LOS ANGELES, July 24, 2023 – Leading international law firm Proskauer is pleased to announce that partner Bart Williams has been named a 2023 Leader of Influence: Litigators & Trial Attorneys by the Los Angeles Business Journal. This honor recognizes leading lawyers for their professional achievements, community leadership, milestones and notable accomplishments over the past year.
Bart is chair of the Firm’s Litigation Department and head of its Los Angeles office. As one of the nation’s most sought-after trial lawyers, Bart is a strategic and persuasive litigator with deep experience across commercial litigation, white collar criminal defense and internal corporate investigations. He is frequently called in just months or even weeks before a trial to deliver a win.
He recently led the trial team that secured a significant victory for Gilead Sciences, Inc. in a $3.6 billion antitrust case on allegations that the pharmaceutical company struck an anticompetitive “pay-for-delay” patent settlement related to two HIV medications. A California jury delivered a full defense verdict following a six-week trial. The verdict is only the third ever in reverse payment cases of this type, and the first ever to find for the defense on grounds of the absence of a payment and the absence of market power for the brand in the relevant market. The jury’s findings affirmed that a 2014 patent settlement between Gilead and Teva did not violate antitrust law and did not constitute an illegal reverse payment.
Outside of the courtroom, Bart is the founding co-chair and member of the Board of Advisors of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League (LAMDL). Now in its 15th year, LAMDL has grown to be the policy debate portal to 30 schools, serving more than 650 students per year with a goal to serve over 1,000 students from 50 schools by the end of 2024. In addition to serving on Proskauer’s Diversity Task Force, Bart is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA, a member of the Board of Directors of the LA84 Foundation and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Earlier this year, Bart was also named a 2023 Leader of Influence: Minority Attorneys by the Los Angeles Business Journal, a 2023 Visionary by the Los Angeles Times’ Business of Law and a Leading Commercial Litigator by The Daily Journal.
Read more in the Los Angeles Business Journal: 2023-LOI-Litigators-TA_opt.pdf (labusinessjournal.com)
About Proskauer
We are 800+ lawyers serving clients from 12 offices located in the leading financial and business centers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. We work with asset managers, private equity and venture capital firms, Fortune 500 and FTSE companies, major sports leagues, entertainment industry legends and industry-redefining companies.
Since 1875, Proskauer has been devoted to our clients’ successes. Our lawyers are known for their unusually high accessibility, responsiveness and attentiveness. We go the extra mile to understand a client’s business — and think like savvy businesspeople in the process.
Proskauer has a full-service litigation practice with extensive trial experience in virtually every major forum across the globe. We take a collaborative approach to representing defendants and plaintiffs, multinationals, middle-market and small-cap businesses, financial institutions, partnerships and individuals, with one thing in mind – driving successful outcomes for our clients.
We win make-or-break cases, change laws and establish precedents. Our litigators cover the full spectrum of complex commercial litigation practice areas and handle the complete range of sophisticated litigation, trial, appellate and counseling, as well as government contractor issues and investigations.
Our prowess in the field consistently earns the highest accolades, receiving a top-tier rankings in Chambers and recognized as leaders by The Legal 500 and Benchmark Litigation, among others.