Providing comprehensive solutions for the acquisition, enforcement and protection of IP.

A global team handling highly complex and sensitive matters in all aspects of litigation.

Clients trust us to protect their most important intellectual property matters.

By patenting their innovations, our clients increase the value of their intellectual property and enhance their ability to compete in the marketplace. We work with laboratory and research teams and R&D and product development groups to determine whether, when and where it is in our clients’ business and technical interests to seek patent protection. And we don’t just file patent applications. Drawing on our experience with patent litigation, corporate financings and technology transactions, we implement IP strategies that conserve resources, add measurable value and give our clients a cost-effective and commercially practical competitive edge.

We help clients obtain more than 750 US and foreign patents each year, covering innovations that span the technological spectrum, including aerospace, biochemistry, biotechnology, business methods, chemistry, computer science, fuel cells, genetics, high-speed data communication, integrated circuits, materials science, medical devices, nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals, semiconductor devices and processes, and software.

We also prepare and prosecute patent applications internationally under the Patent Cooperative Treaty and by working with a network of seasoned patent lawyers around the world. Our experience extends to appeals, interferences and opposition proceedings within the US Patent and Trademark Office, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the European Patent Office.

We advise clients on the smartest, most cost-effective ways to challenge or defend issued patents.

Clients turn to us for their highest-stakes trade secret disputes.

“The firm is at its best during a fight—whether that’s against an enforcer, or in court against a private litigant.” — Global Competition Review

Combining our trial and appellate strengths allows us to shape litigation strategy from the outset to maximize the likelihood of ultimate success.

Sophisticated knowledge of the bankruptcy process, combined with top-notch appellate and trial experience and the perspective and insight required to address a wide range of bankruptcy litigation and regulation issues.

Battle-tested. Globally Respected.

With litigators who previously served as senior lawyers in the Departments of Justice and Defense, and in-house for a major defense contractor, our team has successfully represented clients in difficult, high-stakes FCA litigation brought by relators and the government.

Named an “FCPA Powerhouse” and “Practice Group of the Year,” we have been involved in some of the most notable public and non-public cases and key developments related to FCPA and anti-corruption issues.

Drawing on years of experience in the public and private sectors, our lawyers handle a range of litigation involving the federal government, state and foreign governments, and complex regulatory regimes.

WilmerHale offers one of the world’s premier international arbitration and dispute resolution practices.

WilmerHale has defended clients in hundreds of class, derivative, shareholder and individual actions alleging securities fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and other corporate misconduct.

We offer clients exceptional insight in dealing with competition agencies in the United States, Europe and around the world.

We help companies protect data, comply with evolving regulations, and respond to investigations and litigation.

Bringing significant depth and critical experience to government contracting matters.

Advising clients on changing priorities, new regulations, emerging threats and untapped opportunities.

With lawyers across the United States and in key international locations, our team handles high-stakes matters before the regulatory and enforcement agencies with energy and environmental oversight.

Clients turn to us to advance their objectives and manage risk in today’s complex, ever-changing global trade landscape.

When legal, public policy and media challenges converge and an institution's reputation and business are at stake, no firm rivals WilmerHale’s ability to navigate fast-moving events and craft lasting solutions.

Our team provides guidance on all facets of swaps, futures and derivatives market activity, including regulatory compliance, transactions, litigation, and investigations and enforcement.

WilmerHale’s Investment Management Group provides sophisticated legal and regulatory advice to investment advisers, private fund sponsors, registered funds, and their independent trustees.

WilmerHale has been at the forefront of complex financial restructuring and bankruptcy litigation and policy matters for decades.

Lawyers with deep and broad experience counseling clients in every industry on the design, implementation, and interpretation of executive compensation arrangements and on general compensation and benefits issues.

We provide legal insight and practical solutions for one of the most complex and highly regulated areas of business.

WilmerHale is renowned for its sophisticated representation of investors, developers, landlords, tenants, lenders and institutions on complex real estate projects and transactions.

A deep and diverse practice focused on maximizing tax efficiencies and minimizing tax risks for clients nationally and internationally.

We leverage technical knowledge, business acumen and legal experience to structure, prepare and negotiate innovative and effective technology-related agreements.

Leveraging our sophisticated technical, market and legal experience to help clients effectively and efficiently manage complex transactions and get the deal done.

Helping clients launch their businesses and transform their innovative ideas into successful companies.

WilmerHale lawyers have decades of experience advising public and private companies in all aspects of mergers and acquisitions.

A premier corporate governance and disclosure practice providing timely, tailored and practical advice to public company clients based on in-depth experience and insight.

We counsel an array of public, private and nonprofit clients as they navigate the complex, ever-changing legal landscape that shapes employee benefits and retirement plans. Our attorneys help human resources professionals understand and manage the tax, securities and employment law implications of their benefits programs. We also regularly advise employers, boards of directors, and compensation and administrative committees as they design and draft qualified and non-qualified retirement programs, health and welfare plans, and fringe benefit plans, and we represent these employers and their plans before government agencies and in litigation. WilmerHale’s highly experienced transactional and tax lawyers collaborate to tackle employer concerns that range from negotiating the employee-related issues involved in buying or selling a business to advising on worker classification and employment tax matters.

We advise on all aspects of executive compensation plans and arrangements, offering experienced counsel on the complex web of applicable tax, corporate, securities and employment laws and regulations. Our executive compensation lawyers provide guidance to companies, boards of directors, compensation committees and select senior executives at all stages of executive compensation planning, from design to disclosure to implementation. Our capabilities also include advising on the interpretation of existing plans and arrangements in a wide variety of transactions. We stay at the cutting edge of changes to the legal framework and public and shareholder sentiment, balancing the technical and the practical to best achieve our clients’ business goals and navigate the impact of regulatory and market developments. Our lawyers have significant experience in equity and cash incentive compensation arrangements; nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements; employment, severance, retention and change-in-control agreements; and, for our non-corporate and ex-US clients in particular, profits interests and phantom equity arrangements.

Since the development of the Prudential Center from what had been a blighted railroad yard in Boston’s Back Bay in the early 1960s, WilmerHale has been at the forefront of many of the most significant and complex development projects in the United States. We advise owners, developers, lenders and investors on every step of the development process—from site identification and evaluation through design, permitting, financing, construction, leasing and sale. Our projects range from big-box retail stores and industrial warehouse and distribution centers to manufacturing plants, office towers, hotels, multi-family and condominium projects, seniors housing communities, university and private research facilities, and more.

We counsel owners, investors, lenders, developers and tenants in an array of distressed real estate transactions, including mortgage loan workouts and foreclosures, acquisitions and dispositions of distressed assets and loans, lease renegotiations, and joint venture restructurings. We work with colleagues in our bankruptcy, litigation and environmental risk management practices to provide the full range of advice needed for each transaction. Our deep experience in foreclosures serves the needs of institutional lenders and investors using the acquisition of loans and the exercise of loan remedies as a means to acquire title to properties.

We represent public companies, REITs, private equity advisers, real estate operating companies, mutual fund investment managers and pension funds in all types of real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, equity investments, restructurings, workouts and mezzanine debt. Our clients include both taxable and tax-exempt investors (including pension and endowment funds). Our tax and ERISA groups work closely with us on many transactions. We have overseen the offerings of billions of equity in public and private REITs. We are familiar with market terms and conditions on economics, including registration rights and tax protection provisions.

WilmerHale’s Real Estate Practice represents borrowers and lenders in complex mortgage and mezzanine financing transactions across a wide variety of asset classes. We have extensive experience with government-sponsored enterprises and HUD, as well as conventional lenders, life insurance companies and mezzanine lenders. We also have one of the leading workout and bankruptcy practices in the nation, and we regularly collaborate with our bankruptcy lawyers to restructure debt on distressed real estate projects.

Our wide-ranging experience includes retail, office, industrial, life sciences, credit tenant and build-to-suit leases. We help clients analyze alternative space choices, sublease arrangements, and restructurings and buyouts of existing leases. We devise structures to protect tenants against landlord and/or lender financial distress and navigate complex, multi-phase tenant fit-out projects. WilmerHale is the firm of choice for high-profile headquarters leases for tenants in the key Massachusetts office markets (Boston, Cambridge and the Route 128 corridor) and beyond, and we represent many clients in their national and international leasing needs. In addition to complex headquarters leases, we represent numerous companies in office leasing, subleasing and lease restructuring throughout the United States. For these representations, we often develop form leases, engage local counsel on an as-needed basis, and achieve efficiencies by centralizing negotiations.

With a team of lawyers recognized nationally as leading practitioners in the field, we regularly advise public and private companies, their shareholders and their key employees on tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and joint ventures. Clients rely on our advice to maximize their tax efficiencies and minimize their tax risks. Our clients include businesses from a wide range of sectors: technology, life sciences, publishing, telecommunications, aviation and defense, venture capital and private equity. We develop tax-efficient structures that help clients achieve business objectives and negotiate appropriate contractual protections against the assumption of unwanted tax risks.

Private equity and hedge fund sponsors turn to WilmerHale for advice on complex issues relating to the design and operation of tax-efficient structures for their funds and their funds’ investments. We advise investment fund sponsors concerning optimal offshore and onshore structures for their funds and investments, including the tax consequences for US and non-US investors of holding and disposing of their investment in such funds, tax treatment of the funds under US and non-US tax regimes, and tax considerations relevant to investments to be made by such funds. We also assist funds in connection with equity investments in technology and healthcare companies.

Clients turn to our seasoned team of attorneys—strategically located across the United States—to resolve nearly any state or local tax challenge. State and local taxes account for a high percentage of most businesses’ tax burden. There are literally thousands of these taxes that companies may or may not be subject to, depending on the nature of a given transaction and the requirements of various taxing authorities. The application of historical tests to determine whether a business is subject to state or local tax jurisdictions and the extent of its tax liability has become more difficult with the explosive growth of e-commerce, and the rules are sometimes counterintuitive and seemingly contradictory. We have structured our state and local tax practice to help clients across the United States successfully cope with the specific requirements of individual jurisdictions.

WilmerHale has played a leading role in shaping the rules that govern the financial services industry in the United States.

Providing a strategic, multidisciplinary approach to help clients develop and use AI and to navigate the landscape of Big Data.