Wilkinson Stekloff LLP

Managing Partner: James Rosenthal

Number of partners: 13

Number of lawyers: 39

Offices: Washington, DC; New York, NY

Firm Overview

Wilkinson Stekloff is the leading trial litigation boutique in the country, demonstrating a depth of talent and skill unmatched by firms of any size. Described by The American Lawyer as “the legal equivalent of an elite special ops unit,” Wilkinson Stekloff is at the forefront of today’s most significant litigation moving the needle in the legal industry, from landmark, precedent-setting antitrust cases to bellwether products liability trials. Fortune 500 chief executives and general counsel turn to Wilkinson Stekloff attorneys for their strategic guidance, courtroom expertise, and unparalleled track record on the most high-profile, high-stakes disputes. The firm’s clients have included heavy-hitters in a wide range of industries, such as Allergan, Altria Group Inc., Bayer, Cargill, Facebook, FedEx, Georgia-Pacific, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals USA, Medtronic, Microsoft, Monsanto, the NCAA, the NFL, Pfizer, Plaid, and Philip Morris USA — all of which have come to rely on Wilkinson Stekloff as a go-to trial firm that can handle their toughest cases.

What makes Wilkinson Stekloff unique?

The firm’s business model and mission set Beth Wilkinson, Brian Stekloff, and their team apart from other trial practice groups. The firm’s innovative business model, offering fixed-fee arrangements for all cases, gives clients certainty around their budgets even in the most contentious trials. And because clients know they will pay the same fee no matter the size of the team, the firm can employ its depth of talent in all key events — depositions, strategy sessions, and court hearings — without affecting the clients’ bottom line.

The firm views it as critical not just to hire outstanding attorneys, but to give them meaningful trial experience and client exposure. This is deliberate, as it supports the firm’s overall mission — to develop the next generation of trial lawyers. And this mission sets Wilkinson Stekloff apart from all trial practice groups. At Wilkinson Stekloff, the vast majority of associates have worked on at least one trial, and those who have been with the firm for years are veterans of many trials in jurisdictions across the country.

Latest Results

Most recently, Wilkinson Stekloff achieved a major victory for the NFL and its 32 member teams when a California federal judge granted their post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law, overturning a jury’s earlier verdict in the class action lawsuit that had challenged the League’s collective licensing of broadcast rights to NFL games, including the exclusive distributorship arrangement with DIRECTV for its Sunday Ticket subscription. In his August 1 order, U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez excluded as “unreliable” the testimony of Plaintiffs’ key expert witnesses. Without their testimony, he noted, the Plaintiffs “failed to provide evidence from which a reasonable jury could make a finding of injury.” Judge Gutierrez’ definitive ruling comes after nine years of litigation in which certain Sunday Ticket subscribers alleged that the league’s media rights model had violated U.S. antitrust law. Wilkinson Stekloff has served as the NFL’s lead counsel throughout the litigation.

Other representative matters include:

• Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft Corporation, et al. Secured a groundbreaking victory for Microsoft in the second-largest merger trial in American history and the biggest involving a technology company over its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Defeated the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the transaction after a five-day trial that began less than four weeks after the FTC filed its federal court complaint. Directed all aspects of litigation strategy from the time the acquisition was announced in January 2022, positioning the case for a federal court victory on an unprecedented timeline. The Ninth Circuit later unanimously affirmed the district court’s decision, and the FTC dismissed its Part 3 administrative complaint.
• Clark v. Monsanto Company, et al.After just a day of deliberation, won the first-ever jury verdict for Monsanto in litigation over claims that the herbicide Roundup causes Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Clark was the fourth case in this mass tort to go to trial, with the three previous trials resulting in verdicts against Monsanto ranging from $81 million to over $2 billion.
• Farar et al. v. Bayer AG et al.Won an outright defense verdict in a multi-state class action trial involving One A Day vitamins. Plaintiffs alleged that Bayer made false, misleading, and deceptive statements about One A Day. Before trial, Wilkinson Stekloff’s motions practice reduced the potential damages by hundreds of millions of dollars. At trial, based on devastating cross-examinations by Wilkinson Stekloff’s attorneys, the defense rested without calling a single witness. After just over an hour of deliberation, the jury returned a complete defense verdict.
• In the Matter of Altria Group, Inc. and JUUL Labs, Inc.Secured an unprecedented FTC dismissal on behalf of Altria following a month-long administrative trial before the FTC over Altria’s minority investment in JUUL.A February 2022 ruling by the Chief Administrative Law Judge dismissed in their entirety claims by the FTC that Altria and JUUL violated antitrust laws. The matter was on appeal within the FTC, but on June 30, 2023, the FTC dismissed its complaint against Altria.

Accolades

Achieving this many successes with a firm of just 40 attorneys has led to multiple accolades for Wilkinson Stekloff and its attorneys, including being nationally ranked by leading publications, including Chambers, Benchmark Litigation, Legal 500, The American Lawyer, and The National Law Journal. Most recently, Wilkinson Stekloff was selected for the second consecutive year as Trial Firm of the Year by Benchmark, and was named National Boutique of the Year by The American Lawyer, after receiving Matter of the Year for the Microsoft/Activision Deal by both Benchmark and Global Competition Review the previous year.

Clients, colleagues, and competitors acknowledge that, lawyer for lawyer and matter for matter, Wilkinson Stekloff is a litigation juggernaut poised to continue its success for years to come.