Latham & Watkins LLP continues to add firepower to its litigation bench and strengthen its team of esteemed trial lawyers in New York, welcoming partners Joseph Serino and Eric Leon to the firm’s Litigation & Trial Department, in the Complex Commercial Litigation Practice. Both are seasoned litigators, with wide-ranging experience in complex commercial litigation as well as antitrust, securities and trade secret matters, among others. Serino and Leon join Latham from Kirkland & Ellis in New York. While most of their representations are defense-side oriented, Serino and Leon have also together handled several high-profile plaintiff-side cases and won VerdictSearch Top 100 jury trial awards in back-to-back years.
A go-to trial lawyer with nearly 30 years of experience, Serino has a diverse commercial litigation practice coupled with substantial trial experience. He brings deep experience in handling the most complex commercial litigation as well as antitrust and securities matters facing companies across industries. Throughout the course of his career, he’s led complex commercial litigation matters involving contract claims, fiduciary duty claims, insurance claims, privacy act claims, trade secret claims, non-compete covenants, common law fraud, tortious interference, environmental and other common law and statutory claims.
Leon is recognized as a leading lawyer in complex commercial litigation and M&A litigation and has tried dozens of cases before federal and state courts as well as arbitration panels. His areas of practice include commercial contracts, copyrights and trademarks, employment disputes, antitrust and trade regulation, securities and shareholder litigation, unfair competition, business torts and bankruptcy litigation. In addition to his trial experience before federal and state courts, he has handled numerous appeals, including recent appeals before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the Delaware Supreme Court.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Joe and Eric in New York, where they join a talented team of litigators,” said Michèle Penzer, Office Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins in New York. “Each has built a sterling reputation, not only for outstanding trial results, often in high stakes ‘bet the company’ litigation, but also for their ability to assemble high quality teams and engender strong loyalty and cohesion within those teams.”
The pair are the latest in a string of high-profile additions to the New York office’s Litigation & Trial Department, including Michael Lacovara, Douglas Yatter, Serrin Turner, Sandeep Savla and Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.
Jamie Wine, global Chair of the firm’s Litigation & Trial Department, added: “The addition of Joe and Eric further enhances our ability to offer our clients a broad spectrum of insights, capabilities and experience to help them take on – and win – their most enterprise-threatening cases.”
“I look forward to joining Latham’s already formidable stable of trial lawyers,” said Serino. “My clients will reap the benefits of Latham’s unparalleled combination of litigation and business acumen, and I hope to return the favor by assisting Latham’s existing clients with my trial advocacy skills whenever the need arises.”
Leon added: “What’s exciting for me is to be able to contribute to the continued growth of Latham’s stellar litigation practice. To be able to join a best-in-breed litigation group and, at the same time, sync up with Latham’s world-class transactional practice, is a unique opportunity for me and my practice.”
Serino received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College and his J.D. from University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1988. Leon earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and his law degree from New York University’s School of Law in 1993.
Source: www.lw.com
