For the third consecutive year, Beth Wilkinson was named to Benchmark Litigation’s prestigious Top 10 Women in Litigation, an elite subset of the Top 250 Women in Litigation that celebrates recipients of the most robust and vocal “best-in-class” nominations throughout Benchmark`s research cycle. In addition, Cali Arat (née Cope-Kasten), Keri Arnold, and Moira Penza were also selected to the Top 250 Women in Litigation Guide, which honors women who have participated in some of the most impactful litigation matters in recent history, and earned the hard-won respect of their peers and clients as top players in their respective fields.
Beth has served as lead counsel in over 50 jury trials, including numerous bet-the company, multibillion-dollar cases. She has developed an unrivaled record of victories in federal and state courts throughout the country. Most recently, Beth was lead trial counsel for Microsoft in the FTC’s challenge to Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision — the second-largest merger trial in history and the biggest involving a technology company. She defeated the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop the transaction after a five-day trial that began less than two weeks after the FTC filed its federal court complaint, and directed all aspects of litigation strategy from the time the acquisition was announced in January 2022, positioning the case for a federal court victory on an unprecedented timetable.
Since joining the firm at its founding in 2016, Cali has served as a key member of more than half of the firm’s trial teams, including most recently leading the representation of Monsanto in the first hybrid trial involving claims that exposure to PCBs and Roundup-branded products, both manufactured by Monsanto, cause Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Cali has helped to develop and execute successful trial strategies for corporate clients across a diverse set of industries, from pharmaceuticals to sports to social media. Her experience includes seven jury trials, three of which were federal multi-district litigation bellwether cases, two of which were bench trials, and two of which were in-person jury trials during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keri is a trial attorney with over twenty years’ experience defending companies in product liability, environmental, and complex commercial litigation. She has tried over a dozen cases to verdict, including seven as first-chair trial counsel, on behalf of major pharmaceutical, tobacco, and energy companies. In addition to serving as a member of the trial team that secured a groundbreaking victory for Microsoft in the FTC’s challenge to Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision, Keri was recently a member of the trial team preparing for the first water provider bellwether in the Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFF) Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2873) before Judge Gergel in the District of South Carolina. The litigation, involving alleged PFAS groundwater contamination from the use of AFFF, is considered the most significant PFAS litigation in the country.
Moira is first and foremost a trial lawyer with a record of success leading and winning high-stakes civil and criminal cases. She recently served as trial counsel defending Altria Group, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries in the first government entity bellwether trial, brought by the San Francisco Unified School District, in multi-district litigation arising out of Altria’s minority investment in JUUL Labs, Inc. Just one day after Moira and the Wilkinson Stekloff team completed cross-examinations in the plaintiff’s case and the defense case was about to begin, the plaintiffs agreed to a global settlement with Altria that resolved the personal injury, consumer class action, and government entity cases brought in over 6,000 e-vapor cases in state and federal courts.