FROM: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP www.weil.com Contac…

FROM: Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
www.weil.com

Contact: Les Zuke 212.310.8410
les.zuke@weil.com

Terri Cohen
Rubenstein Associates 212.843.8018
Tcohen@Rubenstein.com

______________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ Litigation Department Selected
One of the Top Six in the US by American Lawyer Magazine

NEW YORK, January 5, 2004—Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, one of the world’s leading law firms, has been recognized as having one of the nation’s best litigation departments in the January 2004 issue of The American Lawyer, the nation’s leading legal monthly publication, which announced the results of its second biennial survey after conducting intensive analysis of the nation’s top law firms. Weil Gotshal was the only New York-based firm named to the list comprising the top six litigation departments.
According to The American Lawyer, “Weil Gotshal litigators have an uncanny ability to get into their clients’ heads—and the Fortune 50 is taking notice.” The article also notes that the firm’s “litigation client base includes more than 35 percent of the companies in the Fortune 50—sophisticated clients who use Weil in dangerous cases,” and that “Weil’s results over the last two years show that its litigators can win major cases at every stage of litigation….”
“We have long believed that Weil Gotshal is exceptional in our strong track record for devising creative strategies for winning difficult and high stakes litigation and crafting complex and creative settlements,” said Stephen J. Dannhauser, Chairman of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. “We thank The American Lawyer editorial staff, as well as our clients and opposing counsel, who were interviewed during the selection process, for recognizing the factors that place Weil Gotshal’s litigators among the elite of litigation departments.”
“I am thrilled that ‘judge and jury’ reached this verdict, awarding Weil Gotshal’s Litigation Department the status as one of the top six in the United States,” said James W. Quinn, Chairman of Weil Gotshal’s Litigation Department. “I am also pleased that our litigators were recognized as having strong business acumen and as being counselors in every sense of the word. They are strategy-driven and adept at understanding our clients businesses.”
The American Lawyer noted the following in its feature on Weil Gotshal:
 “Business strategy could well serve as the guiding principle of the Weil Gosthal litigation department.” One client quoted in the article remarked on the firm’s litigators adeptness at understanding the client’s business and explaining the implications of taking a lawsuit to court. Another client said Weil Gotshal’s litigators are “aggressive when you want them to be, reasonable when it’s necessary.’

 Weil Gotshal’s results “show that its litigators can win major cases at every state of litigation, from the dismissal of a declaratory judgment action filed by Duke Energy Corporation in the Enron bankruptcy to the reversal of a class certification for General Electric Company in a state appeals court in Texas.”

 “Unlike so many of its New York brethren, Weil is perfectly happy to continue the battle to the courtroom when it’s necessary.”

 Among Weil Gotshal’s other significant victories in 2003 were, but not limited to: a $416.8 million jury verdict for ExxonMobil in a breach of contract case involving a joint venture with Saudi Basic Industries Corporation; a $10 million jury verdict for Value Partners against Bain & Company, Inc. in an unfair competition case involving the defection of Value Partner’s entire Sao Paolo office to Bain; a jury verdict for ArthroCare Corporation on a patent infringement case against Smith & Nephew plc involving 16 patents; and an affirmance of the summary judgment dismissing a high-stakes antitrust case brought by the Department of Justice against American Airlines (as co-counsel).

The American Lawyer’s editors invited the nation’s 200 largest firms to list examples of significant achievements between January 1, 2002, and June 30, 2003. In choosing the country’s top litigation departments, The American Lawyer judges looked for high achievement and cases of national importance in six core areas: pretrial work, trial matters, appellate work, settlements, pro bono cases and other matters, such as arbitrations.
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is an international law firm of more than 1,100 attorneys, including approximately 300 partners. Weil Gotshal is headquartered in New York, with offices in Austin, Boston, Brussels, Budapest, Dallas, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Miami, Paris, Prague, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Warsaw and Washington, D.C.

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