Uncompromising defense of corporations and individuals in high-profile and complex litigation and investigations.
Government Contracts
We represent public companies, REITs, private equity advisers, real estate operating companies, mutual fund investment managers and pension funds in all types of real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, equity investments, restructurings, workouts and mezzanine debt. Our clients include both taxable and tax-exempt investors (including pension and endowment funds). Our tax and ERISA groups work closely with us on many transactions. We have overseen the offerings of billions of equity in public and private REITs. We are familiar with market terms and conditions on economics, including registration rights and tax protection provisions.
We leverage technical knowledge, business acumen and legal experience to structure, prepare and negotiate innovative and effective technology-related agreements.
WilmerHale has defended clients in hundreds of class, derivative, shareholder and individual actions alleging securities fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and other corporate misconduct.
Our highly regarded Tax-Exempt Organizations Practice advises organizations fundamental to the civic, business and intellectual life of cities and local communities around the globe. We assist US and foreign universities, museums, private foundations, and research and charitable organizations in a wide range of operational matters, including establishing nonprofit and for-profit affiliated entities and addressing all aspects of governance, benefits and compensation, lobbying and political activity, and taxation. We also consult on establishing and monitoring grant-making programs, negotiating gift agreements, establishing joint ventures, negotiating investment agreements, and an array of other issues crucial to the success of charitable endeavors. In addition to our work for traditional nonprofits and foundations, our team also helps new organizations involved in “venture philanthropy,” guiding them through new developments in nonprofit tax law. When other business and legal issues are involved, we collaborate with WilmerHale's stellar IP and IP Litigation, Labor and Employment, Real Estate, Cybersecurity and Privacy, and Corporate Practices to advise nonprofits and their affiliates.
WilmerHale has a record of success at all stages of enforcement proceedings—from informal inquiries to litigation.
WilmerHale has defended clients in hundreds of class, derivative, shareholder and individual actions alleging securities fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and other corporate misconduct.
Our wide-ranging experience includes retail, office, industrial, life sciences, credit tenant and build-to-suit leases. We help clients analyze alternative space choices, sublease arrangements, and restructurings and buyouts of existing leases. We devise structures to protect tenants against landlord and/or lender financial distress and navigate complex, multi-phase tenant fit-out projects. WilmerHale is the firm of choice for high-profile headquarters leases for tenants in the key Massachusetts office markets (Boston, Cambridge and the Route 128 corridor) and beyond, and we represent many clients in their national and international leasing needs. In addition to complex headquarters leases, we represent numerous companies in office leasing, subleasing and lease restructuring throughout the United States. For these representations, we often develop form leases, engage local counsel on an as-needed basis, and achieve efficiencies by centralizing negotiations.
Our cross-disciplinary team has experience in all levels of tax law. We draw on nationally renowned trial lawyers from the firm’s litigation group in order to serve clients involved in tax-related controversies. We regularly defend corporations and individuals in audits and appeals by the IRS and state tax authorities, and on a variety of tax issues in the federal and state courts. When tax controversies progress beyond the administrative stages, we seek to obtain favorable outcomes for clients through litigation or declaratory judgments at all levels of the judicial system. We have successfully represented various clients in federal income tax audits relating to employee and independent contractor issues, offshore investments and amortization of intangibles following acquisitions. We also advise corporations and individuals on the tax consequences and structuring of litigation settlements.
Our experience gives us the insight to understand the most complex issues, develop the most efficient and effective strategies to address those issues, and reach results that solve problems from a litigation, regulatory, compliance and brand-preservation perspective.
Leveraging our sophisticated technical, market and legal experience to help clients effectively and efficiently manage complex transactions and get the deal done.
Intellectual Property Litigation
Bringing significant depth and critical experience to government contracting matters.
Advising clients on changing priorities, new regulations, emerging threats and untapped opportunities.
WilmerHale’s Investment Management Group provides sophisticated legal and regulatory advice to investment advisers, private fund sponsors, registered funds, and their independent trustees.
New and traditional media companies turn to WilmerHale to address their most complex legal, regulatory and business challenges.
With litigators who previously served as senior lawyers in the Departments of Justice and Defense, our team has successfully represented clients in difficult, high-stakes FCA litigation brought by relators and the government.
A deep and diverse practice focused on maximizing tax efficiencies and minimizing tax risks for clients nationally and internationally.
With lawyers across the United States and in key international locations, our team handles high-stakes matters before the regulatory and enforcement agencies with energy and environmental oversight.
Government Contracts
Clients’ legislative and regulatory concerns are best served by legal counsel with the deepest possible knowledge of the relevant channels of government. In legislative and regulatory matters, we advise clients and provide updates on IRS regulations and rulings in a variety of areas, including corporate tax, consolidated returns, pass-through entities, tax accounting, employee compensation, international taxation, excise taxes, financial institutions and exempt organizations. We also serve as legislative counsel to clients with respect to proposed federal tax legislation and represent clients in seeking favorable guidance from the IRS by obtaining private letter rulings regarding particular transactions or business structures, assisting clients with voluntary compliance and closing agreements and submitting comments on proposed regulations. Our experience extends to state and local levels as well, permitting a comprehensive approach to these issues.
We advise clients on the smartest, most cost-effective ways to challenge or defend issued patents.
WilmerHale is renowned for its sophisticated representation of investors, developers, landlords, tenants, lenders and institutions on complex real estate projects and transactions.
Clients trust us to protect their most important intellectual property matters.
We offer clients exceptional insight in dealing with competition agencies in the United States, Europe and around the world.
We provide legal insight and practical solutions for one of the most complex and highly regulated areas of business.
Providing comprehensive solutions for the acquisition, enforcement and protection of IP.
WilmerHale lawyers have decades of experience advising public and private companies in all aspects of mergers and acquisitions.
Energy, Environment and Natural Resources
Private equity and hedge fund sponsors turn to WilmerHale for advice on complex issues relating to the design and operation of tax-efficient structures for their funds and their funds’ investments. We advise investment fund sponsors concerning optimal offshore and onshore structures for their funds and investments, including the tax consequences for US and non-US investors of holding and disposing of their investment in such funds, tax treatment of the funds under US and non-US tax regimes, and tax considerations relevant to investments to be made by such funds. We also assist funds in connection with equity investments in technology and healthcare companies.
Our clients in the ever-changing and fiercely competitive hardware, software, IT and services industries depend on us to strategize and negotiate transactions that take advantage of opportunities now while protecting their innovations and preserving flexibility for the future. We structure, negotiate and draft all types of licensing, distribution, product development, joint venture and strategic alliance agreements for these clients, often drawing on the deep experience of WilmerHale’s unique capabilities in regulatory, intellectual property, corporate and tax law. We represent both mature and emerging companies with business models centered around offering software and/or professional services relating to analyzing and extracting insights from large data sets. We frequently draft and negotiate data license agreements, software-as-a-service (SaaS) agreements, website terms and other services agreements in which data is the core subject of the license. We also advise technology clients on big data issues that arise in outsourcing, joint venture and other transactional matters. Our attorneys keep a close watch on internet-related legislative and regulatory developments in the United States, the European Union and elsewhere, and leverage our up-to-the-minute knowledge to advise clients in areas such as data privacy and security, copyright infringement, and export restrictions.
A premier corporate governance and disclosure practice providing timely, tailored and practical advice to public company clients based on in-depth experience and insight.
WilmerHale has been at the forefront of complex financial restructuring and bankruptcy litigation and policy matters for decades.
We have successfully handled a number of the most challenging CFIUS cases on record.
Clients turn to our seasoned team of attorneys—strategically located across the United States—to resolve nearly any state or local tax challenge. State and local taxes account for a high percentage of most businesses’ tax burden. There are literally thousands of these taxes that companies may or may not be subject to, depending on the nature of a given transaction and the requirements of various taxing authorities. The application of historical tests to determine whether a business is subject to state or local tax jurisdictions and the extent of its tax liability has become more difficult with the explosive growth of e-commerce, and the rules are sometimes counterintuitive and seemingly contradictory. We have structured our state and local tax practice to help clients across the United States successfully cope with the specific requirements of individual jurisdictions.
Sophisticated knowledge of the bankruptcy process, combined with top-notch appellate and trial experience and the perspective and insight required to address a wide range of bankruptcy litigation and regulation issues.
With a team of lawyers recognized nationally as leading practitioners in the field, we regularly advise public and private companies, their shareholders and their key employees on tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and joint ventures. Clients rely on our advice to maximize their tax efficiencies and minimize their tax risks. Our clients include businesses from a wide range of sectors: technology, life sciences, publishing, telecommunications, aviation and defense, venture capital and private equity. We develop tax-efficient structures that help clients achieve business objectives and negotiate appropriate contractual protections against the assumption of unwanted tax risks.
A global team handling highly complex and sensitive matters in all aspects of litigation.
“The firm is at its best during a fight—whether that’s against an enforcer, or in court against a private litigant.” — Global Competition Review
Helping clients launch their businesses and transform their innovative ideas into successful companies.
We help companies protect data, comply with evolving regulations, and respond to investigations and litigation.
We guide clients through today’s ever-changing debt markets, representing them in a broad variety of debt deals that range from complex financial structures to traditional loan transactions.
For companies in the life sciences sphere, licensing intellectual property and establishing strategic alliances are critical. WilmerHale’s experienced licensing lawyers shepherd biotech, pharmaceutical, healthcare and medical device clients of all sizes through the complex transactions that make their businesses possible, including a broad range of licensing, collaboration, strategic alliance and joint venture agreements. Our attorneys also excel at brokering manufacturing and supply agreements, contract research and development agreements, distribution and commercialization services agreements, and material transfer and confidentiality agreements. They also frequently represent life sciences clients as they license patents—often the foundations of their companies—from, and sponsor research at, leading academic institutions across the United States and Europe. Backed not only by their own experience but also the deep well of knowledge possessed by the firm’s patent, tax, antitrust and EU competition lawyers, our transactional attorneys are ready to handle even the most multifaceted matters. Our team helps clients protect their innovations, forge strategic alliances, and successfully navigate a complex, dynamic industry.
Government Contracts
Providing a strategic, multidisciplinary approach to help clients develop and use AI and to navigate the landscape of Big Data.
