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 Shortlists Wilkinson Stekloff Across Six Categories for 2026 U.S. Awards
January 9, 2026
Wilkinson Stekloff has been shortlisted for Benchmark Litigation’s 2026 U.S. Awards, marking the firm’s third consecutive year as a finalist for Boutique Firm of the Year, D.C. Firm of the Year, and Trial Firm of the Year––an award the firm won in both 2024 and 2025. Founding partners Beth Wilkinson and Brian Stekloff are again shortlisted for “Trial Lawyer of the Year” and “Product Liability Litigator of the Year”, respectively, while Partner Rakesh Kilaru is a first-time finalist, for “Antitrust Litigator of the Year.” These nominations further add to the firm’s impressive Benchmark profile, which includes being named a “Top 20 Trial Firm” and “Top Boutique Firm”, ranked “Tier 1” in both Antitrust and Commercial litigation, and coming “Highly Recommended” in Washington, D.C. Rakesh also recently joined Beth and Brian among Benchmark’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers, and seven Partners have earned Litigation Star status. Benchmark’s recognition follows a string of …
Rakesh Kilaru Named Among Top 100 Trial Lawyers by Benchmark Litigation, Joining Founding Partners Beth Wilkinson and Brian Stekloff
October 31, 2025
Wilkinson Stekloff partner Rakesh Kilaru has been named for the first time to Benchmark Litigation’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers—a select group of attorneys venerated by clients and peers alike for their mastery in the courtroom. He joins Founding Partners Beth Wilkinson and Brian Stekloff, both staples on the prestigious list, rivaling the representation of Big Law firms. Beth Wilkinson, one of the nation’s pre-eminent trial lawyers, continues to receive widespread acclaim for her unmatched ability to deliver when the stakes are highest. In recent years, she has led Microsoft, the NFL, and Altria to billion-dollar courtroom victories. She was recently set to serve as lead trial counsel to HPE in defending its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks against a federal court challenge from the DOJ, until the case resolved favorably for HPE on the doorstep of trial, allowing the deal to close. Beth is widely revered for her ability …
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 …
Eleven Wilkinson Stekloff Partners Named among the 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America
September 10, 2025
Eleven Wilkinson Stekloff partners have been recognized among the 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America. This achievement marks the fourth consecutive year that the firm has placed at least nine partners in this prestigious guide—dating back to its inaugural release in 2022—underscoring the strength and depth of Wilkinson Stekloff’s litigation bench. Honorees from the firm’s Washington, DC and New York offices are recognized across a wide range of practice areas, including Trials, Antitrust, Product Liability, Mass Tort, Environmental, White Collar, Investigations, and Class Actions. This breadth of recognition reflects Wilkinson Stekloff’s generalist approach, allowing the firm to take on clients’ most complex and high-stakes disputes, regardless of the subject matter. The Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America is an annual guide acknowledging the nation’s most accomplished courtroom advocates, selected through a rigorous process of independent research, submissions, and vetting with both peers and adversaries. These outstanding attorneys distinguish themselves …
NCAA NIL Settlement Validates Wilkinson Stekloff Partner Rakesh Kilaru as a Leading Sports & Entertainment Lawyer
June 23, 2025
Wilkinson Stekloff Partner Rakesh Kilaru has received no shortage of recognition recently, including last year being named a Law360 Sports & Betting MVP and sharing the National Law Journal’s Winning Litigators Award with Founding Partner Beth Wilkinson based on major victories for the NFL and Microsoft. This year he has secured a position alongside Beth on the inaugural list of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers, a guide that honors attorneys who accumulate wins for lucrative clients across these high-visibility industries through rigorous journalistic research. Rakesh’s latest achievement: obtaining final approval of the groundbreaking $2.8 billion settlement for the NCAA in their name, image, and likeness (NIL) litigation on June 6, 2025. The settlement is widely expected to change the landscape of collegiate athletics, allowing schools for the first time to directly compensate students for their athletic participation, and resolving antitrust claims brought by multiple plaintiff classes …