The biggest challenge faced by Litigation Department of the Year judges, especially with New York firms, is to evaluate billion-dollar settlements. How can we tell which side came out best? In case after case, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison made the job easy.
Paul Weiss’ signature victory in the period was to preserve the balance of power in the regulatory state. In SEC v. Citigroup Global Markets, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff had rejected Citi’s $285 million subprime settlement as “pocket change” and challenged the very concept of a “no admit, no deny” plea. As soon as Paul Weiss managing partner Brad Karp persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reverse in June 2014, courts stopped demanding that a company had to admit wrongdoing before the court could approve a consent decree.
