San Francisco litigation boutique Lewis & Llwellyn is a new entrant to the Benchmark rankings this year, and in fact, is a relatively new entity in the legal community. The firm came into existence via the entrepreneurial spirit of several former partners in Latham & Watkins’ San Francisco office, and since its opening has generated a significant level of buzz.

A peer marvels, “They opened five years ago with no clients, and had their first client within five hours of opening!” Several of these clients readily voice appreciation. One insists, “They provide the highest quality of work in an extremely responsive, efficient, and cost-effective manner. I have the utmost confidence in the capabilities, competence, wisdom, and integrity of Paul Llewellyn and the entire firm. L&L provides the highest quality of work in an extremely responsive, efficient, and cost-effective manner, and have the perfect demeanor for dealing with in-house executives.”

Llewellyn and future star Ryan Erickson are lead counsel representing defendant and counterplaintiff IT consulting company Sparta and defendants KPIT Infosystems (Sparta’s US parent) and KPIT Technologies (Sparta Indian grandparent) in a contentious software implementation dispute. There is over $80 million in dispute. Trial is set to begin in August 2017.

The pair was also lead counsel for a plaintiff who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of the janitor at her middle school while she was a student in 2001. The case involved allegations that the school and certain district administrators facilitated plaintiff’s abuse by concealing and actively covering up multiple prior incidents of sexual abuse by the same sexual predator, and by failing to report such prior incidents to the proper authorities, as the school was obligated to do under California law. After defeating legal challenges at the demurrer and summary judgment stages, the team favorably settled the case the day before trial was scheduled to begin for $1.35 million.

Marc Lewis is lead counsel for a former employee of Novo Nordisk in a breach-of-employment agreement by allegedly misappropriating Novo’s confidential information and violating the contract’s “non-compete” provision. The case settled on the eve of the hearing on Novo’s motion for a preliminary injunction. A client offers acclaim for Lewis: “I chose Lewis & Llewellyn largely because of Marc’s expertise and character. He is a tremendous counselor, who I enjoyed working with and never hesitated to contact if I had any questions whatsoever.”