2022 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 seven countries on three continents. 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 Judge Louis J. 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, energy and natural resources, entertainment and media, health care, hospitality, industrials and manufacturing, 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 field. 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 Alibaba Group, CBSViacom, Disney, Fubo, NBCUniversal, Univision, and Warner Bros.

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 appellate and commercial litigation to environmental law and ERISA to insurance and product liability to securities and white collar—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 US$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 Fellowship

O’Melveny’s William T. Coleman, Jr. Diversity Fellowship honors 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. The fellowship is open to law students who have completed their 1L year. Fellows join the firm as summer associates during their 1L summer, and in addition to summer associate compensation, they may receive an additional $15k toward tuition and law school expenses.

• O’Melveny serves as Johnson & Johnson’s lead counsel in thousands of suits accusing pharmaceutical companies of causing an opioid epidemic.

• O’Melveny achieved victory in “the antitrust trial of the century,” defeating an attempt by the Department of Justice to block the merger between AT&T and Time Warner. 

• O’Melveny represented the Government of Puerto Rico in the financial restructuring of its debt obligations—the largest municipal restructuring in US history.

• O’Melveny counseled Microsemi on its US$10.3 billion sale to Microchip Technology, the culmination of a more than 10-year relationship handling all of Microsemi’s corporate and M&A work.

• #1 A-List, 2021—The American Lawyer

• #3 Midlevel Associate Survey, 2021—The American Lawyer

• Excellence in Pro Bono Award, 2021—The Law Society

• Certified Gold Standard Firm, 2021—Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF)
• Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality, 2021—Human Rights Campaign