Our Approach

We regularly appear on behalf of clients in high-stakes commercial disputes and contract litigation in federal and state courts across the country. Our litigators bring a strategic approach to resolving these cases based on our extensive trial and appellate experience. We focus on the underlying business interests of the parties to formulate and execute litigation strategies that optimize the benefits to our clients of any resolution, whether adjudicated or negotiated.

Awards and Rankings

Davis Polk’s “consistently excellent” litigation practice earned an “Elite” designation and received the highest ranking among litigation firms for General Commercial Litigation from Chambers USA 2004-2011: “[Davis Polk] has a strong track record handling high-profile contentious matters for financial industry clients and global corporations.”
“[Davis Polk’s] preeminence across a broad range of litigation types continues to impress.” Chambers USA 2011
According to clients, Davis Polk’s commercial practice “possesses great expertise, depth and strong trial lawyers.” Chambers USA 2011
Clients laude Davis Polk’s litigation practice as having “[t]houghtful lawyers who give meaningful business advice.” Chambers USA 2010
Chambers USA 2009 recognized Davis Polk’s Commercial Litigation Group for its “superb negotiating skills and its vast experience in representing large financial institutions in complex commercial litigation.”

Notable Matters

We routinely represent Comcast in its major commercial dispute and contract litigations, including:
- Representing Comcast in connection with a program carriage complaint filed by the Tennis Channel. In its complaint, the Tennis Channel alleges that Comcast violated the FCC's program carriage rules prohibiting discrimination on the basis of affiliation, and seeks to increase its distribution on Comcast systems.
- Successfully representing Comcast in litigation with the National Football League over telecasting the NFL Network. The litigation included a New York State Court action, and an FCC proceeding that was tried before an Administrative Law Judge. During post-trial briefing, the parties entered into a favorable settlement that included a long-term agreement to telecast the NFL Network.
- Successfully representing affiliates of Comcast in defending claims brought in California State Court by the Golden State Warriors basketball team alleging breach of the team’s broadcast rights agreement.
We successfully represented a series of private equity funds managed by Metalmark in a lawsuit alleging breach of contract, which resulted in a summary judgment decision in Metalmark’s favor in the Commercial Division of New York Supreme Court.
We successfully represented Credit Suisse in a breach of contract action brought by Credit Suisse against Vitro Envases Norteamerica (Vitro), a subsidiary of one of the largest glass manufacturers in the world. The case relates to Vitro's default on a series of interest rate, foreign currency and natural gas derivatives transactions.

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We obtained summary judgment on behalf of JPMorgan Chase in a breach of contract action brought by JPMorgan Chase against Controladora Comercial Mexicana, one of Mexico’s largest retailers.
We represented Bank of America in an action brought by a private bank customer who entered into a “cashless collar” transaction with the bank. After a two-week bench trial, the court dismissed the customer’s claims in full.
We won dismissal of claims against our client Ingram Micro in an action against it in the Refco multidistrict litigation proceedings, brought by a litigation trustee pursuing claims on behalf of Refco. The Southern District of New York dismissed the trustee’s claims with prejudice on the grounds that he stood in the shoes of Refco, to which misconduct of its managers is imputed.
We defended Credit Suisse and DLJ in an action in which the plaintiff alleges that he loaned money to a company on the condition that a bank group led by DLJ would continue to fund the company through its economic troubles. We won summary judgment in the Eastern District of Louisiana on all claims against our clients, a day before the case was to be tried by a New Orleans jury.
We represented Banc of America Securities (BAS) in litigation with its former landlord Solow Building Company over the lease for its former New York headquarters. Alleging that BAS had defaulted under the lease, Solow sought to terminate BAS’s tenancy early, years before BAS’s new headquarters could be ready. As a result of a number of intermediate victories that we won on behalf of BAS, the parties entered into a very favorable settlement agreement, which, among other things, allowed BAS to move into its new headquarters without a major business disruption.
We successfully represented the Minneapolis Star Tribune in a contract dispute pivotal to its reorganization.
We successfully defended Morgan Stanley in an action brought by IDT Corporation, arising from a memorandum of understanding between IDT and Telefónica related to the South American submarine cable network.
We represented GSC Group and a hedge fund managed by a GSC Group fund manager in litigation brought in the Commercial Division of New York Supreme Court. Plaintiffs are fund investors who allegedly suffered losses when the subprime mortgage debt instruments, in which the fund invested, deteriorated substantially. The Court dismissed all claims against GSC Group.

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