O’Melveny Takes Top Honors in National Law Journal’s “DC Litigation Departments of the Year”
May 31, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON, DC—May 31, 2019—O’Melveny won the National Law Journal’s “DC Litigation Departments of the Year” contest, which recognizes excellence across a wide range of litigation categories. The firm took top honors in the “General Litigation” category.
“O’Melveny & Myers once again proved its mettle as a litigation machine in 2018, as the firm scored clean wins for top-billing clients in cases that could shape the business industry,” the NLJ observed.
The publication cited O’Melveny’s win for AT&T and Time Warner in “the antitrust trial of the century,” defeating an attempt by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division to block the US$85.4 billion merger between the telecom and media giants.
The “two companies brought on O’Melveny partner Daniel Petrocelli to lead the pack of lawyers and firms defending the deal in a grueling six-week trial in Washington,” the NLJ reported.
“I learned a long time ago to put blinders on, and to stay focused,” Petrocelli told the publication, describing the legal issues in the case as “straightforward.”
As the NLJ noted, that approach paid off: after a six-week trial, US District Judge Richard Leon rejected the government’s request for an injunction and permitted the landmark merger to close.
The publication also singled out the firm’s work for Samsung in defeating antitrust claims seeking more than US$1 billion in actual damages—and US$3 billion in treble damages—in multidistrict litigation. The litigation alleged the company was part of a conspiracy to fix prices of optical disk drives, a key component for reading and writing data on CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs.
“The theory is they colluded to have x be the result. Let’s see if x actually happened,” Ian Simmons, partner and co-chair of the O’Melveny’s Antitrust and Competition Practice, told the NLJ, describing the firm’s argument in the case. “That’s what we did. We showed the judge, we didn’t just tell him.”
The victory, coming on the eve of trial, saved Samsung hundreds of millions of dollars in a settlement or a potential nine-figure jury verdict.
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Contact:
Christopher Rieck
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
+1 212 326 2218
crieck@omm.com