Pro Bono Asylum Victory for Wilkinson Stekloff

September 21, 2016 /////////

Wilkinson Stekloff celebrates an asylum victory today for a sixteen-year old client fleeing persecution in Honduras. Our client suffered persecution in Honduras after his father, a member of a local taxi driver’s cooperative, defied a powerful international gang by refusing to make extortion payments. The gang stalked, threatened, and attempted to kidnap our client from school. Associate Max Warren led the case under the supervision of partner Brian Stekloff. Associates Norman Pentelovitch, Cali Cope-Kasten, and Meg Loftus, paralegal Youlan Xiu, and assistant Kat Phillips assisted with the case. The team worked in collaboration Human Rights First, a non-profit international human rights organization. We are proud of our client for the enormous bravery he has demonstrated in the face of adversity, and know he will be a model citizen in the United States.

Wilkinson Stekloff Adds Three Preeminent Trial Attorneys On Two Coasts

September 20, 2016 ///

Wilkinson Stekloff continues to grow its trial boutique with the addition of three young and experienced trial attorneys to its all-star team: Jennifer Saulino, who joins as a partner from the Fraud Section of the Department of Justice; Kosta Stojilkovic, who has joined the firm as a partner from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Koren (“Kori”) Bell, who will join the firm as counsel in Los Angeles from the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles, where she is a Supervising Trial Deputy. According to Wilkinson Stekloff founding partner Sean Eskovitz, who heads the firm’s Los Angeles office, “Jennifer, Kosta, and Kori have exactly what we are always looking for: energy, intelligence and courtroom confidence.  Adding them to the Wilkinson Stekloff team expands our ability to provide top-drawer trial talent to clients.” Wilkinson Stekloff, which opened its doors in February, has grown …

Beth Wilkinson Inducted Into The American College of Trial Lawyers

September 19, 2016 /

Beth Wilkinson, partner and co-founder of Wilkinson Stekloff LLP, has been inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the premier professional trial organization in North America. The American College of Trial Lawyers is an invitation-only fellowship of exceptional trial lawyers with diverse backgrounds from the United States and Canada. Membership is limited to the top one percent of the total population of lawyers from any state or province. Lawyers must have a minimum of fifteen years trial experience before they can be considered for Fellowship in the College. Only those lawyers who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism and collegiality are considered to be inducted as Fellows. “I could not feel more honored about the American College of Trial Lawyers’ recognition, nor more grateful to our clients for trusting me and Wilkinson Stekloff to handle their important trials,” Wilkinson …

Just Six Months After Opening Its Doors, Wilkinson Stekloff Named to Vault’s “Top 150 Under 150”

July 29, 2016 /

Vault has named Wilkinson Stekloff as one of the top 150 midsized and small firms in the country. Though only six months old, the firm has already secured high-stakes trial work from top-tier clients, more than doubled in size, won a complete defense verdict in a jury trial where plaintiffs sought over $1.5 billion in punitive and compensatory damages, and notched victories in state and federal courts throughout the country.  Wilkinson Stekloff is thrilled to have its innovative work, model, and culture recognized by Vault. View Vault’s “Top 150 Under 150” list here.

Wilkinson Honored as Go-To Litigator for Sports Industry

June 27, 2016 ///

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