Dorsey & Whitney - Recognition and Rankings

Recognition and Rankings

• Dorsey earned high rankings in a variety of practice areas from Chambers USA, Chambers UK, and Chambers Global. Based on thousands of client interviews worldwide, Chambers ranks law attorneys according qualities most valued by clients. Nationally, Dorsey was ranked in the top tier for Native American Law. Dorsey's Minnesota office ranked in the top tier of Corporate, Labor & Employment, Litigation (General and Intellectual Property), and Real Estate categories. In the UK, Dorsey is ranked among the "Best of the UK" in Tax and Corporate, and is highly ranked in Civil Fraud, Litigation, and Dispute Resolution. Its Seattle office ranked in the top tier for Intellectual Property, the fourth tier for Corporate, and the third tier for Litigation in Washington. Its Salt Lake City office ranked in the third tier for Corporate in Utah. Dorsey ranked in the top tier for Corporate, Environmental, Natural Resources, & Rgulated Industries, Labor & Employment, Litigation, and Real Estate in Alaska; the second tier for Corporate in Montana; the top tier for Labor & Employment, and the second tier for Corporate and Litigation in North Dakota.
• Dorsey ranked 7th nationwide in securities litigation cases taken on in 2006.
• Dorsey has completed more merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in the last 10 years than any other law firm, according to Mergers and Acquisitions: The Dealmakers Journal.
• In 2006, Dorsey ranked 3rd among law firms for the number of U.S. M&A deals completed, 9th for the number of global M&A deals completed, and 8th for the number of Canadian M&A deals completed, according to Thomson Financial.
• In 2008, for the 8th consecutive year, Corporate Board Member Magazine named Dorsey as the best corporate law firm in Minneapolis. The magazine bases its rankings on an annual research study which surveys public company corporate officers, directors and in-house attorneys.
• Eight Dorsey partners, including one retired judge, are members of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL). Membership in the ACTL is by invitation only and is limited to only 1% of total lawyers per state or Canadian province.
• The Dorsey UK tax department was named 2006 “Tax Team of the Year” by Legal Business magazine for a landmark victory in a case before the European Court of Justice.
• In 2007, Dorsey received the perfect rating of 100% on the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) fifth annual Corporate Equality Index. The index measures employer performance in ensuring fair and open workplaces for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees and consumers.
• In 2007, Dorsey was named as one of the nation's 50 "Best Law Firms for Women" by Working Mother Magazine.
• According to the BTI Client Service A-Team 2008, Dorsey is the only Twin Cities firm among the Top 30, coming in at 11. Dorsey also ranked "Best of the Best" in advising about business issues.
• In 2008, for the second consecutive year, Dorsey was named a Minnesota Work-Life Champion.

New York Kramer Decision

Patrick J. Feely, Co-Chair of the firm's Insurance Practice Group, recently lost a landmark decision that generated national interest on behalf of its client Phoenix Life Insurance Company. In Kramer v. Phoenix Life Insurance Company, 2010 N.Y. Slip Opinion 8376, 2010 N.Y. LEXIS 3281 (Ct. App. Nov. 17, 2010), the firm had sought to convince the seven-judge panel of the New York Court of Appeals that Phoenix should not be required to pay a $28 million death benefit relating to three insurance policies covering the life of Arthur Kramer, a founding partner of the New York City law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. The firm's argument was that Mr. Kramer engaged in an improper secondary market/stranger-originated life insurance ("STOLI") transaction and thereby violated Section 3205(b)(1) of the New York State insurable interest statute by acquiring the policies with the intention of re-selling them to investors and thus did not have a good faith intention of benefiting his family. In a 5-2 decision, the Court ruled that the New York insurable interest statute that applied at the time of the policies' issuance was not violated since the statute does not contain a good faith requirement that the insured first intend to benefit his family before an insurance policy could be sold to investors. Mr. Feely was also unsuccessful in Kramer in trying to overturn over 100 years of precedent and public policy in New York that requires insurance companies to pay death benefits once a policy has been in force for two years even if an insurable interest violation may have occurred at policy inception. The three Kramer policies had all been acquired in 2005 and Mr. Kramer died over two years later in 2008. See Wright v. Mutual Benefit Life, 118 N.Y. 237 (1890), New England Mutual v. Caruso, 73 N.Y. 2d 74 (1989). The Kramer decision was hailed throughout the country as a victory for the life settlement industry and as a blow to insurance companies looking to avoid their obligations under insurance policies that they aggressively issued to individuals seeking to participate in the secondary life settlement market.