Latham Named Law360 White Collar Group of the Year

Law360 has named Latham & Watkins a White Collar Group of the Year as part of the publication’s 2021 Practice Groups of the Year awards, which recognize “the attorney teams behind litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.”

In particular, Law360’s feature article honored Latham for securing an almost unheard-of complete defense verdict for former CEO and co-founder of Power Solutions, Inc., Gary Winemaster in a 14-count federal criminal action. On the rarity of the case, Complex Commercial Litigation Practice Global Chair, Sean Berkowitz, told Law360, “any time a CEO gets charged in a criminal case, the odds are usually stacked against them because the government gets to choose the cases they bring and has the power to subpoena witnesses and strike deals with them."

The publication highlighted Latham’s successful representation of Taiwanese technology manufacturer United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC). As the flagship of the US Government’s “China Initiative” targeting trade secrets theft from China, UMC was charged by the DOJ with theft of trade secrets, economic espionage, and conspiracy, in a case the US Attorney General said could be worth tens of billions of dollars. The Latham team dismantled the government’s case to the point where UMC pleaded to a single count of possession of a stolen trade secret and agreed to a nominal fine. Partner Leslie Caldwell spoke to Law360 about the case saying, "we assembled a cross-border team in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and, the US, rolled up our sleeves, learned the company and interviewed tons of people" and that once they looked closely at it, “a lot of [the] evidence fell away", and “it became clear to us that the DOJ's indictment was highly overstated."

Law360 also recognized Latham’s efforts securing a tremendous resolution for General Electric by settling a three-year-long investigation by the SEC into GE’s US$150 billion market-cap loss upon its announcement of weakness in its power business followed by a US$15 billion reserve charge in its insurance business. On the successful result, Global Chair of the White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice Doug Greenburg, said it “underscored the rigor we bring to the investigative process" adding that, "what turns the tide on the matters and leads to the best resolutions for clients is that diligent analysis and intense focus on the details, and we bring that intense effort to everything we do."