks rarely go to trial, Washer had said of the victory, “I’m hopeful that the outcome here demonstrates that these cases can be tried, that juries are capable of looking beyond the headlines and personalities to
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HERBERT WASHER
