What are some of the department’s most satisfying successes of the past year and why? Willkie has achieved a number of precedent-setting victories across a wide spectrum of legal issues in courts around the country involving securities litigation, corporate and municipal bankruptcies, derivative litigation, and insurance disputes. Among them was Willkie’s multibillion dollar win for the Plan Administrator of Lehman Brothers Holdings in the largest-ever trial involving RMBS claims. At the conclusion of the 23-day, unique claims estimation trial, the court ruled that the RMBS-related claims—originally asserted by the RMBS trustees in the amount of $37 billion—would be estimated at Lehman’s requested amount of $2.38 billion. That victory demonstrated not only our trial capabilities in securities, bankruptcy and complex litigation, but also our ability to handle multidisciplinary matters seamlessly across different departments within the firm.

A prospective client in crisis calls and asks why your team should be retained. What is your answer? A great example of why Willkie should be retained in a crisis was demonstrated by our work representing Relativity Media, producer of “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Bridesmaids.” Our team was retained only a few weeks before Relativity’s scheduled August 2018 trial against Netflix in bankruptcy court. In dispute was Relativity’s only significant asset—its licensing agreement with Netflix. Immediately, Willkie assembled an interdisciplinary team of litigators and bankruptcy attorneys. In the course of just weeks, our attorneys got “up to speed” and completed document discovery, multiple depositions, expert reports, and pretrial briefing. The result: a total trial victory for Willkie, paving the way for Relativity’s planned sale to UltraV Holdings. It‘s just a great example of using our skills as trial attorneys to achieve a terrific result for a client in crisis.