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Professionals 58 results
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Practice Area
Product Liability & Mass Torts
Major multinational companies trust Winston to defend their products and reputations in high-profile, high-stakes product liability and mass tort claims. Our Product Liability & Mass Torts Practice is one of the industry’s most seasoned, with a deep bench of experienced lawyers and a unique combination of extensive trial experience and expansive technical knowledge.
Practice Area
Addressing a crisis in today’s climate requires both swift action and careful consideration of all potential risks. Winston & Strawn is a trusted business adviser to clients facing complex, fast-moving, high-profile crises.
Practice Area
Environmental Litigation & Enforcement
With today’s rapidly evolving rules of engagement, paired with the often contentious nature of environmental disputes, clients rely on Winston for our practical experience and substantive knowledge of the broad-ranging issues involved in environmental litigation, enforcement, and investigations.
Experience 80 results
Experience
|October 10, 2025
Winston Advises Vistria Affiliate in $136M IPO of Phoenix Education Partners
A Winston & Strawn LLP team led by partners Keerthika Subramanian, Steve Gavin and Timothy Kincaid and including Jacob Tabman, Jeremy Spankowski and Jenna Smith advised TVG-I-E-AEG Holdings, LP, an affiliate of The Vistria Group, as one of the selling stockholders in the $136 million initial public offering of Phoenix Education Partners, Inc. (NYSE: PXED), the parent company of The University of Phoenix, Inc. The IPO valued Phoenix Education Partners, Inc. at approximately $1.35 billion. The transaction marks The University of Phoenix’s return to public markets after nearly a decade as a private company.
Experience
|June 25, 2025
Winston Secures Federal Circuit Affirmance of 101 Victory for Polycom
Winston secured an appellate victory for Polycom (now part of HP) when the Federal Circuit affirmed a judgment on the pleadings of patent-ineligibility in a lawsuit brought by directPacket Research, Inc. Working closely with HP, Winston argued that all claims of the asserted patent were directed to the abstract idea of translation via an intermediate protocol, with no inventive concept. The Northern District of California agreed, and the Federal Circuit unanimously affirmed, adopting Winston’s arguments. Eimeric Reig argued the appeal, working with HP and the Winston team, including Kathi Vidal, Kelly Hunsaker, Sam Lerner, Matt McCullough, and David Dalke.
Experience
|June 12, 2025
Winston Serves as Lead Counsel to GCP Capital Partners in New Continuation Vehicle
Winston & Strawn served as legal counsel to GCP Capital Partners (GCP) in connection with the formation and closing of a single-asset continuation vehicle involving ALKEME Insurance. Led by the PE and Funds Group practices, the team advised GCP throughout the transaction which included substantial newly committed capital to fund portfolio company ALKEME’s continued growth (the single asset). The fund raise was backed by a syndicate of institutional investors where Apollo S3 served as the lead investor. The deal signals a growing trend: the strategic use of continuation vehicles to extend sponsors’ ownership in high-performing portfolio companies. This deal also reflects a broader narrative in middle-market private equity: firms that started small are now scaling rapidly, and they’re turning to sophisticated liquidity solutions to fuel that growth.
Insights & News 1,040 results
MaritimeFedWatch
|October 20, 2025
|2 Min Read
China Retaliates Against U.S. Connected Vessels
On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Trade Representative imposed substantial fees on Chinese-built, otherwise Chinese-connected vessels, and most foreign-built vehicle carriers whether built in China or not. On the same day, the Chinese Ministry of Transport imposed retaliatory fees on “US vessels.”
In the Media
|September 23, 2025
|2 Min Read
Kathi Vidal Discusses Gender Gap in Patents with MLex
Winston & Strawn partner Kathi Vidal was featured in a MLex article where she discussed the gender gap in patents, outreach efforts in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under her leadership as the former Director, and how the office can support women inventors. A 2022 study from the USPTO showed that office policy can help close the gap between men and women in the US patent system. The paper studied the effectiveness of the Pro Se Pilot Examination Unit (PSPEU), which provides additional communication and assistance to inventors attempting to prosecute a patent without representation.
Recognitions
|September 11, 2025
|Less Than 1 Min Read
Kathi Vidal Named to Washingtonian 2025 Tech Titan List
Winston & Strawn partner Kathi Vidal has been named to the Washingtonian’s 2025 Tech Titans list, which honors the most influential figures driving innovation in the Washington, D.C. tech sector. The list features entrepreneurs, government leaders, cybersecurity experts, venture capitalists, and others shaping the future of tech in the region. Kathi was recognized in the “Policy People” category, which highlights advocates, lobbyists, and nonprofit leaders making a meaningful impact in tech policy. The Washingtonian praised Kathi as one of the top intellectual property and patent attorneys in the country.
Other Results 11 results
Site Content
In the product liability context, general causation is the legal and scientific determination of whether the product in question has the inherent capability to cause the alleged injury under certain circumstances. Establishment of general causation is a critical aspect of a plaintiff’s case, and typically requires scientific evidence, such as epidemiology or toxicology, and expert testimony to establish a causal connection between the product’s design, manufacturing, or warnings and the injury or injuries at issue. As contrasted to specific causation, the focus in a general causation inquiry is on whether the product or exposure, as a general matter, can cause the type of injury claimed by the plaintiff. A general causation inquiry does not assess any facts unique to a particular plaintiff.
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Specific causation is the legal and scientific determination of whether the product in question was the direct cause of a plaintiff's specific injury. While general causation inquires whether a broader connection exists between a product and a type of harm, a specific causation assessment focuses on the unique circumstances surrounding a particular plaintiff's case. It typically requires expert testimony demonstrating that the alleged defect or issue in the product was responsible for the specific injuries suffered by the plaintiff. Alternative explanations for the plaintiff’s specific injuries must also be ruled out—typically via a differential etiology—for specific causation to be established.
Site Content
Generative AI tools can create new content, such as text, computer code, images, audio, sound, and video, in response to a user’s prompt, often in the form of a short written description of the desired output. Generative AI tools are based on machine learning, trained using enormous amounts of data.[1] Generative AI tools are built on a system of inputs and outputs. First, the tool goes through a machine learning period whereby it is trained to generate predictive models and creative outputs through a large data set, often varied and diverse but tailored to the goal of the tool (i.e., customer service, generating scientific or marketing models, etc.). For in-house tools, this can be done with the company’s own data; for larger tools such as ChatGPT, this is done with the creator’s data set.[2] Once the tool has been trained, the individual user “inputs” a short prompt for the tool to synthesize and produce an “output.” Inputs are often retained on the servers controlled by the company that supports the tool, for monitoring of the tool’s performance and, in some cases, continued learning. The “outputs” are created by combining the machine learning during the training period with the inputs to produce an output.[3]