Our business disputes practice encompasses trial lawyers spanning the breadth of our firm’s global footprint. Clients choose Morgan Lewis because of our trial experience, depth of industry knowledge, and proven track record. We’re committed to understanding each client’s legal concerns in the context of their business objectives, industry environment, and unique needs.
We focus on business disputes, including contract and tort disputes by and among business partners and commercial counterparties, and disputes arising out of pre- and post-M&A activity, including post-acquisition representation, earn out, warranty, and covenant litigation. Our lawyers handle all aspects of indemnification and third-party indemnification disputes; financial adjustment litigation and accounting arbitrations; and disputes stemming from industry competition, including claims of corporate fraud and wrongdoing. Beyond our litigation/trial work, our lawyers practicing in this area routinely collaborate with our transactional lawyers to provide litigation risk management and avoidance guidance to mitigate future disputes and/or position our client to best defend (or prosecute) future litigation arising out of commercial dealings and M&A transactions.
Our business disputes lawyers serve as primary outside counsel to the world’s largest corporations, including more than one-third of the Fortune 100, private equity investors around the globe, and many innovative startups. With offices across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, we have the global resources to handle any business dispute, anywhere, including in courts and arbitral tribunals worldwide. And we represent both plaintiffs and defendants, providing our litigators (and our clients) with a full-scope view of litigation management and strategy, including litigation financing and contingency fee work.
Our litigators have a command of all aspects of business dispute litigation, and backstop that with a depth of trial experience. We prepare for trial from day one, whether that is in pre-litigation or when a client is sued, or when we are asked to replace or join existing counsel for purposes of trial.
Our proven trial record is vital when business objectives mandate that a case be settled. We are able to negotiate settlements from a position of strength; our adversaries know we’re trial-ready. As counselors and negotiators, we help our clients manage risk and find alternatives to litigation if appropriate and consistent with the client’s objectives. In litigation, we draw from our experience in federal and state courts throughout the United States, and around the globe, to protect a client’s interests from start to finish.
Companies across all industry sectors face significant challenges in today’s economy that sees increasingly complex business relationships. We consider it our job to know our client’s business, its industry, and the legal and market trends affecting it.
Financial Services
We defend and prosecute all types of business disputes, including claims arising from financings, mortgages, and other secured instruments; M&A and real estate deals; complex financial transactions; swaps and other derivatives; indemnity and insurance agreements; and other complex transactions. Our litigators regularly represent clients as both plaintiffs and defendants in business disputes in the financial services industry ranging from high-dollar bet-the-company cases to straightforward disputes with counterparties that are the inevitable result of running a large enterprise. A significant component of our litigation portfolio consists of breach-of-contract disputes between businesses and representing market participants and creditors of all types in litigation, including fraud claims and other torts, such as breach of fiduciary duty.
Private Equity
Our lawyers represent private equity clients investing in funds focused on specific sectors—including energy and infrastructure, financial services, healthcare and life sciences, retail, consumer products, restaurants, media, transportation, and technology, as well as on target characteristics, such as distressed investing and turnaround opportunities. Partnering closely with our transactional colleagues, we help identify and navigate through potential disputes while preserving deal value. Where there is a heightened volume of deals at a rapid cadence, there is increased risk of a post-closing dispute, and our experience proves invaluable for our clients. And when a dispute cannot otherwise be resolved, we aggressively represent private equity firms and their portfolio companies in all aspects of litigation and arbitration, including indemnification, fraud, working capital, earn out, and other disputes.
Life Sciences
Morgan Lewis offers the full spectrum of life sciences clients—including pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotech companies as well as life science–adjacent businesses—the comprehensive legal resources and industry insight they need to achieve business objectives. We know that companies in the ever-changing and evolving life sciences industry face unique issues and that those issues vary greatly depending upon a company’s position in the product pipeline. Clients benefit from our ability to leverage our deep bench of lawyers in non-dispute practices such as FDA and regulatory, healthcare transactions, and intellectual property to counsel life science companies—from startup ventures to the largest global enterprises—in all aspects of their litigation portfolios, including trade secret and noncompete litigation, supplier/purchaser disputes, post-acquisition disputes, and third-party payor cases.
Technology
We represent technology companies in all aspects of business disputes, including industry leaders in computer hardware and networking, software solutions systems, semiconductor equipment, consumer electronics, telecommunications, medical devices, and other technical areas. We also represent some of the world's most innovative startups in ecommerce, fintech, telecommunications, and battery technologies as both plaintiffs and defendants. We collaborate closely with our technology, media, and telecommunications practice and firmwide technology industry team to stay abreast of trends in the industry across the technical, business, and legal perspectives. We know how to litigate and win cases for technology companies and based on our experience we can anticipate and respond swiftly to our clients' needs—whether they involve an alleged breach of a supplier/distributor contract, governance issue, theft of trade secrets, or post-deal dispute.