The LIBOR scandal, massive securities class actions against the big banks, billion-dollar patent wins, eye-popping arbitration awards. While the U.S. economy was struggling to return to health over the last two years, big-ticket litigation was clearly a countercyclical buffer. As the financial meltdown turned from headlines in the press to captions on docket sheets, the litigators at The Am Law 200 were front and center. In their lengthy, detailed submissions to us for 2014 Litigation Department of the Year and our three practice areas honors, we were delighted to see how diverse and cutting-edge the firms’ results were over our time frame (August 2011 through July 2013). To draw attention to these efforts, we changed our practice group competitions: We added securities and antitrust along with our traditional, highly competitive IP category. After months of reading the submissions, vetting the firms, and interviewing the finalists at our New York office, we arrived at four winners, 13 runners-up, 10 honorable mentions and six Litigators of the Year. Congratulations to everyone who won, and our sincere thanks to every firm that participated in our contest. —Robin Sparkman
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