Founding partner Beth Wilkinson was featured in the June 27 issue of Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal as a “power player” among outside counsel in the sports industry. “Beth has handled some of the biggest class-action cases in sports while representing Major League Baseball and the NFL.” — Sports Business Journal Wilkinson Stekloff currently represents the NFL in a putative antitrust class action challenging the League’s broadcast arrangement for its Sunday Ticket Package. The firm also represents the NCAA in a defamation suit set for trial in Los Angeles. Read more at Sports Business Journal.
Supreme Court Issues Landmark Affirmative Action Decision in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
June 23, 2016
Wilkinson Stekloff partner Lori Alvino McGill played a leading role representing the University in Fisher v. University of Texas. In a 4-3 decision authored by Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court upheld UT’s undergraduate admissions policy, which considers an applicant’s racial background as one of many factors. The decision reaffirms that universities have a compelling interest in seeking the educational benefits of a broadly diverse student body, and that they may use race-conscious admissions policies tailored to that goal. The decision–which praises the University’s efforts to achieve diversity through other means, and its reasoned conclusion that those efforts were inadequate–also marks the first time that Justice Kennedy has voted to uphold a race-conscious admissions policy as consistent with the Equal Protection Clause. The Court’s ruling will allow UT and other universities to continue to “defin[e] those intangible characteristics, like student body diversity, that are central to [their] identity and educational mission.” To learn more …
Wilkinson Stekloff Celebrates its First Pro Bono Victory
June 15, 2016
Today, Wilkinson Stekloff is proud to announce its first pro bono trial win by Norman Pentelovitch and Hal Brewster, who successfully represented a woman seeking a civil protection order from an abusive former boyfriend. During the trial, Hal made an opening statement and conducted the direct of our client. The woman bravely faced a cross-examination by her abuser, who represented himself pro se. Norman cross-examined the former boyfriend after he testified, and presented the closing argument. The judge ruled from the bench, finding the former boyfriend’s prior behavior and in-court testimony to be abusive and controlling. She found our client’s testimony credible, and that documentary evidence proved the former boyfriend had committed an “intrafamily offense.” The resulting civil protection order requires the former boyfriend to stay 100 yards away from our client at all times, and to not harass, threaten or stalk her. At our client’s request, the court also ordered …
Wilkinson Stekloff Team Wins First Trial
April 9, 2016
On April 7, 2016, Wilkinson Stekloff’s trial team, led by Wilkinson Stekloff Founding Partner Beth Wilkinson, won its first major trial just two months after the firm opened its doors. Following a three week trial, a St. Louis jury deliberated for less than an hour and found that Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris unit did not deceive smokers with the marketing of Marlboro Lights. Plaintiffs sought more than $1.5 billion in compensatory and punitive damages. The Wilkinson Stekloff team worked with attorneys from Winston & Strawn led by George Lombardi, the co-chair of Winston’s litigation practice. Read more about Wilkinson Stekloff’s successful representation at The Associated Press.
Bond Behind Trial Firm Wilkinson Stekloff Forged By Garland
March 16, 2016
Law360, New York (March 16, 2016, 9:04 PM ET) — One morning in 2014, in a Boston courtroom, Beth Wilkinson stood facing a witness that she wasn’t ready for. The witness had prepped with her partner, Alexandra Walsh, whose seat sat empty next to her. At that moment, Walsh was sick in a hotel room, waiting for an emergency doctor to arrive. “She couldn’t talk; she couldn’t even sit in the courtroom,” Wilkinson said. “It was horrible,” Walsh said. They had been hired just three weeks before by entrepreneur Michael Rubin, whose GSI Commerce was being… Read the full article at www.law360.com
Trial Boutique Wilkinson Stekloff Doubles Size In 4 Weeks
February 26, 2016
Law360, New York (February 26, 2016, 10:29 PM ET) — The boutique launched weeks ago by two former Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP trial superstars has already hired a dozen more lawyers, doubling its head count since it opened its doors, the founders said in an exclusive interview Friday. Washington, D.C.-based Wilkinson Stekloff & Eskovitz LLP now employs seven partners, 13 associates and two counsel, founding partner Beth Wilkinson said, for a total of 22 — a leap from the fewer than 10 people she and co-founder Alexandra Walsh started with in January after… Read the full article at www.law360.com