Wilmington

Our Commercial Litigation Practice serves as primary outside litigation counsel to some of the world's largest corporations, as well as some of the nation's most innovative start-ups. As a result, we handle a range of commercial disputes—from critical contractual matters to complex consumer class actions and "bet-the-company" trials. We try cases for both plaintiffs and defendants, and we have provided counsel in a wide variety of Delaware matters for companies in the financial services, pharmaceutical, medical device chemical, and electronics industries. A significant portion of our work involves breach of contract representations, and we are the primary outside counsel for a variety of Fortune 100 companies in these matters. Outside of the courtroom we help clients mitigate risk and find alternatives to litigation when possible.

Morgan Lewis acts as counsel to the special committees that are increasingly employed by corporations to review interested director transactions, examine perceived conflicts among officers and directors, and conduct internal investigations. We are often called upon to act as counsel to special committees of boards of directors in relation to mergers and acquisitions. Many of the issues scrutinized by special committees involve questions of Delaware law. Our white collar attorneys provide important support for our work in this area, and our Delaware office is headed by a lawyer who brings to these matters insights drawn from his many years as a federal prosecutor.

Morgan Lewis’s Intellectual Property litigators represent our clients’ interests in patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, and related intellectual property cases. We work across all industries, but with a particular emphasis on companies doing business in the high-technology, medical device, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and energy sectors. We have taken numerous patent cases to verdict in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, and two of our partners have served on District Court advisory committees, one of which was formed specifically to address intellectual property issues.

Our Labor and Employment Practice has for many years counseled clients in Delaware, including companies in the technology, pharmaceutical, healthcare and nonprofit sectors. We offer employment advice and representation in single-plaintiff litigation, and complex employment and employee benefits litigation. We also work with clients on single-employer and industry-wide collective bargaining, regulatory, intellectual property disputes, and employee benefits matters.

For decades we have defended the nation’s leading companies in high-stakes product liability and toxic and mass tort litigation, including numerous asbestos cases in Delaware’s Superior Court. We defend clients in serial litigation, multi-plaintiff claims and other cases that may involve a relatively small number of plaintiffs but pose significant risks for the client. We were among the original participants in asbestos property damage litigation, which was critical in developing current class-action law.

Since 2000, Morgan Lewis securities litigators have defended more than 60 class actions alleging violations of the Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) and/or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) and numerous derivative lawsuits filed under state law. We frequently obtain dismissals in the early stages of litigation and know the important role that settlements play in securities class actions and derivative cases. Our litigators have defended corporate issuers and their officers and directors in numerous industries—including biotech, finance and lending, manufacturing, distribution, and computer software development—against a variety of claims arising from:

• Restatements
• Unfavorable decisions by the FDA
• Alleged channel stuffing
• Purported accounting improprieties
• Failure to achieve forecasted estimates
• Initial public offerings
• Mutual fund trading
• Options backdating

Our firm’s White Collar Litigation and Government Investigations Practice is the professional home of numerous government agency alumni, veteran criminal and regulatory defense lawyers, and former prosecutors—including a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware who also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Delaware and a Special Deputy Attorney General for the Delaware Attorney General’s Office. We conduct corporate internal investigations and defend companies and individuals in government investigations and criminal and civil enforcement actions. We also assist companies—large and small—in designing and implementing compliance programs. Our Delaware white collar and government investigation work has included representations of companies and individuals in the pharmaceutical, health care, chemical, and high-tech industries in connection with some of the most high-profile government enforcement actions in Delaware in the past several decades.