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One discussion that seemed to be under-discussed this year was top litigation-focused firms. All the big firms have huge litigation practices, but there are a good number of firms that almost exclusively do litigation defense. I jotted down some below I've heard of. Any I missed?

Bartlit Beck
Boies Schiller
Horvitz & Levy
Irell Manella
Kasowitz Benson
Keker & Van Nest
Kellogg Huber
Lankler Siffert
Munger Tolles
Quinn Emanuel
Robbins Russell
Susman Godfrey
Williams & Connolly

LawIdiot86 wrote:One discussion that seemed to be under-discussed this year was top litigation-focused firms. All the big firms have huge litigation practices, but there are a good number of firms that almost exclusively do litigation defense. I jotted down some below I've heard of. Any I missed?

Bartlit Beck
Boies Schiller
Horvitz & Levy
Irell Manella
Kasowitz Benson
Keker & Van Nest
Kellogg Huber
Lankler Siffert
Munger Tolles
Quinn Emanuel
Robbins Russell
Susman Godfrey
Williams & Connolly

I was interested in this was well and started a topic, it might be mildly useful: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=177086

LawIdiot86 wrote:One discussion that seemed to be under-discussed this year was top litigation-focused firms. All the big firms have huge litigation practices, but there are a good number of firms that almost exclusively do litigation defense. I jotted down some below I've heard of. Any I missed?

Bartlit Beck
Boies Schiller
Horvitz & Levy
Irell Manella
Kasowitz Benson
Keker & Van Nest
Kellogg Huber
Lankler Siffert
Munger Tolles
Quinn Emanuel
Robbins Russell
Susman Godfrey
Williams & Connolly

Four of those firms have non-litigation practice groups, and a few of them do mostly plaintiffs work and not "litigation defense."

Fresh Prince wrote:

LawIdiot86 wrote:One discussion that seemed to be under-discussed this year was top litigation-focused firms. All the big firms have huge litigation practices, but there are a good number of firms that almost exclusively do litigation defense. I jotted down some below I've heard of. Any I missed?

Bartlit Beck
Boies Schiller
Horvitz & Levy
Irell Manella
Kasowitz Benson
Keker & Van Nest
Kellogg Huber
Lankler Siffert
Munger Tolles
Quinn Emanuel
Robbins Russell
Susman Godfrey
Williams & Connolly

Four of those firms have non-litigation practice groups, and a few of them do mostly plaintiffs work and not "litigation defense."

Good to know. Could you break it out for those of us less informed?

LawIdiot86 wrote:

Fresh Prince wrote: Four of those firms have non-litigation practice groups, and a few of them do mostly plaintiffs work and not "litigation defense."

Good to know. Could you break it out for those of us less informed?

Here's my crack, but I haven't been focusing on this too much lately.

I'm somewhat sure that Susman is the only plaintiffs-heavy firm on the list. Quinn is famous for doing a good chunk of plaintiffs work, but it isn't their bread and butter. I know Munger and Irell both have transactional groups; Munger's is pretty much focused on Berkshire Hathaway, but Irell's transactional group is pretty diverse, just not as well-known as its litigation (which is made famous by its IP litigators, namely Morgan Chu). W&C also does transactional. Pretty dang sure Keker does a good deal of defense work, they're just small. Don't know quite as much about the East Coast firms like Kasowitz.

All the firms on this list, from what I know, have very stringent hiring standards. In reality it's kind of a silly list, which if I didn't have context, I'd guess was made to epitomize the small/boutique-ish firms that have famous litigation practices. Quinn doesn't really have a place on this list anymore - they kick ass, but it's unequivocally biglaw now. It probably makes sense to put PW and Kirkland on this list.

I'm somewhat sure that Susman is the only plaintiffs-heavy firm on the list. Quinn is famous for doing a good chunk of plaintiffs work, but it isn't their bread and butter. I know Munger and Irell both have transactional groups; Munger's is pretty much focused on Berkshire Hathaway, but Irell's transactional group is pretty diverse, just not as well-known as its litigation (which is made famous by its IP litigators, namely Morgan Chu). W&C also does transactional. Pretty dang sure Keker does a good deal of defense work, they're just small. Don't know quite as much about the East Coast firms like Kasowitz.

Boies and Kellogg Huber do plaintiff's work as well. One of the main attractions of the litigation boutique model is that you're not conflicted out of plaintiffs work by your transactional group.

But I agree, this really isn't a cohesive list.

Boies Schiller also as a corporate department.

Bartlit Beck and W&C also have corporate departments.

Firms with "huge" litigation practices:
Cravath
Skadden
Kirkland
Covington
Paul Weiss
Gibson Dunn
Quinn Emanuel


Firms with "strong" litigation practices:
Cravath
Skadden
Kirkland
Covington
Paul Weiss
Gibson Dunn
Quinn Emanuel
Boies Schiller
Susman Godfrey
Keker & Van Nest
Bartlit Beck
Kasowitz Benson
Patterson Belknap
Munger Tolles
Williams & Connolly

Firms with "huge" IP litigation practices:
Kirkland
Quinn
WilmerHale
Irell & Manella
Morrison & Foerster
Fish & Richardson

Firms with "strong" IP litigation practices:
Kirkland
Quinn
WilmerHale
Irell & Manella
Morrison & Foerster
Finnigan
Fitzpatrick
Knobbe
Keker & Van Nest

The Robins Russel, Kellog Huber, etc. sort of places strike me as appellate litigation boutiques. They don't do the same work a litigation firm does.

Agree with post above - just would add a few to the IP litigation list: Kilpatrick Stockton, Perkins Coie, Kenyon & Kenyon.