2022 DIVERSITY DATABASE UNDERWRITER McGuireWoods

McGuireWoods’ roots reach back to 1834 in Charlottesville, Virginia, when Egbert R. Watson began his law practice. The firm now boasts 21 offices and more than 1,100 attorneys worldwide.

McGuireWoods’ Mergers

Thirty-six years after Watson launched his firm, he formed a partnership with George Perkins. It was the firm’s first merger, but not its last. The firm continued to grow, strategically expanding as far south as Florida and Texas, west to Chicago and California, north as far as Pennsylvania and New York, and overseas to London and Shanghai—much of this growth via merger. Among the firms McGuireWoods has joined with in the past decade are North Carolina firm Helms Mullins & Wicker, U.K. firm Grundberg Mocatta Rakison, Texas-based Nickens Keeton Lawless Farrell & Flack, and litigation boutique Integer Law Corp. 

Multi-faceted

McGuireWoods regularly serves clients in the automotive, banking and financial services, chemical, energy resources, food processing, general manufacturing, government, healthcare, insurance, real estate, technology and telecom, and transportation industries. The firm is multi-faceted—its wholly-owned affiliate, McGuireWoods Consulting, provides a unique combination of state and federal government relations prowess, buttressed by infrastructure, economic development, and advocacy expertise. 

On the labor and employment front, the firm has experience working in everything from affirmative action to immigration to labor relations to litigation to noncompetes, and more. The firm tackles thousands of employment-related matters yearly. Its employment litigators bring experience in discrimination, disability, ERISA, negligent hiring and supervision, OSHA, retaliation, WARN, whistleblower claims, and the list goes on.

The firm may be best known, however, for its healthcare experience. Sixty lawyers strong, the firm’s healthcare practice often partners with other areas of the firm, like McGuireWoods Consulting, to tackle the complex issues facing its clients. The firm has a diverse roster of clients, ranging from venture capital firms and lenders to ambulatory surgery centers and clinical laboratories to pharmacies and medical trade associations, and many more.

Tech and Sustainability Strides

Racing to meet the digital age, McGuireWoods uses technology to connect and enhance its practice. The firm strives for efficiency through cutting-edge case management and billing software, and offers clients an online space to connect with attorneys through the firm’s extranet: McGuireWoods Connect. McGuireWoods also hosts a number of blogs focusing on niche practice areas like data privacy and security, class actions, government investigations and white collar crime, healthcare investments, and long-term acute care hospitals.

McGuireWoods is also committed to being green; the firm has created a Sustainable Operations Team to develop and direct its sustainability efforts. The firm has a voluntary carbon offset program, reduced its paper use by increasing its electronic filing systems and encouraging two-sided copying, and improved video-conferencing to cut down on travel. McGuireWoods has also embraced green building standards and supports the use of LEED criteria in its offices.

• Represented Cynthia and Frederick Warmbier when they sued North Korea for having “brutally tortured and murdered” their son, Otto Warmbier. In 2018, a federal court ordered North Korea to pay the Warmbiers over $500 million.
• Represented Ryan Collins in Collins v. Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Collins, that the automobile exception to the fourth amendment does not permit a police officer to enter the curtilage of a home without a warrant.
• Represented human trafficking survivor Kendra Ross. In 2018, she was awarded an almost $8 million judgment, the largest civil single-plaintiff human-trafficking award in U.S. history, in the suit she brought against the nationwide regimented cult the Value Creators Inc. (formerly known as the United Nation of Islam).
• Advised Dominion Energy in its $13.4 billion merger with Scana Corp., one of the largest U.S. energy M&A deals of the past several years.

• North America Innovative Lawyers, Top 10, 2021—Financial Times
• Client Service A-Team, 2022—BTI Consulting Group
• M&A Powerhouse, 2022—BTI Consulting Group
• Law Firm of the Year, Banking and Finance Litigation, 2021—U.S. News-Best Lawyers
• Pro Bono Hot List, 2021—The National Law Journal