Continuing its recent streak of national recognition, Wilkinson Stekloff has again been named a Top Tier trial law firm by Legal 500 in its United States Nationwide 2026 Guide. The firm advanced across several practice areas and placed multiple Partners in leading tiers across four separate practice areas. Among the most respected worldwide legal benchmarking publications, Legal 500’s 2026 Nationwide guide is its largest yet—curated from months of independent research, analysis of nomination submissions, and interviews with peers and clients alike. After breaking in last year as a “Firm to Watch” in the premium “General Commercial Disputes” category that considers matters involving $500 million or more, Wilkinson Stekloff advanced to Tier 4 in the 2026 Guide, a rise that underscores the firm’s proven ability to handle the most high-stakes disputes across a breadth of specialties. Its ranking in the “Sport” industry also climbed, reaching Tier 3, owing to multiple significant …
Wilkinson Stekloff Earns Increased Rankings from Chambers in USA 2026 Guide; Eight Partners Receive Individual Recognition
June 9, 2026
Chambers and Partners has again distinguished Wilkinson Stekloff as an elite law firm across six practice areas in its newly released USA 2026 Guide, elevating the firm in multiple Washington, D.C. and nationwide categories. This acknowledgment arrives as the firm celebrates its tenth anniversary, having litigated two dozen high-stakes cases to trial since its inception with a remarkable record of success. As a boutique with just under 50 attorneys, Wilkinson Stekloff boasts a deep roster of talented litigators and rivals some of the nation’s largest and most established firms with its rankings in commercial litigation, antitrust, sports law, and product liability. Wilkinson Stekloff debuted in Band 2 in the newly created “Nationwide General Commercial Litigation: The Elite,” reflecting the firm’s breadth of litigation excellence and reputation for delivering results in jurisdictions across the country. Chambers elevated the firm to Band 2 in “Nationwide Product Liability & Mass Torts: The Elite” …
Wilkinson Stekloff Wins Big at Benchmark Litigation’s 2026 U.S. Awards
March 12, 2026
Wilkinson Stekloff was honored with multiple awards at Benchmark Litigation’s 2026 U.S. Awards ceremony on March 11 in New York City. The firm was named “Trial Firm of the Year” for an unprecedented third consecutive year. Founding Partner Beth Wilkinson was inducted into Benchmark’s “Hall of Fame.” Partner Rakesh Kilaru won “Antitrust Litigator of the Year.” And the NCAA’s groundbreaking $2.8 billion NIL settlement received an “Impact Case Award.” Beth Wilkinson and fellow Founding Partner Brian Stekloff were also finalists in the respective categories of “Trial Lawyer of the Year” and “Product Liability Litigator of the Year”—distinctions each earned in previous years—and the firm was shortlisted again for “D.C. Firm of the Year” and “Boutique Firm of the Year,” having captured the latter in both 2017 and 2019. Beth Wilkinson’s appearance in Benchmark Litigation’s Hall of Fame is a fitting tribute to one of the nation’s preeminent trial lawyers, having …
Law360 Names Wilkinson Stekloff Practice Group of the Year in Competition/Antitrust and Sports & Betting Categories
February 18, 2026
Wilkinson Stekloff has been honored by Law360 as a Practice Group of the Year—an award that celebrates “the attorney teams behind litigation wins” that “resonated throughout the legal industry”—in both the Competition/Antitrust and Sports & Betting categories. This marks the first time the firm has won two PGOTY honors in the same cycle, underscoring landmark results across trials, appeals, and complex resolutions in 2025. The firm was previously recognized by Law360 in Competition/Antitrust in 2023 and Sports & Betting in 2020. Law360’s features spotlighted Wilkinson Stekloff’s many victories for the NCAA—beginning with securing approval of the groundbreaking $2.8 billion name-image-and-likeness (“NIL”) settlement, which resolved antitrust claims from multiple plaintiff classes against the NCAA and five major athletic conferences, enabling schools to directly compensate student-athletes for their participation in athletics. Despite a complex process that required lead defense negotiator Rakesh Kilaru to defend the deal at multiple hearings before it received …
Wilkinson Stekloff Celebrates 10 Years with a Look Back at 2025 Achievements
February 2, 2026
As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, we remember our beloved colleagues and friends Elizabeth Keys and Sarah Lee Best, whose lives were among those tragically lost in the airplane crash above Reagan National Airport a year ago. Liz and Sarah left an enduring mark on our firm and on all of us as individuals. We have kept them in our hearts and minds and always will. To honor their memories, we endowed scholarships in their names at their law school alma maters, Georgetown and Pennsylvania. With the support of our clients and colleagues, those scholarships have been fully funded and will aid new generations of lawyers in carrying on Liz’s and Sarah’s legacies. Continuing our tradition of excellence, in 2025 Wilkinson Stekloff again achieved landmark results spanning a variety of high-stakes matters, further entrenching the firm as the premier trial litigation boutique in the nation. Our recent successes include: As …
Benchmark Litigation Again Names Wilkinson Stekloff as a Top 20 Trial Law Firm, Recognizing Eight Partners
October 29, 2025
Wilkinson Stekloff has been named a “Top 20 Trial Law Firm” for the fourth year in a row by Benchmark Litigation—one of the premier guides to leading law firms and legal practitioners—in their 2026 US edition. This elite distinction follows the firm winning “Trial Firm of the Year” in back-to-back years at Benchmark’s annual US Awards ceremony. The firm also earned a “Tier 1” ranking in Competition/Antitrust—its first appearance in the category—owing to a string of high-profile wins in bet-the-company antitrust matters. In recent years, Wilkinson Stekloff secured major victories for Microsoft in its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, winning the second-biggest merger trial in American history; for the NFL, by winning judgment as a matter of law on multibillion-dollar class-action claims challenging their Sunday Ticket subscription model; and for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, positioning the company to close its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks after a federal court …
Wilkinson Stekloff Partner Cali Arat Named to the Daily Journal’s 2025 “Top 40 Under 40”
October 22, 2025
Wilkinson Stekloff partner Cali Arat has been named to the Daily Journal’s prestigious “Top 40 Under 40” list for 2025. This distinction honors California’s most accomplished young attorneys, and future leaders, across the legal profession. Cali has spent her first decade of practice at the center of some of the nation’s highest-stakes and most closely watched litigation. She has already served as counsel in seven jury trials—including two as lead—for major clients spanning the pharmaceutical, medical technology, and sports industries. In Clark v. Monsanto, Cali served as co-lead trial counsel for Bayer alongside Founding Partner Brian Stekloff, securing the first defense verdict in the Roundup litigation. She argued the general causation Daubert motion and examined multiple experts at trial, focusing the jury on the scientific evidence in order to deliver a complete defense win after only one day of deliberation. Cali later served as lead trial counsel in Frank v. …
Benchmark Litigation Names Five Wilkinson Stekloff Partners to their Top Women in Litigation and 40 & Under Lists
August 14, 2025
For the fifth consecutive year, Beth Wilkinson was honored among Benchmark Litigation’s prestigious “Top 10 Women in Litigation,” an elite subset of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation” singled out “specifically for their litigious acumen” and celebrated for receiving the most prominent and emphatic “best-in-class” nominations during Benchmark’s 2025 research cycle. Partners Keri Arnold, Moira Penza, and Cali Arat were all selected for another consecutive year among the “Top 250 Women in Litigation,” a guide that acknowledges the women who have played pivotal roles in the most consequential recent litigation matters. These women have won the respect of colleagues and clients alike, distinguishing themselves as leaders in their respective practice areas. Cali was also selected alongside Partner Sarah Neuman to Benchmark’s 2025 USA 40 & Under list which recognizes “the top emerging talent in litigation” and most promising young lawyers who are shaping the future of the legal industry. Beth has served as lead counsel in …
Wilkinson Stekloff Partner Cali Arat Named Law360 Rising Star for Product Liability
July 30, 2025
Wilkinson Stekloff Partner Cali Arat was profiled as one of Law360’s Rising Stars—an award honoring “attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age.” From over 1,100 submissions, Cali was selected for her substantial achievements over the past several years as one of only three practitioners in the Product Liability practice area. In an interview with Law360, Cali reflected on her work at the forefront of high-stakes product liability litigation. She recounted her role in securing Monsanto’s first trial win in its Roundup litigation, Clark v. Monsanto, saying it “was a real uphill battle for us.” Despite the difficulties faced, Cali’s examinations of two crucial expert witnesses—directing Monsanto’s weed science expert and crossing plaintiff’s human studies expert—contributed to a victory that “changed the tide” as Monsanto went on to score multiple subsequent wins in the sprawling litigation. Cali next served as lead counsel for the Bayer subsidiary in a first-of-its-kind …
Three Wilkinson Stekloff Attorneys Selected to the 2025 Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation
July 18, 2025
Wilkinson Stekloff Partners Cali Arat and Sarah Neuman were joined by Counsel Roxana Guidero on Lawdragon’s 2025 edition of 500 X – The Next Generation. This guide honors influential, up-and-coming attorneys across the legal spectrum who have been practicing for fewer than fifteen years, offering an exciting glimpse into the future of the profession. Cali has appeared among Lawdragon’s 500 X every year since its inaugural guide in 2023. She is an experienced trial litigator, having played key roles on more than half of the firm’s trial teams, including serving in standup roles for high-stakes victories on behalf of Bayer subsidiary Monsanto in their Roundup litigation. Cali also played an integral part in resolving the NCAA’s name, image, and likeness litigation through its groundbreaking settlement, which received final approval from a district court judge in June. For these and other accomplishments, Chambers and Partners recently recognized her as “Up and …