Representative Engagements

The Paul, Weiss Litigation Department continues to be involved in cases that shape financial markets and corporate boardrooms, representing many of the world's leading corporations in their most sensitive and complex matters. Client matters have included:

• Exxon Mobil Corporation in climate change-related investigations and suits brought by regulators, including state attorneys general deploying untested liability theories. These matters include representing the company in substantially defeating a class certification motion in a long-running putative federal securities class action alleging that the defendants made a series of purportedly false and misleading statements about the company’s proved reserves, asset impairments, and its use of proxy and greenhouse gas costs in its business planning, among other claims; an SEC investigation concerning climate change-related disclosures that was closed with a no-action determination; and winning a complete defense verdict in a landmark securities fraud action brought by the New York Attorney General seeking $1.6 billion in damages—the first climate change-related lawsuit to be tried to verdict nationally. Paul, Weiss is also advising ExxonMobil on government tort, shareholder securities and other climate change-related matters arising in various proceedings worldwide.
• The National Football League in the defense and landmark settlement, upheld on appeal, of hundreds of lawsuits filed by thousands of former NFL players seeking to hold the League liable for allegedly concealing the risks associated with concussions sustained while playing professional football. We continue to serve as counsel for the NFL in the implementation of the 65-years settlement.
• Citigroup in several major litigation and regulatory enforcement matters, including:
  • a complete defense win in an arbitral panel ruling, subsequently upheld by a federal district and an appellate court, in a $7.5 billion ICDR arbitration brought by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA);
  • a multi-year federal grand jury investigation of its compliance with BSA/AML requirements that resulted in a non-prosecution agreement and a significantly reduced penalty;
  • a complete defense win in a $30 billion claim against Citigroup brought by Parmalat, and a $364.2 million jury verdict, upheld on appeal, on Citigroup’s counterclaims against Parmalat, culminating in a judgment by Italy’s Supreme Court finding our verdict, by then tripled in value, final and enforceable in Italy;
  • in securing the dismissal of an antitrust action brought by financial software company Tera Group alleging that Citi, along with several other financial institutions, conspired to prevent Tera from entering the credit default swap (CDS) trading market in violation of federal and state antitrust laws; and
  • in securing the dismissal of a qui tam action brought in Florida state court under the Florida False Claims Act in connection with two synthetic fixed-rate transactions with a notional value of $1 billion entered into by the Central Florida Expressway Authority with Citibank and several other banks. The relator alleged that the defendant banks fraudulently induced the Authority to enter into the at-issue swap agreements and claimed that all payments made to the defendant banks constituted “false claims.”
• A Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse in an internal review of Credit Suisse’s relationship with hedge fund Archegos Capital and the events leading to losses incurred by the bank as a result of Archegos’s default, culminating in the release of a 165-page report detailing observations and recommendations for remedial measures.
• News Corp and News America Marketing (NAM) in several antitrust matters, including most recently the defense of a $700 million monopolization claim brought by competitor Valassis Communications, which Paul, Weiss successfully tried to a jury in a three-week trial in 2021 in the Southern District of New York; securing the dismissal of another antitrust claim by Valassis alleging that NAM violated a consent order resolving an earlier dispute through unlawful bundling and tying; and the favorable settlement of a significant antitrust class action brought by customers of NAM’s in-store marketing products, including consumer products companies Dial, Heinz and Smithfield Foods, claiming that NAM illegally monopolized an alleged market for in-store promotional services by engaging in a variety of alleged exclusionary practices.
• IBM in:
  • winning an injunction at trial, affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit, in a high-profile trade secrets case that prohibited a former senior executive from accepting a competing leadership position at a competing technology company. Paul, Weiss has represented IBM in several previous high-profile litigations and settlements regarding the enforcement of employee restrictive covenants, non-competition agreements and equity clawback contracts; and
  • an ongoing lawsuit seeking at least $2.5 billion in damages brought against its semiconductor chip supplier, GlobalFoundries, asserting claims for fraud and breach of technology, development, manufacturing and supply agreements related to a long-term alliance IBM entered into with GlobalFoundries through which the parties committed to co-develop cutting-edge technology for complex semiconductor chips.
• Mastercard in three of the largest antitrust litigations pending nationally, including litigation challenges, and a subsequent settlement that was affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit, of payment card “interchange” fees and certain rules governing merchants’ acceptance of payment cards; antitrust and consumer protection class actions on behalf of independent ATM operators and consumer groups challenging Mastercard’s ATM access fee non-discrimination rule; and an antitrust and consumer protection class action on behalf of merchants who incurred “chargebacks” for payment card fraud.
• Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM) in a significant appellate win in which the Kentucky Court of Appeals unanimously held that the Kentucky attorney general should never have been permitted to intervene in and revive a $50 billion derivative action in which the original plaintiffs were found to lack constitutional standing. Paul, Weiss previously won an appellate victory in the Kentucky Court of Appeals in connection with this lawsuit, which is seen as a critical test case for the exposure of investment managers to liability relating to underfunded state public pensions.
• Amazon in securing the dismissal of a major antitrust lawsuit filed by the D.C. Attorney General challenging Amazon’s pricing policies nationwide. Paul, Weiss won a further victory when the D.C. Superior Court denied the District’s motion for reconsideration and denied the District’s motion to further amend its complaint. The district appealed to the D.C. Court of Appeals and oral arguments were held in December 2023. The lawsuit is the first brought by a government entity in the United States challenging Amazon’s pricing policies and business model.
• Uber Technologies in several significant litigations, including in securing the dismissal by the District of Massachusetts and affirmance on appeal by the First Circuit of a $750 million unfair competition lawsuit brought by the largest taxi conglomerate in Boston. The district court previously held that Uber did not compete unfairly in the Boston market when it operated without a license in violation of longstanding taxi rules, and the First Circuit held that Uber was not liable for violating the Massachusetts unfair competition statute or the common law for unfair competition.
• Pfizer in multiple complex litigation matters, including in securing the denial of a preliminary injunction and dismissal, affirmed by the Second Circuit, of a high-profile “reverse discrimination” suit alleging that Pfizer’s Breakthrough Fellowship Program, designed to enhance Pfizer’s pipeline of diverse leaders, violates Section 1981, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Affordable Care Act, and various New York State and New York City human rights laws.
• Goldman Sachs Group as co-lead counsel in a billion-dollar, long-running securities class action filed in the wake of a 2010 SEC action alleging that Goldman Sachs helped a client short a collateralized debt obligation that the bank was simultaneously selling to customers, ultimately losing those customers $1 billion. After securing an important U.S. Supreme Court decision, Paul Weiss won a major victory at the Second Circuit when the panel unanimously reversed certification of the investor class action and instructed the district court to decertify the class. The plaintiffs subsequently denied a last chance to appeal Goldman’s resounding appellate win decertifying the class and voluntarily dismissed their case, bringing a decade of hard-fought litigation to a close. 
• Morgan Stanley in multiple high-stakes class actions, including in:
  • securing the dismissal of a class action alleging that several financial institutions that participate in the auction and trading of securities issued by the U.S. Treasury had conspired to reduce competition in the secondary market for Treasury securities, and colluded to block the emergence of new trading platforms through which better prices could ostensibly have been obtained for Treasury securities;
  • securing the dismissal of a putative antitrust class action brought by traders of odd-lot bonds—groups of bonds that are worth less than $1 million—alleging that 10 financial institution defendants were engaged in a conspiracy to increase prices on odd-lot bond trades by group boycotting certain odd-lot e-trading platforms; and
  • the favorable settlement of a consolidated class action asserting claims of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty and unfair and deceptive practices, among others, and alleging that Morgan Stanley exposed their personal identifiable information by employing inadequate data security and vendor management procedures during a large-scale data security decommissioning project and a server refresh project.
• Outside Directors of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the dismissal of a shareholder derivative lawsuit alleging our clients breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the bank’s prior relationship with former client Jeffrey Epstein.
• Ripple, its co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse in securing a major summary judgment victory in the SEC's lawsuit alleging that the Ripple defendants had conducted $1.4 billion in unregistered securities transactions through the sale of Ripple's XRP token. In a ruling heralded as a win for the broader cryptocurrency industry, the court held that the sale of digital asset XRP on public exchanges does not constitute the sale of unregistered securities.
• Coinbase Global in winning two motions to compel arbitration in separate putative consumer class actions brought in the Northern District of California over the collapses of stablecoins GYEN and TerraUSD.
• Oracle as trial counsel in its long-running dispute with software services provider Rimini Street over whether Rimini’s third-party software support violates Oracle’s copyrights. In Rimini II, Paul, Weiss won a major bench trial victory when the court issued a broad injunction order in July 2023 that ordered Rimini to shut down its automated tools—a significant part of its software support business—and issue and prominently post a 15-point press release in which Rimini discloses its untruths to the public. In Rimini I, our lawyers won a significant trial verdict in 2015, sustained on appeal, ultimately receiving $90 million in damages, costs and attorneys’ fees for copyright infringement. We also subsequently won a permanent injunction barring Rimini’s infringement, and then won a contempt hearing finding Rimini in violation of that injunction in 2021, which was largely affirmed by the Ninth Circuit in 2023.
• PayPal Holdings, Inc. and several of its directors and executives in a putative securities class action and related shareholder derivative actions alleging that PayPal and certain officers made misrepresentations and omissions about the Company’s regulatory compliance.
• Fresenius, a German healthcare company, in a landmark ruling, affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court, that Fresenius was justified in terminating a $4.8 billion merger agreement with Akorn due to Akorn’s post-signing decline and blatant breaches of FDA data integrity requirements, both constituting Material Adverse Events (MAE) under Delaware law.
• SAP, a German multinational enterprise software company, in a longstanding dispute brought by business analytics provider Teradata, seeking more than $1 billion in damages in an action involving high-stakes antitrust and trade secret claims concerning SAP’s flagship product HANA. The dispute also includes counterclaims by SAP alleging Teradata’s infringement of several SAP patents, as well as follow-on patent litigation in the Northern District of California and in Germany. Following extensive discovery, SAP defeated Teradata’s antitrust and trade secret claims on summary judgment. Teradata is appealing the ruling while staying or dismissing without prejudice the remaining claims.
• Farelogix, an information technology company that connects travel agencies directly with airlines and travel services, as lead antitrust counsel in connection with the DOJ’s investigation and subsequent civil antitrust lawsuit seeking to block its proposed acquisition by Sabre, a leading global travel distribution intermediary between ticket agents and airlines and travel services, alleging that the merger would eliminate competition for booking services in the online and traditional travel agency markets. Following a two-week bench trial in federal court, the court issued an opinion in favor of Farelogix, ruling that the DOJ did not establish harm to competition on both sides of the two-sided market.
• Glencore International in securing the dismissal, affirmed on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, of a multibillion-dollar antitrust, fraud and corruption lawsuit brought against international oil trading companies by a U.S. litigation trust allegedly established by Venezuela’s national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), alleging that the oil trading companies conspired to obtain inside information about tenders for the sale and purchase of oil and oil products.
• A subsidiary of CNA Financial Corporation in a significant appellate victory before the Fifth Circuit in a dispute over whether business-interruption provisions in commercial property insurance policies should be drastically expanded to cover income lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Paul, Weiss has also won affirmances in similar cases in the Second, Fourth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth circuits.
• FIFA in several significant matters, including in:
  • its successful application for remission from the DOJ as compensation for losses the organization suffered as a victim of decades of corruption schemes by former football officials. Under a plan negotiated by Paul, Weiss on FIFA’s behalf, the DOJ awarded $201 million seized from the bank accounts of former football officials prosecuted for criminal activities; and
  • the dismissal, affirmed on appeal to the Second Circuit, of a suit brought by a Nigerian soccer coach who had been disciplined for violating FIFA’s code of ethics.
• Becton Dickinson (BD) in securing a major appellate victory at the Seventh Circuit affirming the dismissal with prejudice of an antitrust class action against BD. Paul, Weiss previously secured the dismissal of the class action which was brought by a putative class of all U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers and alleged that BD conspired with distributors of its products to inflate the prices of syringes and IV catheters by excluding competitors from the market. Paul, Weiss also secured prior trial and appellate victories on behalf of BD in a separate lawsuit involving similar allegations brought by a competitor.
• The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in securing a historic settlement of a putative class action brought in the Southern District of New York alleging that the MTA violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal and local antidiscrimination laws through its alleged practice of renovating certain subway stations—and specifically replacing staircases at certain stations—without also installing elevators in those stations to make them accessible to individuals with disabilities. The comprehensive settlement will ultimately provide greater access to the city’s subway system to people with mobility disabilities.
• Simon Property Group in securing the dismissal of all claims at the trial level and on appeal before the
  New York Appellate Division, First Department of a judgment enforcement proceeding brought by Gronich, a commercial real estate broker, regarding an alleged unpaid commission arising out of an agreement between Longstreet LP, the then-owner of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue, and Gronich. Gronich alleged that Simon was responsible for the judgment because it fraudulently transferred assets from Longstreet to its parent in connection with Simon’s merger with the parent and was subsequently liable for the judgment. 
• Nikola Corporation, a manufacturer of heavy-duty commercial battery-electric vehicles, and several of its officers and directors, in the dismissal of a putative securities class action in the District of Arizona, as well as ongoing related derivative litigation in Arizona and Delaware, regarding alleged misstatements about the company’s products and performances.
• Bloomberg L.P. in securing a resounding trial victory ending a high-stakes international broadcast licensing dispute with a Nigerian broadcasting company. Following a nine-day bench trial in the Southern District of New York, the court rejected all claims brought against Bloomberg and ruled for Bloomberg on its counterclaims, awarding damages, costs and attorney’s fees.

See additional work highlights across a multitude of practice areas, such as: