McDermott is pleased to announce its rankings in Benchmark Litigation 2016. The Firm received Tier 2 rankings in four separate practice areas: Antitrust, Appellate, Insurance, and Intellectual Property. All four practice areas were ranked higher than they were in last year’s results. In addition, the firm received state rankings in Illinois, California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington D.C.

Additionally, McDermott had 8 lawyers highlighted as National Litigation Stars: Joel Chefitz, Ray Jacobsen, David Marx, M. Miller Baker, Jeffrey Stone, Margaret Warner, Sarah Columbia, and Steven Scholes. The firm also had 28 lawyers ranked as Local Litigation Stars, and 5 Lawyers pegged as Future Stars.

To view the full results by Benchmark Litigation, please click here. The results can also be found on the Benchmark Litigation site here.

Stephen Kranz said more states should cover attorney’s fees for taxpayers who contest and win litigation with tax authorities, because it would “level the playing field between the government, which has the power of assessment, and taxpayers, who are forced to defend against that power when it’s used inappropriately.” Diann Smith added that “the availability of attorney’s fees for a successful taxpayer is not necessarily found in the tax or revenue statute. A taxpayer can sometimes look outside those statutes and use the more general statutes to claim attorney’s fees.”

Dr. Matthias Kampshoff (insolvency law) was the lead partner as McDermott advised Strauss Innovation on the sale of some of its business and assets (including two-thirds of its 77 stores) to the German investment company Mittelstandsholding (DMH). Also on the Düsseldorf office transaction team were Dr. Marc Oberhardt, Ulrike Witt (both insolvency law), Thomas Beisken and Dr. Anja Zelfel (both real estate law). Read the full article.

Stephen Kranz commented, regarding the use of tax policy tools to settle tax controversies, “People somehow have been convinced that the policy approach is something that you use if you are working in the legislative and regulatory world. That’s just no longer the case. Bringing a tax policy mind-set to any tax problem can be a game changer.” Diann Smith agreed that one area in which “taxpayers should be more active in is thinking about regulations, and how one state adopting a regulation can impact policy nationwide.”

Fabio Marino said client Diablo Technologies was “thrilled” that a California federal judge upheld a jury verdict that the company did not steal a competitor’s trade secrets, noting that Diablo “feels vindicated by the court’s decision to uphold the jury’s verdict and award it the full amount of the bond in partial compensation for the profits it lost because it was wrongfully enjoined.” Other McDermott lawyers representing Diablo included Russell Hayman, Jon Dean, Natalie Bennett, A. Marisa Chun, Barrington Dyer, Nitin Gambhir, Laura Kieckhefer, Teri Nguyen and Tala Toufanian.

A McDermott team represented Munich investor Aurelius in acquiring Arba Processing (a manufacturer of vehicle superstructures and containers for the dairy industry) and the tuition business platform Tutoria. The team of lawyers from Munich and Düsseldorf included Dr. Carsten Böhm and Dr. Jan Hückel (both corporate), Dr. Gudrun Germakowski (labor law), Dr. Germar Enders (M&A), Catharina Dickhäuser and Sebastian Bonk. Read the full article.

Stephen Kranz and Diann Smith, described as “commentators [who] are among the best in the business,” were praised for their criticisms of retroactive changes in state tax laws, which they made in an earlier State Tax Notes discussion.

Stephen Kranz called it “shocking” that state legislatures could retroactively change tax laws, saying that revenue needs should not let elected officials “trample on the need for citizens to rely on the laws as they engage in economic and other activity, I hope the courts stand up to protect the U.S. Constitution and the people” by rejecting such efforts. Diann Smith agreed and asked, “Don’t legislators care about the next legislative group being able to retroactively revise the intent of the past legislature?”

Thomas Sauermilch led a McDermott team providing legal advice to German packaging group Gerresheimer AG in its purchase of the US prescription drug packaging business Centor for $725 million. Centor is the market leader at providing plastic vials and closures used by pharmacies in the US. Other team members included Michael Sartor, Diane Morgenthaler, Maureen O’Brien, Steven Erf, Daphne Trotter, James Cohen, Daniel Zucker, Michael O’Shaughnessy, Carla Hine, John Sullivan and William Stempel.

Stephen Kranz said of retiring Multistate Tax Commission counsel Roxanne Bland that her “substantive contributions to the organization were significant,” while Diann Smith expressed the wish for Bland that “it is time for her to enjoy the good life.“