Drumroll, please. After a five-month-long process of reviewing firms’ detailed written submissions (looking at their best litigation results from August 2011 through July 2013), extensive vetting sessions with clients and cocounsel and, ultimately, in-person interviews with our finalist firms at our New York office, The American Lawyer is delighted to announce the winners of our seventh Litigation Department of the Year competition. We are also pleased to unveil the winners of our three practice group contests (intellectual property, securities and antitrust) and our six Litigators of the Year.
• Debevoise & Plimpton won the general litigation competition, which had a hefty 62 entries from The Am Law 200. The Debevoise litigators are like the Army Rangers—a small but elite group that works seamlessly and handles the most challenging cases. Over the contest time period, they produced two $25 billion results, nailed two trial defense wins worth $3.5 billion each and secured the biggest investor-state award in arbitration history ($2.3 billion), as senior international correspondent Michael D. Goldhaber eloquently points out. General litigation finalists were Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Covington & Burling, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, O’Melveny & Myers and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. We also awarded 10 firms honorable mentions for their stellar work during this period.
