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Editor's Selections from the Legal 500 United States...
FINANCE: Corporate restructuring
Given the counter-cyclical nature of corporate restructuring work, the recent credit crunch has led to an increase in the volume of work handled by lawyers in this area of law. Although Chapter 11 filings are now occurring with increased regularity and across almost all industries, the expected glut of bankruptcies was, however, a considerable time in coming. Indeed, the tail-end of 2007 and the first few months of 2008 were relatively quiet for corporate restructuring lawyers. While the sub-prime induced credit crunch had already taken hold of the economy, this took time to filter through to corporate balance sheets. Apart from a continuation of instructions on ongoing bankruptcies, a good deal of work handled by firms in this period related to counseling and advisory work about the potential trouble that lay ahead. Read more...
INVESTMENT FUNDS: Alternative/hedge funds
Responsiveness, sophistication and full-service capability are key demands in the hedge fund and alternative investment product space, and it is these yardsticks by which the best law firms in the sector are measured. Firms are ranked based on the comprehensiveness of their capabilities in representing funds, funds-of-funds, fund managers, underwriters, advisors, sponsors or investors in relation to the financing, structuring, transactions and ongoing counseling that form part of the fund lifecycle. There is room in the rankings for more narrowly focused practices of exceptional quality, and also for practices that turn over large volumes of work to a high standard and in good time.Read more...
MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS AND BUYOUTS: Antitrust
It has been an interesting period for antitrust lawyers in the US. On the transactional side, although merger activity has, on the whole, diminished as a consequence of the downturn in the economy and the unavailability of cheap credit, consolidation within the banking industry has brought about some challenging work for competition lawyers. Read more...
LITIGATION: Securities: shareholder litigation
Fuelled by the recent subprime mortgage crisis and greater volatility in the stock markets, securities class actions in 2008 were at their highest level since 2004. According to the annual report by the Stanford Law School and Cornerstone Research, a total of 210 federal securities class actions were filed in 2008, almost half of which involved firms in the financial services sector. Read more...
LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT: Labor and employment litigation
The onslaught of wage and hour litigation continues unabated, although as the first wave passes, the focus has turned to cases of greater complexity or those relating to specific industries such as pharmaceuticals or construction. The most recent trend has been the spate of lawsuits alleging that pharmaceutical sales representatives have been misclassified as exempt from overtime requirements, which is a prime example of the new issues arising as claims are brought not by restaurant or retail workers but by highly-paid professionals. Read more...
LITIGATION: Product liability and mass tort defense
This section discusses the leading US law firms and attorneys in product liability, mass tort and class action defense divided by broad industry area. The law firms ranked in each subsection are considered to be the elite in that practice area, particularly in terms of ability to deliver oversight of complex multi-district litigation (MDL) and depth of first-chair talent for major trials. In several cases, firms are ranked in more than one subsection, indicating breadth of capability. Read more...
FINANCE: Bank lending
Triggered by the subprime crisis, banks saddled with highly toxic mortgage securities have been forced into massive writedowns. Confidence was shattered and inter-bank lending ground to a halt, as banks were overcome with paranoia over each other’s exposure to these assets. With financial institutions rationing capital as they set to shore up their own debilitated balance sheets, liquidity dried up, making it difficult for even fundamentally sound businesses to secure funding, let alone ones with a more precarious credit history. Read more...
MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS AND BUYOUTS: Mega-deals
While the leveraged buyout market lies dormant and private equity firms sit on pools of equity, strategic buyers who are cash-rich find themselves in a strong position compared to their peers, and can look for the opportunity to consolidate. This is not to say that their peers necessarily like it - sellers’ expectations have not quite kept up with the havoc wreaked upon their share prices by the economic crisis, and lawyers say that more and more hostile bids are being made, even in industries where it was thought impossible. On the flipside, there is a lot more work for firms preparing companies’ defenses, with the ‘poison pill’ back in vogue and other strategies being employed to protect clients’ interests. The firms that are most valued are those that have the experience on both sides of transactions, with lawyers who are up to the minute on the latest market conditions, and who have the gravitas to give straight advice or negotiate with the high-caliber lawyers on the other side. Read more...
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: Patent litigation
Firms listed in this chapter handle patent litigation in US district, federal and supreme courts, as well as before the International Trade Commission (ITC) and bring interference matters before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Read more...
LITIGATION: White-collar criminal defense
White-collar criminal defense and SEC enforcement has increased since the economic downturn. Many firms have reinforced their East Coast presence due to an upsurge in multiple investigations into collapsed financial and lending institutions.
The role of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in white-collar cases also continues to inflate due to an increase in FCPA investigation - linked to a government crackdown - into oil, pharmaceutical and wireless communication companies located in developing countries. Multinational corporations are also progressively keen to conduct internal investigations into their international operations.Read more...