Latham & Watkins thinks of its Washington litigation department as a finely tuned auto-racing team, with a number of highly experienced litigators capable of grabbing the wheel to navigate high-stakes cases in venues across the country.

"Our department is hitting on all cylinders, and we're proud of the number of cylinders — white-collar, antitrust, appellate, general commercial, regulatory," said Everett (Kip) Johnson Jr., a co-chairman of the litigation department in Washington. "We're thriving in all of those areas."