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Litigation

Contact

Deborah B. Baum
Partner, Washington, DC
T: +1.202.663.8772
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Areas of Focus

Pillsbury is recognized as among the most feared law firms for litigation by BTI Consulting Group. Beyond this overall recognition, Pillsbury earned particular praise as a standout performer in the class actions, cybersecurity disputes, complex commercial and commercial litigation categories. Pillsbury’s award-winning team of more than 200 litigators works with clients around the world to help them successfully resolve disputes, in trial and out of court, at home and in jurisdictions around the globe.

From representing companies in their most important commercial disputes, and insurance policyholders enforcing their rights to payment from their insurers, to structuring unprecedented settlements between financial institutions and government authorities, Pillsbury litigators take on emerging issues and set new precedents in some of the world’s most complex, large-scale disputes. We have garnered dozens of top-tier recognitions as a result of the exceptional litigation counsel we provide and have earned the respect of judges, juries and rivals.

Our litigators are also highly experienced in arbitration, mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, and regularly appear before regulators to resolve issues before they become problems.

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In each instance, we employ the latest technologies to streamline data analysis, efficiently manage litigation and enhance evidence presentation in court.

Pillsbury litigators have successfully resolved matters for clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to middle-market companies and entrepreneurial businesses on diverse issues. These include:

  • Antitrust & Competition
  • Appellate
  • Class Actions
  • Construction
  • Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense
  • E-Discovery
  • Employment
  • Energy
  • Financial Services
  • General Commercial Litigation
  • Government Contracts
  • Health Care
  • Insurance Recovery
  • Intellectual Property
  • International Arbitration
  • Multiparty & Multidistrict Litigation
  • Real Estate
  • Securities
  • Tax Controversies
  • Technology & Telecommunications

Representative Experience

  • Secured a $71.7 million jury award for an oil refinery company client, achieving full recovery against 14 insurers on a contingent business interruption claim resulting from a pipeline rupture.
  • Structured unprecedented settlements for Swiss Financial Institutions with U.S. prosecutors, enabling our clients to avoid potentially billions of dollars in exposure under U.S. tax laws and avoid criminal prosecution. (American Lawyer Global Dispute of the Year).
  • Concluding almost a decade of litigation, we convinced the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a summary judgment dismissing $1.4 billion in claims of civil and criminal cartel price-fixing against American Media, Inc.

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  • Financial Services
    • Achieved a win on behalf of Wells Fargo regarding permissibility of imposing freezes on bankruptcy debtor bank accounts when the Ninth Circuit held that such freezes were permissible to preserve bankruptcy estate assets.
    • Defeated a gift cardholders’ class action against Wells Fargo that claimed violations of consumer protection and unfair competition laws. The case set an important precedent regarding the use of arbitration clauses in consumer financial contracts.
    • Won a dismissal of an $80 million investor class action against Wells Fargo by establishing that Dodd-Frank was a “capital treatment event,” entitling the bank to redeem trust-preferred securities under its contract terms.
    • Achieved a summary judgment in our client fund administrator’s favor, dismantling hedge fund and investor claims to millions in losses based on a claimed quasi-fiduciary duty when only a contractual relationship existed.
    • Garnered a $104 million tax refund for a large U.S. bank by convincing the Franchise Tax Board to include the bank’s non-California broker-dealer subsidiary’s gross receipts in the tax apportionment formula.
    • Secured a complete trial victory for a corporate trust company in a highly publicized lawsuit brought by members of a prominent family seeking millions of dollars in damages and the trustee’s removal.
    • Represented a major public REIT in litigation with insurance carriers over priority of coverage rights.
  • Energy
    • Won a denial of a plaintiffs’ preliminary injunction request seeking the shutdown of thousands of California’s oil wells based on contamination risk. This win preserved California’s energy supply and avoided billions of dollars in costs.
    • Negotiated a recovery that included hotly contested business interruption losses for a global petrochemical company forced into a five-month shutdown following a fire.
    • Defeated a novel attempt by environmental organizations to expand the scope of federal environmental laws to claim that locomotive diesel emissions at a client-operated rail yard violated RCRA, a solid waste statute.
    • Represented several of the largest U.S. utilities for billions of dollars in projected coverage costs to remediate coal ash disposal sites across the United States.
  • Real Estate & Construction
    • Defended a major gas and electric company against claims arising from the $1.7 billion expansion of a gas pipeline from Canada to California.
    • Convinced an ICC arbitral tribunal to reject a $7.6 billion claim against a major Japanese manufacturer and to award $58 million in fees and costs over alleged design errors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
    • Represented the general contractor for the new Panama Canal construction in connection with more than $60 million in insurance claims for damages sustained during the construction of the canal.
    • Represented a major construction contractor in insurance coverage claims related to work on the Arthur Ashe Stadium, home of the U.S. Open Tennis Championship.
    • Represented the builder of Salesforce Tower in a lawsuit alleging that the excavation and dewatering of the tower site contributed to the settling and tilting of nearby Millennium Tower.
    • Advised Foster Wheeler regarding multibillion-dollar investor state claims against the Republic of Colombia pursuant to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and possible prosecution against Reficar in an ICC arbitration.
    • Secured a summary judgment against an insurer’s move to exclude coverage for losses caused by concrete dust.
    • Secured our client’s rights to seek coverage from insurers for liabilities related to subcontractors’ mistakes. Achieved a victory at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
    • Represented a university and medical center in litigation against insurers for losses suffered due to Superstorm Sandy. Recoveries to date include more than $1 billion from FEMA and $100 million from insurers.
    • Achieved an invalidation of an already-executed lease and overturned long-held precedents through U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruling that GSA violated bidding rules in awarding the new TSA headquarters’ lease to our client’s rival.
    • Achieved a victory for an environmental underdog with a damages award of 3.5 times court-determined restoration costs plus $300,000 in attorneys’ fees, sending a strong warning to would-be conservation easement violators.
    • Won more than $23 million in damages, plus costs, interest and attorneys’ fees for our construction company client seeking insurer’s indemnification for damages and losses caused by subcontractors’ mistakes.
  • Technology & Media
    • Defeated a large vendor’s $7 million contract termination claim in arbitration and secured a damages award of more than $1.5 million in a counterclaim for our telecommunications services company client.
    • Secured a preliminary injunction preserving Lyft Inc./Bay Area Motivate LLC’s right to be the exclusive operator of a San Francisco bike-share program, protecting a $35 million investment.
    • Defended a former executive of a Hungarian telecommunications company in a SEC civil enforcement action involving allegations of bribery of government officials in Macedonia and Montenegro.
    • Overcame an insurer’s coverage objections for an adverse antitrust litigation judgment, enabling our client to avert entirely a potentially huge outlay, with insurance proceeds completely covering the claims resolution.
    • Won a trial court dismissal, later upheld by ITC, of a high-stakes patent infringement suit brought by a nonpracticing entity claiming our client’s made-in-China mobile phone headsets infringed its patents.
    • Achieved a major win for a multinational entertainment company in a contentious income tax dispute before the SBE by convincing the Franchise Tax Board to allow R&D credit worth more than $4 million.
    • Won a Federal Circuit reversal of a district court denial of our tech company client’s patent infringement claims against a competitor and thus protected our client’s IP by preventing the patent infringer’s use.
    • Trade Secrets – Secured a permanent injunction for our tech-leader client, preventing a former employee and his new employer from using misappropriated trade secrets and obtained their agreement to destroy all trade secret information.
    • Defeated on summary judgment a motion trademark infringement claim against Facebook’s Oculus VR seeking a share of the $2 billion price Facebook paid to acquire Oculus.
    • Accomplished a stellar win for a NASA info-tech service provider by persuading the court to deny all preliminary injunctive relief sought after our client chose not to exercise an option to continue plaintiff as subcontractor.
  • Manufacturing
    • After establishing that a whistleblower failed to meet False Claims Act requirements, we won a dismissal with prejudice of the lawsuit against our client, a global producer of mechanical pipe joining solutions.
    • Secured $71.7 million and $55.3 million in jury verdicts against insurers for our manufacturing clients regarding denials of business interruption and product liability defense coverage.
    • Recovered a $20 million international arbitration award for a pioneering Chinese manufacturer/seller of photovoltaic models when a product purchaser unable to qualify for energy tax incentives reneged on its purchase agreement.
    • Defended Metso Corporation in ICC arbitration, defeating $200 million in claims brought by ArcelorMittal involving a mining complex in Quebec, Canada.
    • Obtained a complete defense victory for a talc distributor in a New York City asbestos litigation matter in an appeal to the New York Appellate Division, First Department.
    • Represented senior executives of an automotive supplier in an investigation of diesel cars and alleged evasion of U.S. emissions testing.
  • Health Care
    • Won a dismissal with prejudice of investors’ lawsuit alleging that our drug company client engaged in securities fraud by making false or misleading statements and failing to disclose the drug’s higher-than-expected discontinuation rate.
    • Secured a final judgment in a health care innovator’s successful appeal that increased an award from $1.6 million to more than $370 million in connection with the misappropriation of a cutting-edge business model.
    • Obtained total relief for our nonprofit health care system client in a precedent-setting case finding that fraud allegations do not justify or permit retention of a client’s property. The case helped clarify “self-help discovery” parameters and permissibility.
    • Won pretrial rulings that led to a freedom-to-operate settlement in defense of patent claims relating to generic testing.
    • Secured a $39-million-plus appraisal award in our client’s ongoing insurance coverage dispute involving defective construction of a 400-unit apartment complex, substantially strengthening our client’s case in a pending jury trial.
  • Other
    • Won a rejection of a class certification and a dismissal with prejudice of an anti-GMO plaintiffs’ false advertising claims against our client Medora Holdings, the developer, manufacturer and distributor of PopCorners.
    • Defeated three separate fuel company lawsuits alleging that Safeway’s redemption of grocery-based fuel promotions resulted in below-cost and loss-leader sales, violating California’s Unfair Practices Act and Unfair Competition Law.
    • Reached a favorable settlement with our client toy producer’s competitor that will keep a copycat version of our client’s popular flying doll from ever being sold in the United States.
    • Saved two multinational corporations $80 million in taxes and interest in a complex tax dispute before California’s Franchise Tax Board.
    • Won a unanimous decision by California’s State Board of Equalization completely abating a proposed $10 million assessment against husband and wife clients in a case involving complex residency and source-of-income issues.
    • Represented a prestigious university in the “Operation Varsity Blues” college admissions cheating scandal.
    • Represented a prominent NCAA men’s basketball college program in the widely reported DOJ criminal bribery investigation related to college sponsorship contracts.
    • Represented a former president of uranium transportation company in a national security-related investigation involving alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and money laundering.
    • Sought a $50 million under D&O coverage based on a novel theory that appraisal action is a covered shareholder claim.

Practice Area Highlights

  • Pillsbury is recognized as among the most feared law firms for litigation by BTI Consulting Group.
  • Leading recognition for 13 litigation practice specialties as listed in Chambers USA, The Legal 500 U.S. and U.S. News – Best Lawyers.
  • Five-time Law360 Insurance Practice Group of the Year for advising on policies and securing coverage payouts.

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  • For three consecutive years, Global Investigations Review included Pillsbury on its GIR 100 list. Based on extensive marketplace research, this elite list recognizes the leading cross-border investigations and white collar practices in the world.
  • Clients describe Pillsbury’s Litigation practice, nationally ranked in the 2015 edition of The Legal 500 U.S., as “excellent in every way.”
  • U.S. News – Best Lawyers recognized Pillsbury as “Law Firm of the Year” in 2016 for Construction Law, and Law360 named our Insurance Recovery & Advisory practice “Insurance Group of the Year” (2017).
  • Corporate Counsel “Go-To Firm” — an in-house counsel survey of Fortune 500 companies named Pillsbury a “go-to firm” in the area of Intellectual Property Litigation.

Resources

2026 MOST FEARED FIRMS

BTI Consulting recognizes Pillsbury as one of the most feared law firms in litigation.

2025 LEGAL 500 U.S. GUIDE RANKS PILLSBURY AS LEADING FIRM

35 Practice Areas from Litigation, Regulatory, Transactional Practices and Industry Teams

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