Winston & Strawn Wins Cisco Commercial Litigation Law Firm of the Year Award

San Francisco — Winston & Strawn LLP has won Cisco's inaugural Commercial Litigation Law Firm of the Year Award competition. Cisco implemented this competition as a way to recognize each year the law firm that most exemplifies excellence in partnering with Cisco. Criteria for selection included: execution and results; responsiveness and communication skills; quality and practicality of advice; ability to develop and implement strategies to identify and mitigate risks; awareness and understanding of Cisco's unique commercial issues; cost consciousness and cost effectiveness; willingness to enter alternative/tailored fee arrangements; billing transparency; and effective leveraging of technology and tools.

Winston's Cisco team is led by client relationship partners Dan K. Webb, chairman of Winston & Strawn (Chicago team leader), and Patrick M. Ryan.

In addition to providing key business and risk mitigation advice to Cisco, Winston's Cisco team handles a cross section of complex litigation matters in areas as diverse as antitrust, securities, breach of contract, brand protection, general intellectual property, and patent litigation.

Key Facts / Highlights

• Cisco created the award to recognize one law firm each year, which handles commercial litigation for Cisco, that goes above and beyond the call of duty and exceeds Cisco's expectations.
• Over the last several months, Cisco reviewed information about the many law firms who do its commercial litigation to determine which firms scored the highest marks on all of the above criteria.
• Some key facts that led to Winston receiving this award include: Winston achieved victory in several major pieces of litigation on behalf of Cisco; it counseled Cisco, with outstanding results, on a number of key business decisions; it utilized cross-office staffing effectively to field the best possible litigation and advice teams; it embraced cutting-edge technology to enhance and make more efficient its legal work, including the implementation of Cisco's TelePresence in multiple Winston offices; and it was extremely creative in developing alternative-fee structures to a degree not seen with other law firms.
• The Winston & Strawn Cisco team also includes Dave Bloch (San Francisco), Mike Brody (Chicago), Dina Bronshtein (San Francisco), Caleb Donaldson (San Francisco), Erik Connolly (Chicago), Krista Enns (San Francisco), Bob Michels (Chicago), Krishnan Padmanabhan (New York), and Ethan York (Chicago).