Litigator of the (Past) Week Runners-Up and Shout-Outs

Renee Smith, Cole Carter, Jason Wilcox and Sam Ikard were recognized as runners-up for The American Lawyer Litigation Daily's "Litigator of the Week" for their work for General Motors. 

"First up is an appellate team led by Richard Godfrey of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Renee Smith of Kirkland & Ellis and Stephanie Douglas of Bush Seyferth, who helped General Motors reverse rulings certifying classes of 800,000 car buyers who purchased vehicles with allegedly defective eight-gear Hydra-Matic transmission. In a 9-7 en banc decision handed down late last month by the Sixth Circuit, the court held that plaintiffs failed to meet Rule 23’s commonality and predominance requirements. Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote for the majority that “the subclasses do not meet the rigorous requirements for handling all of these cases in one district court, whether as one case or as 26 cases." Godfrey handled the en banc argument for GM. The team included R. Allan Pixton, John Bash and Dylan Bonfigli of Quinn Emanuel; Cole Carter, Jason Wilcox and Sam Ikard of Kirkland & Ellis; and Susan McKeever of Bush Seyferth."