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 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;
  • 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;” and
  • a significant victory securing the denial of class certification in multidistrict litigation alleging that Citi and various other banks conspired in a group boycott to reduce competition in interest-rate swap trading.
• 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 several of the largest antitrust litigations nationally, including:
  • defending the company for twenty years in various class actions brought by the merchant community attacking the Mastercard business model and practices, including against the use of so-called “interchange” fees and certain rules governing merchants’ acceptance of payment cards. The core Mastercard business model and practices have remained intact following settlements with the merchant class and large numbers of plaintiff opt-outs;
  • antitrust class actions on behalf of independent ATM operators and consumer groups challenging Mastercard’s ATM access fee non-discrimination rule; and
  • an antitrust class action brought on behalf of U.S. merchants alleging that major payments networks, together with card-issuing banks, conspired to shift fraud costs for certain card transactions from the issuing banks onto merchants in connection with the roll-out of EMV-chip cards in the U.S.
• 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 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 declined a last chance to appeal Goldman’s resounding appellate win 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.
• JPMorgan and its directors in securing the dismissal with prejudice of a derivative action brought by a pension fund alleging that the defendants breached fiduciary duties of oversight in connection with former JPMorgan client Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activity.
• Ripple, its co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse in winning a significant victory in the SEC’s lawsuit alleging that the defendants had altogether conducted over $2.6 billion in unregistered securities transactions through sales of digital asset XRP, and further alleging that the two executives aided and abetted Ripple’s sales in violation of U.S. securities laws. Following a significant summary judgment victory in which the court held that the sale of XRP on public exchanges did not constitute the sale of unregistered securities, the SEC filed for a rare voluntary dismissal of the remaining aiding and abetting claims against the individual defendants, eliminating the need for a trial and resulting in a complete victory for the individual defendants.
• Coinbase Global in winning a motion to compel arbitration and stay a putative consumer class action alleging that Coinbase and a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate GMO Internet Group promoted the stablecoin GYEN as pegged one-to-one in value to the Japanese yen. Plaintiff alleged that Coinbase and GMO hid GYEN’s volatility risks from purchasers and that Coinbase misled investors through its marketing materials regarding the coin's stability which allegedly led to millions of dollars in losses for the class members.
• 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.
• Snap, Inc. and several of its directors and executives in the dismissal of a securities class action alleging that Snap had defrauded its investors in connection with Apple’s 2021 rollout of privacy changes to its iPhone operating system. After the court granted the defendants' second motion to dismiss, the lead plaintiff asked that the case be dismissed with prejudice. The court dismissed the case with prejudice three days later.
• 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.
• 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.
• International Construction Products, a now-defunct heavy construction equipment importer, in winning a $100 million jury verdict in its nearly decade-long lawsuit against industry giant Caterpillar.
• 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.
• CNA Financial Corporation and its underwriter Continental Casualty Company in winning the dismissal of a significant COVID-19 business interruption insurance coverage dispute in which plaintiffs sought more than $500 million in alleged lost income and statutory damages. Paul, Weiss also won several significant appellate victories before the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Circuits in disputes over whether business-interruption provisions in commercial property insurance policies should be drastically expanded to cover income lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 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.
• The Ultimate Fighting Championship in a favorable settlement resolving all claims in two sprawling antitrust class actions alleging that UFC illegally dominated a market for elite MMA fighter services and suppressed fighter pay below competitive levels.
• 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.
• Nikola Corporation, a manufacturer of heavy-duty commercial battery-electric vehicles, and several of its officers and directors, in the partial dismissal of a putative securities class action in the District of Arizona regarding alleged misstatements about the company’s products and performance. Paul, Weiss also secured the partial dismissal of a related derivative lawsuit brought in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

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