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McDermott Will & Schulte

McDermott Will & Schulte

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United States • Dispute resolution

1

General commercial disputes – mid-market ($250-500m)

McDermott Will & Schulte harnesses its ‘outstanding talent pool’ in delivering litigation services to businesses across healthcare, financial services, technology, transportation, and energy. The practice is managed globally from New York by Joshua Simon, who leads complex commercial litigation and class actions involving breach of contract, RICO, and other business torts. In Los Angeles, Jason Strabo co-heads the practice and steers securities class actions and crypto/NFT-related disputes, while Matthew Madden co-leads from Chicago, with strength in bet-the-company commercial litigation and antitrust disputes. In New York, co-leads William Gussman and Andrew Kratenstein anchor the firm’s deep bench in financial services and investment management disputes. The management group is completed by Dallas’ Richard Salgado, who focuses on trade secrets, toxic tort, and antitrust cases. The department also benefits from the expertise of Chicago’s Daniel Campbell, who handles disputes involving government contracting, product liability, and bankruptcy litigation; New York’s John Calandra, whose skillset is geared towards breach of fiduciary duty and negligent misrepresentation; and LA’s Jonathan Hawkswell, always ’reachable and flexible’ in his handling of privacy, cyber and technology-related disputes. Seth Friedman departed the team in January 2026.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Accolades

Client satisfaction: Lawyer & team quality
Client satisfaction: Billing & efficiency
Client satisfaction: Sector knowledge
Client satisfaction: NPS ®

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The firm has an outstanding talent pool, with all of the sophistication of a large law firm, but with common sense and a pragmatic and down-to-earth sensibility.’

  • ‘Daniel Campbell is one of the best lawyers I have ever encountered. He is smart, gifted, honest, hardworking, and an outstanding advocate.’

  • ‘MWS' value-based approach to commercial disputes is what sets it apart. Understanding the end goal up front and being able to reasonably predict the costs to get there helps drive value for the effort.’

  • ‘Dan Campbell is a first-rate commercial dispute and litigation attorney. We greatly enjoy working with Dan and MWS (which can draw on attorneys with expertise in most any field).’

  • ‘John Calandra leads a deep team of talented lawyers who have the capacity to handle a wide variety of disputes.’

  • ‘John Calandra is a smart, experienced and innovative attorney. He is creative and finds arguments that other litigators do not find. He is very personable and communicates well with mediators and judges.’

Key clients

  • BDO USA, P.C.
  • Blue Ocean Technologies, LLC
  • BrightSpire Capital, Inc.
  • Cerberus Capital Management
  • Cigna
  • DaVita, Inc.
  • Dental Experts, LLC
  • Erindale Holdings, LLC, Erindale Energy, LLC and Highway 233 Solar, LLC
  • Garner Environmental Services, Inc.
  • Genesis Block Ltd. et al.
  • Hamburg Commercial Bank AG
  • Halliburton

Work highlights

Advising MedImpact Health Systems, Inc. on a multi-district antitrust class action alleging price-fixing and collusion.
Advising Metra, one of the largest commuter rail operators in the US, on a high-profile federal lawsuit against Union Pacific alleging breach of contract and antitrust violations related to rail line usage compensation.
Representing hedge funds Maltese Capital Management, LLC and Patriot Financial Partners, LP in a high-profile dispute and related Minnesota AG investigation over the sale of a stake in Bremer Financial, Minnesota’s second-largest bank. This is a high stakes matter involving complex corporate governance and fiduciary disputes between a charitable foundation and the bank’s board.
Practice head

Joshua Simon; Jason Strabo; Matthew Madden; William Gussman; Andrew Kratenstein; Richard Salgado

Other key lawyers

Matthew Knowles; Tom Ryan; Jeffrey Stone; Julia Beskin; David Genender; David Gacioch; Robert Griffin; Marina Stefanova Kelly; Frank Olander; Tala Jayadevan; James Grossman; Jon Hawk; John Calandra