2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE UNDERWRITER O'Melveny & Myers LLP

Long rooted in California—where it maintains a quintet of offices—O’Melveny & Myers has branched out in all directions with offices in eight countries on three continents, including a recent expansion into Texas. The firm is known for its work in antitrust, appellate litigation, entertainment law, labor and employment, patent litigation, products liability, project finance, securities litigation, venture capital, and more.

Growing with L.A.

The O’Melveny story starts way back in 1885 when Henry W. O’Melveny and Jackson Graves founded a partnership in Los Angeles. The fledgling firm gained traction through its work on land litigation surrounding the ownership of California’s Spanish haciendas and its handling of the legalities of hydroelectric power, which helped to transform the arid basin of Los Angeles into a sprawling, car-centric metropolis. The firm underwent a total of nine name changes, and after California Supreme Court Chief Justice Louis W.  Myers was hired as a lateral partner, became O’Melveny & Myers in 1939.

Shooting for the Stars

O’Melveny is known as a go-to firm for the toughest cases. The firm works in a range of industries, including banking and financial services, consumer products, education, energy and natural resources, entertainment and media, health care, hospitality, infrastructure, life sciences, real estate, sports, technology, and transportation.

Coming in at No. 3 in Vault’s Media, Entertainment, & Sports ranking, the firm is known for its work in the entertainment and sports fields. The firm’s experience includes complex media and entertainment transactions, high-profile entertainment, media, and sports disputes, stadium development, complex licensing agreements, and sponsorships. Among the firm’s clients are Disney and Hulu, NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate, and Fubo.

The firm’s litigators work on disputes that seek damages in the billions, challenge the business practices of entire industries, and stand to set new legal precedent. O’Melveny’s litigation roster runs the gamut—from antitrust and appellate to intellectual property and product liability to securities and white collar to water and natural resources and other environmental law—and then some.

Across the deal landscape, O’Melveny’s corporate groups are routinely tapped for headline-making transactions, serving as sounding boards, creative problem solvers, and thought partners for industry leaders. The firm routinely advises on billion-dollar financing deals, global M&A transactions, and infrastructure projects. “Unicorns”—private companies valued at greater than $1 billion—and venture-backed companies looking to sell or go public turn to the firm’s cross-disciplinary emerging companies group.

William T. Coleman, Jr. Diversity Fellowships

O’Melveny’s William T. Coleman, Jr. Diversity Fellowships honor the late William T. Coleman, a former partner at the firm, who—among other things—worked on the groundbreaking Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. Both the 1L and 2L Fellowship Programs provide law students the opportunity to participate in O’Melveny’s summer program and receive award payments to be used for law school tuition and expenses: 1L Fellows receive a $5,000 award and 2L fellows are eligible for an award up to $50,000 to be paid in phases.

• Secured an unprecedented global resolution of claims from 48 states and 3,000+ cities and counties that accused pharmaceutical manufacturers—including J&J—and others of allegedly causing an opioid abuse crisis.
• Achieved victory in “the antitrust trial of the century,” defeating an attempt by the US DOJ to block the merger between AT&T and Time Warner.
• Represented the Government of Puerto Rico in the financial restructuring of its debt obligations—the largest municipal restructuring in US history.
• Advised semiconductor manufacturer Broadcom on its pending US$61 billion acquisition of multicloud services provider VMware—the largest M&A deal ever for a semiconductor manufacturer.

• 11 consecutive years on the A-List, 2022—The American Lawyer
• Appellate Hot List, 2022—The National Law Journal
• Dealmakers of the Year, 2022—The American Lawyer
• Diversity & Inclusion Innovation Award, 2022—Chambers
• #1 for Technology and #4 Overall in Midlevel Associates Survey, 2022—The American Lawyer