Arnold & Porter LLP's business litigation group is composed of more than 300 lawyers nationwide. We try cases—more than 20 a year—before judges and juries in federal and state courts from coast-to-coast, and in US and international arbitral forums. We represent both public and private companies as well as international sovereigns in contract disputes, business torts, product liability and mass torts, class action defenses, and all manner of bet-the-company litigation. We have won and defended against claims for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Our business litigators work closely with the firm's regulatory lawyers and industry experts to offer our clients substantive advice. We have experience litigating cases involving virtually every industry and profession, including financial services, accounting, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, telecommunications, manufacturing, and computer sciences. We have defended scores of class action litigations involving consumer protection/false advertising, antitrust, product liability, intellectual property, securities, distributor disputes, and environmental and toxic tort claims.
Our business litigation clients are some of the leading corporations in the world: General Electric, Honeywell, Wyeth, Monsanto, ARCO/BP, Philip Morris, VISA, GlaxoSmithKline, GEICO, Roche, Bank of America, VeriSign, Kmart, and many others.
Although our business litigation lawyers are always prepared to take a case to trial, we aggressively seek solutions short of trial. We know that in many cases the best outcome is a consensual resolution, and we routinely negotiate favorable settlements for our clients. We also have significant experience in alternative dispute resolution methods, such as mediation and arbitration.
Significant recent matters:
- We won a US$401.5-million award in a breach of contract action against the United States on behalf of our client Keystone Holdings Partners, LP and its principal investor, Robert M. Bass.
- We won more than US$130 million on behalf of three clients, including SunTrust Bank, after winning three separate trials for breach of contract against the United States government.
- We won jury verdicts in the cases of four individuals who claimed personal injuries from taking prescription appetite suppressants sold by our client, Wyeth.