The Legal 500

Within Product liability and mass tort defense: aerospace/aviation, Perkins Coie LLP is a first tier firm,

Perkins Coie LLP’s ‘very strong’ practice has a long-established reputation as a premier player in the aviation field handling ‘high-profile, high-exposure work’, and has been a key provider of legal services to Boeing for more than a century. Said to be ‘one of the best for aviation litigation’, the firm primarily represents manufacturers of aircraft and components for civilian and military aircraft and satellites, although it also represents insurer Global Aerospace. The firm’s primary base in Seattle is supplemented by additional resources in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC. Practice chair John Dillow is a key figure in the market and he continues to represent Boeing in litigation arising from the September 2005 crash of Mandala Airlines Flight 091, a Boeing 737-200 aircraft, on takeoff from Medan in Indonesia. The lawsuits were originally filed and consolidated in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and were later re-filed in Indonesia, the first time that such a case has been tried in the country. The firm represents Boeing extensively, including serving as its worldwide helicopter crash counsel; the ‘phenomenal’ Steve Bell is regarded as one of the country’s foremost experts for cases involving helicopters. Joe Silvernale recently obtained a victory for Jeppesen – which specializes in aeronautical charting and navigation services, flight planning, pilot supplies and aviation training – in In re Comair Flight 5191. Other clients include aerials manufacturer Genie Industries, turboprop manufacturer Precision, and helicopter engine producer Turbomeca. V Woolston and Christian Moller, together with Bellevue-based Clark Nichols and Bruce Campbell, are very highly rated. Clients also recommend Thomas McLaughlin and David Biderman, who commutes between Los Angeles and San Francisco. All of the recommended partners are based in Seattle, except where noted.

Within M&A: middle-market (sub-$500m), Perkins Coie LLP is a second tier firm,

With nearly 100 M&A attorneys working from 17 offices across the US and in China, Perkins Coie LLP represents public and private companies in a full range of domestic and cross-border transactions, including strategic acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts and going-private transactions. The practice is especially noted for its advice to the media, energy and telecommunication industries, and advises emerging growth companies in their exit sales to strategic buyers. Representative experience includes acting on the sale of TicketsNow, the world’s largest online inventory of secondary market tickets, to Ticketmaster for approximately $300m, and serving as corporate counsel to TechCrunch, a leading online technology media property, in its acquisition by AOL. Seattle-based Stewart Landefeld, who chairs the firm’s business practice, is ‘one smart attorney’.