Gold Sponsor

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

https://www.dwt.com/

In many ways, we look a lot like most other AmLaw 100 firms. We have smart, well-trained lawyers. We care about our clients and want them to succeed. We can offer niche expertise or deep teams, depending on the nature of your legal needs. Indeed, we "represent clients from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies on the full range of…" (see pretty much every other AmLaw100 firm website). 

But you probably want to know what makes us different. The main thing is, we know that great clients have lots of options, and we want to be an easy and obvious choice for them. So we’re open to looking for ways to meet their needs, as opposed to finding reasons we can’t. We won’t take you for granted or forget who works for whom.  

What Our Clients Need, However They Need It 

We’re open to solving legal questions in ways that work for your particular business needs, or corporate culture, or organizational imperatives. We’re open to serving you in ways that meet your budget, or integrate best with your team, or just give you more peace of mind. 

We look for creative ways to add value beyond our legal work product. We’re on a straight retainer with one of our largest clients, with no billable hours, providing budget certainty and eliminating the huge administrative burden on our client of reviewing bills. We built our own staffing agency so we could offer the flexibility and cost savings of contract professionals but maintain control over quality, service standards, and client integration. We won national innovation awards three years running, based on developing new and better ways of serving clients. And then we quit competing for those awards, so we could just focus on our clients. 

Excellence First  

All that wouldn’t matter much if we weren’t also excellent. According to colleagues who have joined us from other firms, we collaborate better to serve clients and build successful practices. We’ve built a national First Amendment team that protects content generators and distributors from those who would stifle expression. A litigation team that is a top choice for leading tech companies, healthcare providers and those in the cross-hairs of an over-reaching government. Multidisciplinary, industry-focused teams doing some of the most interesting transactional, regulatory, and litigation work out there in technology, media, entertainment, communications, healthcare, financial services, food and beverage, restaurants, and energy. 

We combine the focus, flexibility and personal connections of a boutique, with the scope, scale and resources of an AmLaw 100 firm – but without the drawbacks of either. Finding that balance has put us in a good place. We have out-performed the vast majority of the AmLaw 100 over the past several years but we haven’t forgotten who we are: open, humble, user-friendly, committed to service. We’re pretty sure you’ll be happy you chose us.  

Why did they decide to become an NBA-CLS sponsor? (50 - 100-word count)

DWT is committed to supporting the vision and mission of NBA-CLS, and have been longstanding supporters of NBA. We are intentional about partnering with affinity bar organizations to provide opportunities, resources, and support for our black attorneys. We aim to create an industry where all talented individuals, including those from communities traditionally underrepresented in the legal profession, can have and can see paths to success. Our partnership with NBA-CLS does just that. Our attorneys have greatly benefited from their engagement and the connections they’ve made through the CLS Conference, and are excited to continue our support of NBA-CLS in the years to come.

Additional Information

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are part of the fabric of Davis Wright Tremaine—central to who we are and what we do. Our vision is to foster a culture where all talented individuals—including those from communities traditionally underrepresented in the legal profession—can have, and can see, paths to success. 

The Four Pillars 

Our DEI vision is built on four pillars, embedded across the management of our firm: 

• Community: Fostering a culture that generates a sense of belonging, supports authenticity and intersectionality and embraces and appreciates our differences
• Growth: Building and recruiting a diverse pipeline of talent and ensuring our professionals have equitable access to opportunities, information, and leadership
• Education: Generating opportunities to learn about DEI in order to elevate our individual and collective consciousness. 
• Engagement: Collaborating with external stakeholders, including our clients, affinity bar organizations, other external diversity organizations, to further our shared values around DEI.

Our commitment to DEI begins at the very top, with the active participation in our DEI efforts by the firmwide Managing Partner, the Executive Committee, and our Chief Talent & Inclusion Officer.  Our Diversity Executive Council (DEC) leads the firm’s DEI strategy and direction and includes our managing partner, several Executive Committee members, and key lawyer and business professional leaders from across the firm.  

Bronze Sponsor

About Axinn

www.axinn.com/

Axinn combines the skills, experience and dedication of the world's largest firms with the focus, responsiveness, efficiency and attention to client needs of the best boutiques. The firm was established in the late 1990s by lawyers from premier Wall Street firms with a common vision: provide the highest level of service and strategic acumen in antitrust, intellectual property and high-stakes litigation. Axinn's lawyers have served as lead or co-lead counsel on nearly half a trillion dollars in transactions and, in the last 10 years alone, have handled more than 300 litigations.

• Global Competition Review named Axinn the "Firm of the Year – Americas" for acting as global lead counsel in its representation of Ball Corp. in its $6.8 billion acquisition of Rexam, creating the largest aluminum can beverage company in the world. It also acted as global lead counsel for Dell in its $67 billion acquisition of EMC, the largest technology deal in history. The firm was nominated by Global Competition Review for Litigator of the Year, Litigation of the Year (SawStop v Black & Decker), Litigation of the Year - Cartel Defense (Auto Parts MDL), Deal of the Year (Dell's acquisition of EMC) and Dealmaker of the Year.

• Axinn has numerous seasoned IP trial lawyers and is a go-to firm for IP matters of strategic importance. The IP group typically has several dozen pending patent and trade secret cases, and tries multiple cases annually. Axinn has served as lead trial counsel in some of the most significant recent patent cases for the world's leading pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, biologics and consumer products companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Unilever. On numerous occasions, the firm has been asked to take over cases during or after discovery and serve as lead counsel at trial, including the defense of a multi-billion dollar jury trial.

• Axinn litigators try cases and win. They have tried cases before juries, judges and arbitrators alleging breach of contract, business torts, breach of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, antitrust violations, employment discriminations, fraud and theft of intellectual property. Axinn litigators also understand their clients, their businesses and products, their goals and governance issues, and what keeps their GCs up at night. Axinn has particular expertise in serving financial institutions with dozens of insurer hedge funds, mutual funds, and other financial industry clients. Axinn litigators are frequently involved in litigation on behalf of international clients and have successfully represented clients in forums from the Cayman Islands and Jersey to ICC arbitrations.

Silver Sponsor

About Duane Morris

www.duanemorris.com

Duane Morris LLP, a law firm with more than 900 attorneys in offices across the United States and internationally, is asked by a broad array of clients to provide innovative solutions to today's legal and business challenges.

Evolving from a partnership of prominent lawyers in Philadelphia a century ago, Duane Morris' modern organization stretches from the U.S. to London and across Asia. Throughout this global expansion, Duane Morris has remained committed to preserving its collegial, collaborative culture that has attracted many talented attorneys. The firm's leadership, and outside observers like the Harvard Business School, believe this culture is truly unique among large law firms, and helps account for the firm continuing to prosper throughout changing economic and industry conditions.

Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Mission Statement

Duane Morris is committed to being a law firm that includes people of diverse backgrounds and fully utilizes their talents to provide legal services of the highest quality. The firm will employ effective methods of recruitment of a diverse array of talent, and we will support their success and advancement within the firm.

Duane Morris is committed to fostering understanding, communication and respect among all people in the firm, including people of different races, religions, ages, genders, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, national origins, sexual preferences or orientations, medical conditions or disabilities, and marital, veteran or family statuses. The firm believes it should capitalize on the strength emanating from these differences. Drawing on the talents of all of the firm's personnel helps to create an optimum workplace, one which can attract and retain diverse personnel and clients, allowing it to enter and serve varying markets and approach services to its clients more creatively. Duane Morris has the ability to meet these challenges and recognizes the beneficial impact a successful diversity program will have on firm morale, productivity, strategies and success.

The Executive Committee of Duane Morris has appointed a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to facilitate the implementation of this Mission Statement.