Most commercial litigation centers around private contract disputes, but increasingly such disputes are also implicating fraud and antitrust issues, as well as civil racketeering claims. The members of the litigation practice group have extensive experience in these areas, bringing to bear a mixture of backgrounds in substantive private practice areas, in government practice, and in criminal prosecution.

The firm's litigation attorneys have recently handled the following representative commercial cases:

• We are defending an U.K.-based software development firm in an international arbitration involving a claimed breach of non-competition clauses in a series of joint venture agreements.
  
  
• We defended an aviation consulting firm in litigation in state court in Miami, Florida, concerning alleged breach of a consulting agreement and alleged fraudulent inducement to contract, where the consulting firm had provided technical support to an airline during a pre-lease repair and inspection of a commercial aircraft and where a structural problem with the aircraft was found subsequent to the aircraft being placed in service.
  
  
• We represented a non-fiction author in an arbitration proceeding against his former literary agency for breach of contract and breach of loyalty.
  
  

• We obtained dismissal of a breach of contract action in federal court brought by a computer software development and integration company against a company that canceled an agreement for software development and integration following a problem-ridden trial installation period.
  
  
• We represented a major U.S. air carrier in a lawsuit against an aircraft manufacturer for return of progress payments made by the carrier toward the purchase of certain aircraft under purchase options, based on the carrier's decision not to exercise the options.
  
  
• We represented a Washington-based national trade association in a dispute with a software provider concerning the performance failures of certain government relations software.
  
  
• We represented a U.S. manufacturer of airborne reconnaissance equipment in litigation against a foreign government, and in related foreign arbitration and federal court litigation against a foreign subcontractor, arising out of a research and development and facilities construction contract with the foreign government.
  
  
• We represented a domestic airline in leased aircraft repossession proceedings in federal court resulting from a dispute between the airline and the aircraft lessor concerning the amount and timing of various lease charges and maintenance and service reserves and credits.