McGuireWoods was recognized as a leading law firm in 36 nationwide practice areas in The Legal 500 United States, the respected independent guide to the country’s top firms and lawyers. The 2021 rankings once again highlight the firm’s litigation and transactional strength across industries and practice areas, including energy; banking and finance; M&A and private equity; healthcare; corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense; data protection and privacy; technology; and transportation.
The firm earned Tier 1 rankings in four categories: Energy Litigation: Conventional Power; Energy Regulation: Conventional Power; Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action: Automotive/Transport; and Transport: Rail and Road – Litigation.
The Legal 500 noted the firm’s “strong presence in the utilities industry” and its expertise in rate cases, tariff disputes, compliance, issues involving regional transmission organizations and energy enforcement cases. The firm also earned high marks for its work representing railroads, automakers and trucking companies in litigation and regulatory matters. In comments to The Legal 500’s researchers, clients lauded the firm for its collaborative, industry-focused approach.
“The firm excels at engaging a team of attorneys that not only work well together, and who are each very strong in their own particular disciplines, but are mutually supportive when pulled in to more complex transactions requiring several disciplines,” said an energy industry client.
Another praised the firm’s data privacy and security team for being “exceptionally responsive, capable of performing extremely sophisticated legal work on a short timeframe, and always professional and easy to work with.”
“I have found this combination to be quite rare,” the client said.
McGuireWoods lawyers were individually recognized 129 times in this year’s guide, with five singled out as “Leading Lawyers” in their respective practice areas.
- Eric Bilik, Transport: Rail and Road – Litigation
- Joanne Katsantonis, Energy Transactions: Conventional Power
- John Padgett, Transport: Shipping
- Samuel Tarry, Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action: Automotive/Transport
- Michael Woodard, M&A: Middle Market
McGuireWoods earned rankings in the following nationwide practice areas.
- Antitrust – civil litigation and class actions: defense
- Antitrust: cartel
- Commercial lending: advice to borrowers
- Commercial lending: advice to lenders
- Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense: advice to corporates
- Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense: advice to individuals
- Cyber law (including data protection and privacy)
- Education
- Energy litigation: conventional power
- Energy litigation: oil and gas
- Energy regulation: conventional power
- Energy: renewable/alternative power
- Energy transactions: conventional power
- Energy transactions: oil and gas
- Environment: litigation
- Environment: regulatory
- Fintech
- General commercial disputes
- Healthcare: advice to service providers
- IP – patent litigation: International Trade Commission
- IP – trade secrets
- M&A: middle-market (sub-$500 million)
- Not-for-profit: Nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations
- Patents: Litigation (International Trade Commission)
- Private equity buyouts
- Product liability, mass tort and class action – defense: automotive/transport
- Product liability, mass tort and class action – defense: consumer products
- Product liability, mass tort and class action – defense: pharmaceuticals and medical devices
- Product liability, mass tort and class action – defense: toxic tort
- Project finance: advice to lenders
- Project finance: advice to sponsors
- Securities litigation: defense
- Technology: outsourcing
- Technology: transactions
- Transport: aviation and air travel – finance
- Transport: rail and road – litigation and regulation
- Transport: shipping – litigation and regulation
In addition, The Legal 500 recognized individual McGuireWoods lawyers in the following categories.
Antitrust – cartel
Amy Manning and Angelo Russo of Chicago; Howard Feller and Brent Justus of Richmond
Antitrust – civil litigation/class actions: defense
Amy Manning and Angelo Russo of Chicago; Howard Feller and Brent Justus of Richmond
Commercial lending
Chris Molen of Atlanta; Eric Burk and Raj Natarajan of Charlotte; Hamid Namazie of Los Angeles
Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense
Jason Cowley of Charlotte; Kevin Lally of Los Angeles; Benjamin Hatch of Norfolk; John Adams and Richard Cullen of Richmond; Robert Bittman, Michael Francisco, Elizabeth Hogan, John Moran, Michael Podberesky, Todd Steggerda and George J. Terwilliger III of Washington, D.C.
Cyber law (including data protection and privacy)
Ashley Matthews of Charlottesville; Rodger Heaton of Chicago; Anne Peterson of Pittsburgh; Janet Peyton of Richmond; Andrew Konia of Tysons
Education
Harrison Marshall Jr. of Charlotte; R. Craig Wood of Charlottesville; Mary Nash Rusher of Raleigh; Michele McKinnon of Richmond
Energy litigation: conventional power
Julia English, Todd Mullins and Noel Symons of D.C.
Energy litigation: oil and gas
James Jeffries of Charlotte; Brian Jackson of Charlottesville; Greg Krock of Pittsburgh; Ryan Frei of Richmond
Energy regulation: conventional power
Julia English, Todd Mullins and Noel Symons of D.C.
Energy: renewable/alternative power
Timothy Callahan of Chicago; Durham McCormick of Houston; D. Brennen Keene and Michael Woodard of Richmond
Energy transactions: conventional power
Brian Kelly of Baltimore; Joanne Katsantonis of Richmond
Energy transactions: oil and gas
Anthony Carna of Pittsburgh
Environment: litigation
David Franchina of Charlotte; Diane Flannery and Vishwa Link of Richmond; Aaron Flynn, Makram Jaber and Allison Wood of D.C.
Environment: regulatory
David Franchina of Charlotte; Diane Flannery and Vishwa Link of Richmond; Aaron Flynn, Makram Jaber and Allison Wood of D.C.
Fintech
Rakesh Gopalan of Charlotte
General commercial disputes
Ava Lias-Booker of Baltimore; Jonathan Blank of Charlottesville; David Powell of San Francisco
Healthcare: advice to service providers
Bart Walker of Charlotte; Scott Becker, Holly Buckley and Amber McGraw Walsh of Chicago
M&A: middle-market (sub-$500 million)
Chris Scheurer of Charlotte; Geoffrey Cockrell of Chicago; David McLean of Dallas; Joanne Katsantonis and Michael Woodard of Richmond
Not-for-profit: nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations
Gerald V. Thomas II of Atlanta; Jean Gordon Carter of Raleigh; Michele McKinnon and Bradley Ridlehoover of Richmond
Outsourcing
Rakesh Gopalan of Charlotte
Patents: litigation (International Trade Commission)
David Finkelson of Richmond; Steven Adkins of D.C.
Private equity buyouts
Geoffrey Cockrell of Chicago; Jon Finger and David McLean of Dallas; Thomas Zahn of Pittsburgh
Product liability, mass tort and class actions – automotive/transport – defense
Terrence Bagley, Candace Blydenburgh, Diane Flannery, Perry Miles and Samuel Tarry of Richmond
Product liability, mass tort and class actions – consumer products – defense
Mark Anderson of Raleigh; Stephen Busch, Diane Flannery and Trent Taylor of Richmond
Product liability, mass tort and class action – defense: pharmaceuticals and medical devices
Mark Anderson of Raleigh; Diane Flannery of Richmond
Product liability, mass tort and class actions – toxic tort – defense
Diane Flannery , Davis Walsh and Samuel Tarry of Richmond
Project finance
Brian Kelly of Baltimore; Timothy Callahan of Chicago; Durham McCormick of Houston; D. Brennen Keene of Richmond
Securities litigation: defense
Cheryl Haas of Atlanta; Jonathan Blank of Charlottesville; Robert Muckenfuss of Charlotte; Diane Flannery of Richmond; Todd Steggerda of D.C.
Technology transactions
Rakesh Gopalan of Charlotte; James Anderson of Richmond
Trade secrets (litigation and noncontentious matters)
Peter Farley of Atlanta; Yasser Madriz and Eric Schlichter of Houston; David Finkelson, Brian Riopelle and Rodney Satterwhite of Richmond; David Greenspan of Tysons
Transport: aviation and air travel – finance
Patricia Hosmer and David Whelpley Jr. of Charlotte; Deepak Reddy of New York; Peter Szurley of San Francisco
Transport: rail and road – litigation and regulation
Brian Jackson of Charlottesville; Eric Bilik and Christopher Thanner of Jacksonville; Bryan Brantley and Matthew Monsour of Pittsburgh
Transport: shipping – litigation and regulation
John Padgett of Norfolk; Bryan Brantley of Pittsburgh.