The Legal 500

Within Product liability and mass tort defense: pharmaceuticals and medical devices, Williams & Connolly LLP is a first tier firm,

Washington DC-based Williams & Connolly LLP is ‘a terrific firm for product liability’. This ‘outstanding’ practice spent many years acting for Wyeth in high-profile litigation and retained the relationship following Wyeth’s acquisition by Pfizer. The group acted for Prempro HRT litigation and has been appointed as Pfizer’s co-national counsel for litigation concerning Chantix smoking cessation aid. Operating from one office, the firm routinely works alongside local counsel, making it an ideal partner as part of complex litigation, where it can bring to bear its top-tier trial talents, strategic skills and organizational ability, along with appellate expertise. For example, the group played a significant role as one of Merck & Co’s national coordinating co-counsel in the Vioxx MDL. It is also part of the trial counsel for AstraZeneca’s Seroquel litigation, including a recent cost recovery action by Kentucky’s attorney general. Bayer has also been a notable source of mandates, for example on the Yaz/Yasmin and Baycol litigation. Clients recommend Douglas Marvin as a top strategist and manager of multi-firm litigation teams, and Stephen Urbanczyk as a strategist with strong writing skills and an ability to build a rapport with juries. John Vardaman, Heidi Hubbard, F Lane Heard and Richard Cooper are also prominent team members.

Within Supreme Court and appellate, Williams & Connolly LLP is a third tier firm,

Williams & Connolly LLP is a Washington DC-based firm with an excellent reputation across most areas of litigation, and its US Supreme Court and appellate team is a core component in this, allowing it to take cases throughout the court system from beginning to end. The ‘up-and-coming’ Kannon Shanmugan is a former assistant to the solicitor general who receives good reviews from clients and peers alike. Shanmugan’s arrival in 2009 represented the first time the firm had laterally recruited a partner in 22 years. Since then, the team has been involved in several major cases argued before the US Supreme Court, including Merck & Co v Reynolds and Textron v US.

Within White-collar criminal defense , Williams & Connolly LLP is a third tier firm,

White-collar work has long been a staple of Washington DC-headquartered litigation boutique Williams & Connolly LLP’s workload. As one might expect coming from a firm with a litigation background, the team has a trial-ready approach and excels at handling high-stakes matters for corporates and individuals. Although it may not have the same focus on representing corporations as some of its peers – partly as a consequence of the absence of a significant corporate department through which it is fed work – it has handled a tremendous volume and variety of cases (many of which have resulted in a final trial) for high-ranking executives and political figures. Recent high-profile victories included securing the reversal of former Alaska senator Ted Stevens’ corruption conviction, having uncovered government misconduct in the prosecution. Without peer for his representation of high-ranking political figures charged with impropriety, ‘dean of the white-collar bar’ Brendan Sullivan led on this matter and is one of a slew of ‘highly impressive trial lawyers’ within the group. Dane Butswinkas is a name that has been gaining particularly impressive reviews for his work representing executives within the financial services industry; notably recently achieving the acquittal of former Bear Stearns hedge-fund manager Ralph Cioffi in a securities-fraud case. While the firm is more aligned to handling individual representations, it is by no means without corporate representations, and particularly within the FCPA sphere is active for companies from a broad range of industries in internal and external investigations into potential abuses, in addition to advisory work relating to compliance issues. It is currently representing a Fortune 500 corporate in an ongoing internal investigation and DOJ/SEC investigation involving possible payments to government officials in multiple countries related to foreign VAT tax refunds. As part of his broad-ranging practice, David Zinn handles FCPA matters, John Villa is ‘excellent at handling financial services-related matters’, while the ‘highly experienced’ William McDaniels is also recommended across a broad spread of white-collar matters including bank and healthcare fraud, and money laundering offences.