Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Litigation

Manatt’s litigation philosophy is simple: listen first, understand our clients’ business and legal objectives, and then aggressively, efficiently, and effectively prosecute or defend our clients’ interests. We are vigorous advocates in the courtroom while maintaining an openness towards advantageous settlement and other alternatives whenever possible. It’s how we are able to provide our clients with high-quality and cost-effective solutions while assuring them of the strongest possible positions at all stages of the legal process.

A Multi-Talented Team At Your Side
Our Litigation Division combines aggressive, creative litigation talent with a deep knowledge of the industries and practice areas in which our clients operate—advertising, healthcare, entertainment, energy, financial services, intellectual property, and real estate. We pair our clients with a team of trial lawyers who know what it takes to win in the courtroom and Manatt lawyers who know their industry, enabling us to achieve unparalleled successes for clients. 

Manatt’s litigators include some of the top trial and appellate lawyers in the United States. They are members of the American and International Colleges of Trial Lawyers, and have achieved numerous other recognitions from clients and peers—including the national Verdict of the Year in 2008 and honorable mention in The American Lawyer’s “Litigation Department of the Year” competition (2010). 

A Litigation Team That Includes You
The companies we work with are not simply clients to us—they’re our partners. As a partner, we put a premium on communication with our clients. Our availability and collaboration with them is paramount. It means providing candid assessments of our clients’ cases and keeping them fully apprised of developments, as well as working jointly to create a strategy that is carefully calibrated to each client’s specific needs, risks, goals, and budget. No case is the same. We don’t offer a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Because of the size, depth and scope of our practice, we can commit the right number of lawyers and legal personnel to handle your concerns effectively. 

Successes In and Out of the Courtroom
Some Manatt litigation cases dominate the headlines, but many more are discreetly resolved before they go to trial. For us, successful litigation is not only about dramatic victories at trial. Rather, success is measured by obtaining the best and most effective outcome to a client’s dispute—whether it’s inside or outside the courtroom. Creativity, judgment and experience are the keys to our success in finding winning outcomes. Over the years, our lawyers have proven to be tenacious and strong litigators who have achieved success in cases at the pleading, class certification, or summary judgment stages of state and federal lawsuits. We are more effective because our opponents know we play to win. We routinely try high-stakes, complex cases—with great success. Our highly experienced trial lawyers have successfully handled cases in every forum, from state and federal trial and appellate courts to international courts of arbitration. In every instance, we have brought a sure grasp of the issues, and the forensic skills and strategic insights necessary to produce favorable results. 

A Comprehensive Practice
Our attorneys regularly manage “bet-the-company” litigation involving virtually every substantive area of business law. We also understand and have long experience in dealing with “parallel proceedings” involving regulatory, administrative, criminal, and civil issues simultaneously. Because we have such extensive resources as a firm, we can develop comprehensive strategies to reach our clients’ goals in resolving disputes that encompass all key areas of business practice: 

• Advertising
• Antitrust
• Appellate
• Bankruptcy
• Class Actions
• Construction & Public Works
• Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense
• Eminent Domain
• Employment & Labor
• Entertainment & Media
• Environmental & Toxic Torts
• Healthcare Litigation
• Insurance
• Intellectual Property
• Real Estate Litigation
• Securities Litigation & Arbitration
• Sports
• Technology & Patent Litigation
• Trial Practice
• Unfair Competition

Diversity at Manatt

Manatt considers diversity to be a fundamental component of our institutional identity. As a law firm, we have a professional responsibility, and as individuals, we have a personal responsibility to our respective communities. Incorporating diversity into our culture allows us to enhance the high-quality, creativity and excellence in legal services that our clients have come to expect.

Manatt has invested a significant amount of human and financial resources in our own diversity program. Our philosophy is simple: include women and minority lawyers at all levels of Firm leadership and promote diversity in the legal profession through our support and active involvement in various minority civic and bar organizations.

The mix of our minority and women attorneys has consistently exceeded the national average among the country's top law firms. Our talented mix includes minority and women lawyers serving as heads of offices, members of the firm's Board of Directors and management team, and chairs of some of the firm's most important practice groups.

Inclusive Culture
Our progressive culture allows us to maintain a growing mix of women and minority lawyers, and the results illustrate this commitment.  The American Lawyer ranked our Firm 29th (in the top 12%) on its Diversity Scorecard for the largest 250 law firms in the country for 2009.  Multi Cultural Law Magazine included our Firm on its 2008 lists of the Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity, Top 25 Law Firms for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and Top 25 Law Firms for Openly Gay/Lesbian Americans.

Despite our progress and diversity success, we can do better.  Our challenge extends far beyond exceeding national averages.  Our plan cannot succeed if we focus only on recruiting minority and women attorneys.  The true challenge and measure for achieving success lies in creating and preserving an inclusive environment where our minority and women lawyers will stay, progress, prosper and succeed.  We have implemented a formal diversity program designed to enhance our recruiting and retention of diverse attorneys through an executive mentoring program intended to cultivate personally and professionally meaningful relationships between our diverse lawyers and our partners. 

Our commitment to diversity exists in a living document – a plan – that is concrete, easy to understand and publicly available.  The plan demonstrates to every law school student, lateral associate candidate, lateral partner candidate, recruiter, existing client, and potential client that we are serious about creating a workplace that mirrors the breadth of the communities where we and our clients live and work.

We focus on the following key areas to accomplish our mission.

Targeted Recruitment Effort
At Manatt, recruiting women and minority attorneys does not end on law school campuses. Our recruiting efforts focus on locating talented women and minority lawyers at all levels. At law schools, we seek out and interview students who share our core values in ways shaped and enhanced by their own experience. Manatt's 2005 Summer Program was the most diverse in the Firm's history. Our nine 2005 Summer Associates included two African-American students, three Hispanic students, one Asian-American student and three Caucasian students. Five of these nine students were women.

Mentoring as a Cornerstone
Minority attorneys who join Manatt as new or lateral hires immediately become the focus of a mentoring program. They are paired with senior attorneys who take an active role in encouraging their career development. Mentors actively work with their protégés, helping them form business plans and involving them in firm-wide marketing and development opportunities. Management holds mentors accountable for their roles and their protégés' progress at the Firm, including reviewing their efforts as part of the evaluation and compensation process.

Access to Opportunity
Success is a matter of talent and opportunity. At Manatt, we believe that the key to retaining talented minority attorneys -- and therefore the key to the success of our diversity efforts -- is providing a distinctive experience that offers clear access to professional accomplishment. We provide women and minority attorneys with important responsibilities and leadership opportunities in client development activities, complex litigation, large transactional matters and high-profile community and civic organizations. We also encourage and support minority and women attorneys who take leadership positions within the firm and outside in the community at large.

Long-Term Commitment
We challenge ourselves to make our young lawyers feel valued, involved and invested in the future of the firm. We know that they will eventually occupy the most important financial, management and executive positions at Manatt. Our professionals thrive in an atmosphere that encourages and supports responsibility, ambition, and entrepreneurship. We offer true opportunity equal to individual commitment to success and advancement. That's the history of opportunity at Manatt, where professionals with talent and drive are rewarded with a nurturing, dynamic and energizing climate.

Promoting Diversity
Promoting diversity in the legal profession requires both an investment of money and time. Our women and minority attorneys are prominently involved and hold leadership positions in some of the most important minority civic and bar organizations in the country including:

• Asian Americans of Equality
• Asian Pacific American Legal Center
• Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association
• California Association of Black Lawyers
• California Black Chamber of Commerce
• California Women's Law Center
• Chilean Association of Attorneys
• D.C. Commission on Asian & Pacific Islander Affairs
• Hispanic National Bar Association
• Inner City Law Center
• International Human Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of City of New York
• Korean American Bar Association
• Korean American Coalition
• L.A. Conservation Corps
• La Raza Galeria Posada
• Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Urban League
• National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
• NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund Board
• Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association
• The Association of Women in International Trade
• Women Lawyers Association
• Women's Bar Association of District of Columbia
• Women's Forum of Washington D.C.