Andy Bayman > King & Spalding LLP > Atlanta, United States > Lawyer Profile

Lauded by one client as a ‘truly first-rate team’, the practice at King & Spalding LLP assists healthcare and academic medical centers with litigation and arbitration, transactional and regulatory mandates, investigations, and corporate governance. The department, which is noted for its ‘responsiveness, ability to understand the issues, and practical advice’, is jointly directed by a trio of partners. Leading from Chicago, Zachary Fardon routinely represents major universities in sensitive white-collar criminal defense and investigations. In Atlanta, Andy Bayman has focused his practice on representing academic medical centers and medical schools in a range of regulatory and transactional matters. New York-based Todd Holleman completes the leadership group. Additional key names to note include Houston-based Adam Robison, who advises academic medical centers on transactional mandates; and Zachary Fardon, who works from the Chicago office and focuses on white-collar criminal defense.

Combining in-depth industry expertise (including many in the team with science/medical backgrounds) with deep product liability litigation prowess in offices throughout the country, King & Spalding LLP remains a very popular choice among leading pharmaceuticals and medical device companies when faced with high-stakes litigation. Many of these matters are large-scale mass torts, where the firm regularly acts as national co-ordinating counsel, effectively mobilizing resources throughout the country, including in New York and Atlanta, to provide an all-encompassing representation throughout the litigation process. Although the firm has more than its fair share of accomplished trial lawyers within its ranks, much of the success it achieves for clients is predicated by its strong strategic sense and ability to dismiss or narrow claims at an early stage. A key part of this success is down to the firm’s ability to leverage science and medical expertise, ensuring that it is very effectively able to challenge plaintiff experts and to work with their own experts providing testimony in depositions. Andy Bayman has ‘great strategic sense’ and along with Robert Friedman  has been acting as national counsel for Boehringer Ingelheim as one of the defendants in the high-profile Zantac litigation. Notably the pair were recently part of the team that helped secure a major victory for defendants in the case with a recent very high-profile Daubert ruling which excluded all of the plaintiffs’ general causation experts and granted summary judgment for the client and co-defendants. Adam Spicer is also an integral member of the Zantac litigation team and as well as handling private litigation is also regularly involved in state Attorney General actions. Todd Davis  is a ‘very skilled trial attorney’, and has over the years been instrumental to many high-profile life sciences-related trial successes, in part due to his accomplished cross-examination skills of plaintiffs’ key causation and medical expert witnesses at trial and in deposition. In New York, both Morton Dubin and Kristen Fournier have excellent reputations at handling complex life sciences-related mass torts, with Dubin, in particular, noted for his expertise in the courtroom. Geoffrey Drake chairs the pharmaceutical/medical device litigation team and is skilled at representing clients throughout the litigation continuum, including in high-stakes trials. All named practitioners are based in Atlanta unless otherwise indicated.

The global litigation practice at King & Spalding LLP is adept at handling complex cases, often involving multiple jurisdictions and parallel proceedings, with expertise in bet-the-company stakes internationally. Blue-chip multinationals rely on the knowledge of the practice, with clients from the energy, banking and finance, pharma, automotive, and manufacturing sectors, among others. Motions to compel arbitration, anti-suit injunctions, asset recovery, and enforcement actions are all key strengths of the practice. Leadership of the practice is split between Andy Bayman in Atlanta and Reggie Smith in Houston. Smith covers international arbitration and litigation, with a particular focus on energy and extractive industries as well as enforcing arbitral awards against foreign states. Operating out of New York, Randy Mastro represents a vast array of clients in complex civil cases, with expertise in securities litigation and white-collar crime matters. Also in New York, Richard Marooney and Olivia Radin are key names, with Radin having joined from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in January 2023, often acting on internal and regulatory investigations, in addition to congressional inquiries.

King & Spalding LLP is home to a deep bench of litigators who frequently act in complex, multi-jurisdictional mandates, many of which involve trials and appellate work. Government enforcement actions, regulatory and administrative proceedings, and shareholder litigation are among the specialisms of the team, which sees its attorneys appear in both trial and appellate courts as well as before government enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies and arbitral tribunals. Andy Bayman and Richard Marooney jointly chair the practice group out of Atlanta and New York, respectively. Pre-eminent trial lawyer Randy Mastro represents clients in complex civil cases, securities litigation and white collar criminal matters. Los Angeles-based practitioner Joe Akrotirianakis represents both plaintiffs and defendants across a broad range of industry sectors, including technology and life sciences as well as international shipping and transportation, among others. Mark Kirsch is a key name in the department for securities, white collar, commercial and antitrust litigation. Dallas partner Veronica Moyé joined the team from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in February 2024, while Jennifer Recine handles regulatory and real estate disputes as well as securities litigation and arrived from Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP in April 2024. Christopher Duffy joined from Vinson & Elkins LLP in June 2024. All attorneys named are based in New York, unless otherwise stated.