Leading New York corporate firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP has a strong litigation group that handles high-value deal-related cases for its stellar roster of clients. The practice is now led by Dana Seshens, Paul Spagnoletti and Andrew Ditchfield, since James Rouhandeh became head of litigation and part of the firm’s management committee. Ditchfield and Brian Burnovski, who has been heavily involved in the wave of SPAC-related matters, are the key partners in the group. Together, they acted for secured a motion to dismiss in the Delaware Chancery Court on behalf of Galaxy Digital, which had been accused by BitGo Holdings of wrongful repudiation, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing concerning Galaxy’s termination of its proposed $1.2bn acquisition of BitGo in 2022. Neal Potischman in Northern California, who leads the firm’s group on the West Coast, advised Chinese private equity firm Trustbridge Capital Partners on a claim brought by WeWork and Adam Neumann against Softbank, which alleges that the bank failed to follow through on a planned tender offer for WeWork shares. Rory Leraris joined the firm from Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in January 2024.
Key clients
- Brookfield
- Castleton Commodities
Work highlights
- Successfully representing several banks in a key privilege issue in Twitter acquisition litigation.
- Successfully representing Galaxy Digital in a claim brought by BitGo Holdings, which asserted claims against Galaxy for wrongful repudiation, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and sought damages of at least $100bn, in connection with Galaxy’s August 2022 termination of its proposed $1.2 billion acquisition of BitGo.