A Milbank LLP Antitrust team was named first runner-up in The AmLaw Litigation Daily's “Litigator of the Week” column, recognizing the team’s work representing the State of California in its historic antitrust challenge to Paramount Skydance’s proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — one of the largest merger challenges in US history.
The US Department of Justice and every other reviewing jurisdiction had cleared the deal without conditions. Even so, Milbank represented the states in winning a contested Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), making this the largest merger ever enjoined in a US court. This was the first litigated TRO in a merger case in recent memory. Litigation & Arbitration partner James Weingarten argued that a TRO was necessary to avoid immediate and irreversible harm. On July 20, 2026, the court blocked the merger, agreeing that the plaintiffs made “a strong showing that the Transaction will substantially lessen competition.”
The court later extended the TRO and set a spring 2027 trial date, rejecting the defendants' request for fall 2026. The parties also agreed to pause the merger until as late as June 2027. Together, these wins gave the states the leverage to secure binding commitments from the merging parties and settle the case. On September 30, 2026, the court entered a settlement Consent Decree that binds Paramount to enforceable commitments in each market the states had challenged.
Milbank joined the case in March and led all aspects of the litigation, including drafting the complaint and TRO briefing. The team was led by Litigation & Arbitration partners Richard Parker and Mr. Weingarten and included partners Adam Di Vincenzo, Grant Bermann and Fiona Schaeffer; special counsel Kelly Dodge Garcia, Anastasia Pastan and Alexis Brown-Reilly; and associates Julia May, Natalie Nogueira, Allison Chesky and Emme Tyler, who played central roles in briefing and other key aspects of the case.
This recognition marks the fifth time this year that a Milbank team has been featured in The AmLaw Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week” column. In February 2026, partner Neal Katyal was named “Litigator of the Week” for a landmark Supreme Court victory; in March Neal Katyal, Matthew Laroche, Scott Singer, Lucy Baeurle and Alex Ruppert received a “Shout-Out” in defending against RICO claims brought by the Ford Motor Co.; in April, partner Will Havemann was named “Litigator of the Week” for a precedent-setting Third Circuit win; and in July, a team led by Gurbir Grewal, Neal Katyal and Colleen Roh Sinzdak also received a ”Shout-Out” for successfully defending the New Jersey cities of Newark and Hoboken in US v. Newark.
