IFLR1000 is delighted to announce the shortlists for the inaugural IFLR1000 United States Awards.
The awards celebrate the most innovative US deals and the best-performing law firms and lawyers across the states in 2019, and recognise where firms and lawyers performed exceptionally locally and nationally. The awards shortlists are the culmination of seven months' research, analysing hundreds of submissions, surveying thousands of referees and interviewing hundreds of lawyers.
Our methodology and criteria can be viewed here.
There will be no physical event for this year’s awards, winners will be announced online on September 16, 2020.
The awards research was conducted in conjunction with our ranking research into all 50 US states and DC. You can view this year's new IFLR1000 United States state rankings here.
All IFLR1000 research (awards and rankings) published in calendar year 2020 can be viewed here.
To discuss how we can help promote your achievements, please contact Chris Edouard: chris.edouard@legalmediagroup.com
If you have questions about the research, please contact Ben Naylor: bnaylor@iflr1000.com
STATE FIRM OF THE YEAR
State Firm of the Year: California
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
State Firm of the Year: Connecticut
Day Pitney
Finn Dixon & Herling
Holland & Knight
Robinson Cole
Wiggin & Dana
State Firm of the Year: Delaware
Cole Schotz
Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnell
Reed Smith
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders
State Firm of the Year: District of Columbia
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Arnold & Porter
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Latham & watkins
McDermott Will & Emery
State Firm of the Year: Florida
Akerman
Greenberg Traurig
Holland & Knight
McDermott Will & Emery
White & Case
State Firm of the Year: Georgia
Alston & Bird
Greenberg Traurig
King & Spalding
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
Squire Patton Boggs
State Firm of the Year: Illinois
Kirkland & Ellis
Mayer Brown
McDermott Will & Emery
Reed Smith
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
State Firm of the Year: Maryland
Ballard Spahr
Cole Schotz
Duane Morris
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
Whiteford Taylor & Preston
State Firm of the Year: Massachusetts
Brown Rudnick
Foley Hoag
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Murphy & King
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
State Firm of the Year: New Jersey
Cole Schotz
Lowenstein Sandler
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Reed Smith
Sills Cummis & Gross
State Firm of the Year: New York
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Kirkland & Ellis
Simpson Thacher & Barlett
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
State Firm of the Year: Oklahoma
Crowe and Dunlevy
GableGotwals
Hall Estill
Hartzog Conger Cason
McAfee & Taft
State Firm of the Year: Pennsylvania
Ballard Spahr
Duane Morris
Morgan Lewis & Bockius
Reed Smith
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders
State Firm of the Year: Texas
Baker Botts
Bracewell
King & Spalding
Kirkland & Ellis
Vinson & Elkins
DEAL OF THE YEAR
Deal of the Year: Banking and finance
AbbVie $42 billion bridge financing
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Kirkland & Ellis
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Bristol-Myers Squibb $36.5 billion financing
Kirkland & Ellis
Mayer Brown
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Disney $35.7 billion bridge financing
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson
Hogan Lovells
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Ditech Holding Corporation$1.9 billion debtor-in-possession financing
Alston & Byrd
Jones Day
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Weil Gotshal & Manges
IBM $20 billion bridge financing
Debevoise & Plimpton
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
Simpson Thacher & Bartlet
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Occidental Petroleum Corporation $21.8 billion bridge financing
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Weil Gotshal & Manges
Pacific Gas and Electric Company $5.5 billion debtor-in-possession financing
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
Weil Gotshal & Manges
Deal of the Year: Capital markets
frontdoor secondary offering and debt-for-equity exchange
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Simpson Thacher
Levi Strauss & Co NYSE IPO
Arnold & Porter
Cooley
Sullivan & Cromwell
Mars $5 billion eight-tranche bond issue
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Pinterest NYSE IPO
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Potter Anderson & Corroon
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Slack NYSE direct listing
Goodwin Procter
Latham & Watkins
Starbucks $2 billion dual-tranche sustainability bond issue
Mayer Brown
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Targa Resources $1.5 dual-tranche high-yield bond issue
Gibson Dunn
Uber Technologies NYSE IPO
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Cooley
Covington & Burling
Deal of the Year: M&A
BB&T acquisition of SunTrust Banks
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Sullivan & Cromwell
Bristol-Myers Squibb acquisition of Celgene
Kirkland & Ellis
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Disney acquisition of 21st Century Fox
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Hogan Lovells
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
DowDuPont three-way spin-off
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Debevoise & Plimpton
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Weil Gothshal & Manges
First Data / Fiserv merger
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Sullivan & Cromwell
FS / KKR Advisor merger
Dechert
Davis Polk & Wardwell
IBM acquisition of Red Hat
Hogan Lovells
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Occidental acquisition of Anadarko
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Vinson & Elkins
Deal of the Year: Projects
Clearway Energy 283MW Texas wind farms repowering
Norton Rose Fulbright
Winston & Strawn
Empire Wind 816MW offshore wind farm
Bracewell
Holstein 200MW solar power plant
Akin Gump
Hunton Andrews Kurth
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders
Winston & Strawn
Lāwa’i 28MW solar power 100 MWh energy storage facility
Akin Gump
Mayer Brown
Norton Rose Fulbright
Mesquite Star 419MW wind farm
Norton Rose Fulbright
Winston & Strawn
Newark Liberty International Airport consolidated rent-a-car PPP
Ashurst
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
White & Case
Prospero Solar 379 MW wind farm
Norton Rose Fulbright
Winston & Strawn
Vineyard Wind 800MW offshore wind farm
Norton Rose Fulbright
Deal of the Year: Restructuring and insolvency
Energy Future Holdings restructuring
Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Kirkland & Ellis
O'Melveny & Myers
Weil Gotshal & Manges
Exide Technologies restructuring
Lowenstein Sandler
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
iHeart Media restructuring
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Arnold & Porter
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Jackson Walker
Jones Day
Kirkland & Ellis
Munger Tolles & Olson
Norton Rose Fulbright
Weil Gotshal & Manges
White & Case
Jones Energy restructuring
Baker Botts
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Haynes and Boone
Jackson Walker
Kirkland & Ellis
Milbank
Porter Hedges
Nine West restructuring
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Davis Polk & Wardwell & Wardwell
DLA Piper
Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton
King & Spalding
Kirkland & Ellis
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel
Quinn Emanuel Urquart & Sullivan
Seward & Kissel
Sidley Austin
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
White & Case
Sears restructuring
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Davis Polk & Wardwell & Wardwell
Paul Weiss
Weil Gotshal & Manges
Sungard restructuring
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Ballard Spahr
Buchalter
Carter Ledyard & Milburn
Jones Day
Kirkland & Ellis
McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
Think Finance restructuring
Armstrong Teasdale
Cole Schotz
Haynes and Boone
Hunton Andrews Kurth
Katten Muchin Rosenman
Kirkland & Ellis
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
LAWYER OF THE YEAR
Lawyer of the Year: Banking and finance
Douglas Horowitz – Cahill Gordon & Reindel
Michael Goldman – Cravath Swaine & Moore
George Zobitz – Cravath Swaine & Moore
Melissa Hutson – Kirkland & Ellis
Patrick Ryan – Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Stephanie Teicher – Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Doug Urquhart – Weil Gotshal & Manges
Morgan Bale – Weil Gotshal & Manges
Lawyer of the Year: Capital markets
David Peinsipp – Cooley
William Fogg – Cravath Swaine & Moore
Michael Kaplan – Davis Polk & Wardwell & Wardwell
Doug Rayburn – Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Rick Kline – Goodwin Procter
Eddie Best – Mayer Brown
Arthur Robinson – Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Gregg Noel – Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Lawyer of the Year: M&A
Kimberly Petillo-Décossard – Cahill Gordon & Reindel
James Lebowitz – Dechert
Eric Siegel – Dechert
Jonathan Davis – Kirkland & Ellis
Edward Lee – Kirkland & Ellis
Scott Barshay – Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
Kathryn King Sudol – Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Howard Ellin – Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Daniel Neff – Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Joshua Cammaker – Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Lawyer of the Year: Projects
Andrew Fraiser – Ashurst
Kevin Ewing – Bracewell
Robert Goldberg – Mayer Brown
Elizabeth Dubeck – O'Melveny & Myers
Rob Eberhardt – Norton Rose Fulbright
Benjamin Koenigsberg – Norton Rose Fulbright
Lance Brasher – Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Dolly Mirchandani – White & Case
Lawyer of the Year: Restructuring and insolvency
Dennis Dunne – Milbank
Robert Klyman – Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Michael Rupe – King & Spalding
James Sprayregen – Kirkland & Ellis
Louis Strubeck – Norton Rose Fulbright
Nancy Mitchell – O'Melveny & Myers
Van Durrer II – Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Ray Schrock – Weil Gotshal & Manges
TEAM OF THE YEAR
Team of the Year: Banking and finance
Cahill Gordon & Reindel
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Kirkland & Ellis
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Latham & Watkins
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Weil Gotshal & Manges
Team of the Year: Capital markets
Cahill Gordon & Reindel
Cooley
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Latham & Watkins
Mayer Brown
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Team of the Year: M&A
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Cravath Swaine & Moore
Dechert
Kirkland & Ellis
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Sullivan & Cromwell
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Team of the Year: Projects
Akin Gump
Ashurst
Bracewell
Mayer Brown
Norton Rose Fulbright
O'Melveny & Myers
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Winston & Strawn
Team of the Year: Restructuring and insolvency
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
Davis Polk & Wardwell
King & Spalding
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Milbank
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Weil Gotshal & Manges