Commercial Litigation

Examples of major commercial litigation handled by Williams & Connolly include:

• Trial victory in California federal court for Genentech in a nine-figure breach of contract case against Biogen.
• Won plaintiffs’ judgment for an animal health science and technology company in a breach-of-contract claim in an M&A dispute in Delaware Superior Court, where the court found that the sellers breached an M&A agreement, rejected the sellers’ six counterclaims, and awarded our clients $40.2 million.
• Trial victory in Virginia on behalf of a medical technology company in defending multi-million-dollar claims for fraud and breach of contract. After an eight-day bench trial and post-trial briefing, the court decided in our client’s favor, rejecting the plaintiffs’ claims in their entirety.
• Trial victory in Delaware Court of Chancery on behalf of a global pharmaceutical company in breach of contract action where plaintiffs sought $275 million in milestone payments under a merger agreement.
• Jury trial victory in Kansas on behalf of the leading credit report repair law firm in the United States and its primary vendor in a civil RICO case where plaintiffs alleged the firm’s business amounted to a wide-ranging mail and wire fraud scheme affecting millions of consumers and counterparties.
• Trial victory in Montana on behalf of a leading private equity firm in a decade-long dispute brought by a municipality seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages arising out of the purchase of a privately held water system, in which the city made breach of contract, fraud and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing allegations.  Obtained a complete defense verdict and an award of over $4 million in attorney’s fees.
• Appellate victory on behalf of a leading pharmaceutical company before the Delaware Supreme Court in a landmark decision on the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing that safeguards the stability of contracts governed by Delaware law.
• Dismissal in New York state court for a leading global bank of $500 million breach of contract action arising out of an asset securitization, successfully raising the novel argument that the case was time-barred based on the location of the RMBS trustee.  The judgment was affirmed by the New York Court of Appeals.
• Lead trial counsel for a global medical company in a commercial dispute in Delaware state court involving contract and trade secrets claims in excess of $400 million.  After the firm secured summary judgment on the trade secrets claims, the jury returned a defense verdict on the remaining contract claims.
• Trial and appellate victories in New York for a leading hospitality and gaming company against plaintiff’s claims it was owed additional shares worth $270 million under a convertible notes instrument, securing a complete defense verdict after a two-week bench trial, as well as affirmance on appeal.
• Lead counsel for a global pharmaceutical company in commercial dispute over a supply agreement, successfully narrowing $300 million dispute originally brought in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to a few state law claims pending in state court.
• Lead counsel for the subsidiary of a major global bank against claims of fraud and breach of contract in connection with 30 mortgage-backed securitizations where plaintiffs sought over $2 billion in damages.
  Successful representation of an Ivy League university against putative class action claiming breach of contract in connection with the transition to remote and online classes when the Covid-19 pandemic arose in the Spring 2020 semester.
• Represented a major electronics manufacturer in an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration hailed as a model of constructive resolution of a licensing dispute concerning royalties owed to extend the parties’ patent license agreement.
• Lead counsel for two of the world’s largest banks in multi-billion-dollar litigation related to mortgage-backed securities.
• Lead counsel for another large commercial lender in lawsuits brought by bankruptcy trustees that seek to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in loan proceeds paid to the lender by companies that allegedly were engaged in a multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme.
• Summary judgment in California for a public company in a breach of contract action brought by a major automobile manufacturer.
• Lead counsel in a $100 million consumer class action against one of the nation’s largest wireless carriers alleging fraudulent billing practices.
• Verdict for a manufacturing company in New York in a plaintiff side action against a defendant corporation for breach of a commercial lease.
• Reversal in North Carolina of an arbitrator’s certification of a nationwide class against a public company.
• Co-lead counsel on behalf of a national accounting firm in consumer and competitor class actions seeking hundreds of millions of dollars based on alleged misrepresentations relating to the provision of services.