Practice Areas & Industries: Hunton & Williams LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

With more than 260 attorneys, our Litigation team is one of the nation's largest, recognized as one of the premier litigation groups in the country. Our team of trial lawyers has been involved in high profile litigation, from corporate governance and control, nuclear power, and the smoking wars to high stakes intellectual property disputes, struggles over responsibility for cleaning up the environment and the turf battles of telecommunications. We have shown the ability to manage issues on a national and international scale with billions of dollars at stake. These experiences have taken our trial attorneys to virtually every state, and several continents.

Our willingness to try cases, our experience in the courtroom, and the resources we bring to bear make us a powerful national and international force in litigation.

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Over the past ten years, the U.S. Congress has increasingly criminalized business activities that were formerly subject only to administrative or regulatory processes. Companies now face severe penalties, including stiff fines, debarment and supervision by court-appointed trustees. The government frequently holds corporations criminally liable for the acts of individual employees. A federal investigation can destroy the public image a corporation has spent years building. Prosecution of a company or its officers and employees can turn into "bet the company" litigation.

In response to these challenges, our business crimes defense team defends businesses and individuals in white-collar criminal investigations and prosecutions in the USA and abroad, in parallel civil enforcement proceedings, and in related third party proceedings. We are regularly called upon to conduct highly confidential internal investigations for multinational companies, professional organizations, and even governmental entities. In so doing, we rely upon the substantial experience of our team in U.S. Attorney offices, government and elsewhere as well as a former U.S. District Judge.

Our antitrust practice extends beyond monopolization and price-fixing. We embrace all legal issues that arise when businesses compete ¿ or agree not to compete. In addition to antitrust, our practice includes the laws of international trade, franchising, consumer protection, and business torts. Our experience ranges from serving as lead counsel in cases with as many as 50 parties to defending charges of price-fixing in the European Commission in Brussels, as well as the civil and criminal dockets of federal district courts across the USA.

We counsel clients on the intricacies of false advertising, substantiation, and rights of publicity and privacy. We also represent clients in Federal Trade Commission investigations and proceedings relating to advertising claims and alleged deceptive practices. We assist clients in developing and implementing compliance programs that protect against antitrust violations, criminal and civil exposure that can be extremely costly.

Hunton & Williams' appellate practice is led by a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and includes former law clerks from the United States Supreme Court, United States Courts of Appeals, and State Supreme Courts, former appellate litigators from the Justice Department, as well as others who through years of experience have become well acquainted with the unique nature of appellate law.

We are fully acquainted with and are frequent advocates in the appellate courts in the districts where we have offices. Beyond that, our appellate practice follows the needs of our clients and has taken us to every circuit in the country and to the Supreme Court of the United States. On appeal, we represent clients who we served at trial as well as those who turn to us specifically for our experience and talent in handling appeals.

Over the past ten years, the U.S. Congress has increasingly criminalized business activities that were formerly subject only to administrative or regulatory processes. Companies now face severe penalties, including stiff fines, debarment and supervision by court-appointed trustees. The government frequently holds corporations criminally liable for the acts of individual employees. A federal investigation can destroy the public image a corporation has spent years building. Prosecution of a company or its officers and employees can turn into "bet the company" litigation.

In response to these challenges, our business crimes defense team defends businesses and individuals in white-collar criminal investigations and prosecutions in the USA and abroad, in parallel civil enforcement proceedings, and in related third party proceedings. We are regularly called upon to conduct highly confidential internal investigations for multinational companies, professional organizations, and even governmental entities. In so doing, we rely upon the substantial experience of our team in U.S. Attorney offices, government and elsewhere as well as a former U.S. District Judge.

Our corporate litigation lawyers litigate and advise on corporate governance and fiduciary duty issues, including issues arising under the Delaware General Corporate Code, for some of the world's most elite and respected corporations. In the past few years, our team has handled and been responsible for some of the most recognized legal developments in this field. This has been achieved in trial and in motions. At the same time, some of our most significant accomplishments have occurred when we have drawn on our litigation experience to help our clients avoid litigation. Representing both public and private companies, our litigators advise and represent corporations, members of their board of directors, committees of boards of directors, officers of the corporations, and substantial shareholders in the areas of:

• fiduciary duties of directors, officers and shareholders (generally and with respect to specific transactions)
• corporate opportunities
• issues arising under stockholder and other agreements
• internal corporate disputes among shareholders, directors, and management
• corporate control contests
• mergers
• tender offers
• proxy contests
• duties of all parties in a merger and acquisition process challenges to "poison pill" rights plans
• defending and prosecuting derivative and class actions by shareholders against officers and directors
• formation and operation of investigative special committees
• controlling shareholder issues
• federal securities law.

In a world where intellectual property has become many companies' most valuable asset, Hunton & Williams' Intellectual Property practice group helps clients define and protect their IP, and exploit its competitive advantages as a business tool.

One of the fastest growing IP groups in the country, we are especially experienced in the areas of:

• computer software and hardware
• Internet business methods
• telecommunications
• information technology
• financial transaction inventions
• optics and electrooptics
• consumer, industrial and military electronics
• organic and inorganic chemistry
• pharmaceuticals
• agricultural chemicals and biochemistry, including
• genetically modified enzymes and cell lines
• medical devices.

Audits and follow-up audits can assure that a company's intellectual property is identified and protected. Through our experience with high technology companies and start-ups, we have developed a protocol that enables us to provide this vital service quickly and efficiently.

Although we counsel in all aspects of patent law, we have significant experience in complex patent law prosecution matters, including interferences, reexaminations, and reissues. Our services also include the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign patent applications, licensing, and other transactional work. We render opinions on the patentability of inventions, and on the infringement and validity of patents.

The firm assists in the selection and protection of trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos and Internet domain names. We advise on copyright and on the protection of trade secrets.

We avoid litigation whenever possible by careful planning and creative resolution of disputes. But when litigation is necessary, we come to court with litigators who have extensive jury trial experience and court sense.

Our attorneys handle disputes in federal and state courts, the Patent and Trademark office, the International Trade Commission, and other foreign and administrative tribunals. We have successfully obtained (and defeated) preliminary injunctions and summary judgments, had contempt sanctions imposed on infringers, and have prevailed in both bench and jury trials.

In situations where a company may be confronted with the theft of secrets, calculated infringement of patents, or outright counterfeiting, we are able to respond with the expertise of Hunton & Williams' TurnStone Investigative Group. Working under the direct supervision of Hunton & Williams attorneys, our investigators include former FBI agents with real world experience in combating counterfeiting and infringement.

The globalization of the economy and the increase in the number of multinational ventures has led inevitably to a rise in commercial disputes that cross national boundaries.

Arbitration has unique advantages over litigation as a means of resolving international commercial disputes. Awards are binding and treaties permit their enforcement in most countries. Cases are heard in private, typically in a neutral forum, and with fewer formalities. Compared to litigation, disputes usually are resolved more quickly and at lower cost, with little or no publicity. Other non-litigation alternatives, such as mediation, also can be used as adjuncts to, or instead of, formal arbitration.

The international arbitration and dispute resolution practice at Hunton & Williams helps clients successfully manage the arbitration process worldwide, representing and counseling corporate and governmental clients in commercial, joint venture, investment, insurance, licensing, construction, and infrastructure disputes. We have advised and represented clients in disputes under the leading arbitral regimes and before international tribunals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In addition to our familiarity with the process and procedure of arbitration, we are also skilled litigators.

Trial lawyers in Hunton & Williams' domestic offices specialize in the preparation and trial of product liability cases. For many years, we have represented American and foreign manufacturers in defense of product liability claims in federal and state trial and appellate courts throughout the country, involving product and engineering disciplines.

Product liability counseling is an integral part of our practice. We work with clients to reduce costly claims by helping them develop comprehensive and well-defined programs that ensure product safety, reliability, and quality. This includes reviewing instruction and warning materials and counseling manufacturers on design review procedures, quality control, record keeping, marketing, sales practices, and contract formation.

Our practice ranges from representation of parties in hostile takeover litigation, through the defense of issuers, underwriters, indenture trustees, broker/dealers, and professionals on claims filed by investors, to representation of defrauded corporate and individual investors in both public and private offerings.

We have handled litigation concerning the issuance, management and sale of securities, from traditional bonds and stocks to derivatives and mortgage-backed securities. Our work has included the representation of defrauded plaintiffs in tax shelter offerings to the defense of issuers, indenture trustees, and broker/dealers in class action lawsuits. Our experience includes jury trials, bench trials and arbitration.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 ushered in a new era for the telecommunications industry. It also spawned an unprecedented wave of litigation between and among telecommunication carriers over cost recovery and interconnection rights. Many of these companies have also become embroiled in other forms of litigation as a result of mergers, acquisitions and the increasingly competitive marketplace. We serve as national counsel to one of the nation's largest carriers ¿ perhaps no other firm in the country shares our experience and familiarity with the telecommunications industry or our experience in the courthouse protecting and advancing the interests of telecommunications carriers.

Hunton & Williams has provided effective representation for private and municipal clients in toxic tort and environmental litigation throughout the United States for more than 25 years ¿ since before the term "toxic tort" was coined. Lawyers from the environmental and litigation teams often combine talents and resources to initiate and defend litigation in jury and non-jury trials and administrative proceedings. Our depth and breadth of experience insure quick development and efficient implementation of a case strategy geared to the specific factual and legal circumstances presented. Because of our experience in large, complex cases, we assess at the preliminary stages the potential impact of regulatory compliance issues, civil enforcement exposure and, where appropriate, criminal law issues.

Widely regarded as one of the premier workouts and creditors' rights practices in the Mid-Atlantic region, Hunton & Williams regularly handles major representations for national institutional and other clients in federal and state courts across the United States, including the traditional bankruptcy forums of the Southern District of New York and the District of Delaware. Our practice encompasses Chapter 11 bankruptcies, workouts, commercial litigation, transactional structuring advice and opinions, and advice to lenders.

Clients:
Chesapeake, Dart, Bergmann's, Inc., Grace Development, Bromine Products, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, James River Corporation , Reynolds Metals Company