Latham Honored by the New York Law Journal for Litigation Dominance and Diversity Leadership
Latham & Watkins has won the New York Law Journal’s Litigation Department of the Year award in the General Litigation category as part of the New York Legal Awards, which are presented annually, and two partners have received individual recognitions — antitrust litigator Katherine Rocco, named a rising star, and banking partner and Global Recruiting Committee Chair Michèle Penzer, honored for her leadership on diversity initiatives.
Nearly 200 of the more than 1,000 lawyers in Latham’s global Litigation & Trial Department are based in the New York office, and the elite team is known for delivering high-profile victories for clients across industries, geographies, practice areas, and specialties. The Litigation Department of the Year award recognizes Latham’s unmatched record of success in complex matters that were led by New York-based litigators — including the successful defense of Oracle Chairman, CTO, and cofounder Larry Ellison and CEO Safra Catz in one of the largest acquisitions to face a stockholder challenge; securing a headline-making complete acquittal in a high-profile federal criminal jury trial over an alleged false statement to the FBI during the 2016 presidential election; representing Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals in a cross-border chapter 11 restructuring at the intersection of mass tort, antitrust, and bankruptcy law; successfully extracting an individual from a high-profile criminal antitrust case that alleged 10 poultry executives were involved in price fixing and bid-rigging; securing a rare complete defense verdict for Cantor Fitzgerald under Delaware’s exacting entire fairness standard; beating a derivative challenge to BGC Partners’ US$875 million acquisition of Berkeley Point Financial; significant victories on behalf of the at-home fitness brand Peloton; a headline-making global settlement for J&J Surgical Vision in its global patent and copyright infringement dispute against Alcon over competing laser eye-surgery technology; successfully defending BitMEX co-founder and former CTO Sam Reed in a high-profile cryptocurrency enforcement matter, among other notable victories.
“Our unmatched breadth is our strength,” said Jeff Hammel, Co-Chair of the firm’s New York Litigation & Trial Department. “It’s tremendously rewarding to know that this hallmark of our team shines in the market locally; that rather than excelling with a few strong subject matters or top trial stars, our New York litigation department features practices across the board that could be elite law firms in their own right. Within each case as well, Latham’s breadth of experience means clients benefit from a combination of trial-ready litigators, appellate-writing masters, and subject-matter stars – with further support provided from our award-winning tax, corporate, and restructuring practices when needed. That unique ability to combine skills and experience from such a wide range of practices is unmatched in the litigation world, and gives our clients a unique advantage in their highest-stakes and most complex cases.”
Rocco, a member of the Global Antitrust & Competition Practice and Co-Chair of Latham’s New York Litigation & Trial Department, is among a select group of rising stars recognized as emerging leaders in the New York legal community. A litigator with a unique practice spanning the spectrum of civil, criminal and merger work, Rocco regularly leads clients through their most complex antitrust matters, including by securing clearances from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for high-stakes mergers, and defending companies in a wide range of antitrust litigations, investigations, and cartel matters.
Penzer was named a Diversity Initiative Award winner for spearheading the firm’s leading role in The Yale Law School Launchpad Scholars Program, powered by Latham & Watkins, an innovative program that helps members of underrepresented communities navigate the law school application and admission process from start to finish. A Yale Law School alumna, and member of the Banking Practice, Penzer is the former New York Office Managing Partner and currently serves as Global Chair of the Recruiting Committee, through which the program with Yale Law School was forged.
The New York Legal Awards will be presented on October 4 at a ceremony in New York.