Courts don’t stall their dockets when we go away for a week. So, in fairness to litigation teams whose wins land while we’re out, we’ve recently made a habit of writing a backward-looking “Litigator of the (Past) Week” column when we get back. One of those is in the works for Thursday. But in the meantime, there’s no need to wait on the runners-up and shout-outs that landed during the LOTW cycle from June 12 to 19.
First up are Willkie Farr & Gallagher partners Alexander Cheney and Stuart Lombardi and counsel Josh Levy. The Willkie team represented client Womply, which developed a technology platform called “PPP Fast Lane” to help small businesses access the Paycheck Protection Program. The Willkie team won $117 million in damages for Womply in an arbitration against Benworth Capital Partners, which used the Fast Lane platform to fund more than 300,000 loans with more than $4 billion in principal, and received more than $680 million in fees from the SBA. After an arbitration hearing in March, a JAMS panel issued the nine-digit award for Womply and denied Benworth’s counterclaim for more than $400 million. The arbitration award was made public earlier this month in parallel proceedings in Puerto Rico federal court. The team also included Willkie associates Tiffany Lin, Dan Morris, Katherine Hanley, Adriana Morton and Vincent Palmeri.
