Potter Anderson Named 2025 Delaware Regional Powerhouse by Law360

Delaware Powerhouse: Potter Anderson

(The article is available here on Law360's website.)

By James Mills 

Law360 (September 3, 2025, 4:00 PM EDT) -- Potter Anderson has had a busy year between defending Mark Zuckerberg and Meta in Chancery Court cases, handling intellectual property cases for Apple, Google and IBM, representing Walmart in opioid, talc and Roundup bankruptcy cases and guiding Global Infrastructure Partners in its $12.5 billion sale to Black Rock.

But that's just par for the course for the Delaware firm, which is why Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP was selected one of Law360's Delaware Powerhouses. The firm is considered one of the go-to firms for corporations and individuals involved in high-stakes legal matters in the First State.

"Our clients are primarily large corporations and or their directors or officers. We act as Delaware counsel for corresponding large firms all over the country," said Potter Anderson chair Peter Walsh Jr. "For instance, in corporate litigation, probably in 70% of the cases, we have been retained by another law firm somewhere in the country, typically a BigLaw firm that has a Fortune 500 client who has been sued in Delaware, or one of the directors or officers has been sued in Delaware and they need Delaware counsel. Those are the kinds of cases we get involved in."

Consequently, Potter Anderson has a good reputation and excellent working relationship with many of the BigLaw firms, according to Michael Pittenger, Potter Anderson's transactions and corporate counseling practice group leader. 

"One of the nice things about being a Delaware law firm is a lot of the times our clients are other law firms that are referred to us," Pittenger said.  "We do a lot of work with firms like Hogan Lovells, Kirkland & Ellis. We have a great relationship with Wachtell Lipton — they work with us on a lot of litigation matters."

The firm knows the Delaware courts and laws, which is why it keeps getting business, Pittenger said, adding, "We're still able to convince our clients and co-counsel at some of those national firms of the value that we can bring as a traditional Delaware firm to their matters."

On top of all the business, Potter Anderson will celebrate its 200th anniversary next year. The firm traces its roots back to 1826, making it the oldest firm in Delaware and one of the 10 oldest law firms in the United States.

While Potter Anderson is proud of its heritage, it is far from the stuffy, good ol' boys network law firm its rich history might suggest it would have.

"I take pride in the fact that we are one of the more progressive firms in Delaware in terms of our diversity. It's a very collegial firm," Walsh said. "A lot of people think 'old firm' [and] think it's old and stuffy. We're quite the opposite."

Walsh explained that Potter Anderson makes conscious efforts to be diverse, including having partner Bill Chapman, a former family court judge, heading up the firm's diversity committee and helping out with associate recruiting.

Similarly, the firm chair immediately before Walsh was Kathleen Furey McDonough, the first woman to chair a major Delaware law firm.

"The fact we have women in leadership roles in the firm is really important to young lawyers coming out of school," Walsh said. "There's more woman graduating these days from law school than men. It's really important for us to have women and diverse candidates and diverse people in leadership positions."

At 102 attorneys, Potter Anderson is one of the largest firms in the state. And that number will increase by about a dozen once the new class of associates joins the firm later this month.  

Despite its success and long history, Potter Anderson has never really considered expanding outside of Delaware.

"There's really no need for offices elsewhere," Walsh explained. "If we, for example, wanted to have an office in New York, we would be competing with the firms that send us work because they don't have a Delaware office. That's why we just need to be in Wilmington. We have a great office in Wilmington and that's all we're going to do for the foreseeable future."

Likewise, the firm has never seriously entertained any merger offers from other law firms.

"My partners and I share the view that we want to remain a Delaware based firm. We have roots in Delaware. There are a number of Delaware institutions that have used us," Walsh said. "For that reason, we really haven't had much interest in merging with somebody."

Potter Anderson's largest practice is its corporate litigation practice. That's not surprising given the fact the state is so business friendly and the chancery court is known to frequently expedite cases, reducing court times from years to mere months.

The firm's second-largest practice is the general litigation group, which includes intellectual property litigation and policy-side insurance cases, as well as labor and employment cases.

The firm's bankruptcy practice also falls under general litigation, but Walsh admits the bankruptcy group is likely now large enough to be spun off into its own practice group.

"Our bankruptcy group is probably second or third largest in Delaware now; very active in the bankruptcy court," Walsh said. "It's an evolving discussion of when the bankruptcy group will be big enough to be its own group."

Because Delaware is so business friendly and has so many national firms incorporated in the state, Potter Anderson also offers its clients corporate counseling, with Pittenger serving as the practice group leader of corporate counseling.

"Delaware having by far the largest number of corporations incorporated here and also alternative entities like limited liability companies organized here, we get a lot of work in connection with both transactions involving those entities and disputes involving those entities," Pittenger explained. "We provide corporate counseling services to corporations, to the boards of directors of corporations on compliance with Delaware law, compliance with fiduciary duties."

Potter Anderson acted as co-counsel to Google LLC in connection to a grant of non-exclusive license to Character.AI's large language model technology, a deal announced in August 2024 that brought Character.AI's founders back to Google, where they started.

Likewise, the firm represented Apple Inc. in multiple patent infringement cases against Masimo Corp. regarding the sale of Masimo's W1 smartwatch. The firm also represented IBM in an infringement suit against Zynga Inc. involving mobile games.

Potter Anderson served as co-counsel guiding Global Infrastructure Partners in its $12.5 billion sale to investment firm Black Rock Inc. The deal was completed in October 2024, which makes Black Rock a global leader in infrastructure across equity, debt and solution.

The firm also acted as Delaware counsel to KKR in connection to its $4.8 billion acquisition of learning ecosystem Instructure Holdings Inc.

The firm is representing Mark Zuckerberg and Meta Platforms Inc. at the Chancery Court in a consolidated derivative stockholder litigation alleging breaches of fiduciary duty with Meta's user data security and privacy controls. The issue resulted in a $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission in 2019.

Similarly, the firm continues to represent Walmart Inc. in opioid, talc and Roundup pesticide mass bankruptcy cases.

In looking toward the future, Walsh reported the firm's workload remains strong, noting there are people working "very hard to ensure that Delaware remains the go-to place to incorporate and to litigate."

He said he sees Potter Anderson continuing to grow and, with luck, celebrating another 200 years of existence in 2226.

"The hallmark of our firm is not only the top-quality work product, which is most important, and the ability to know the local practice — the law, the judges — but also just a pretty darn good place to work," Walsh said. "The practice of law at this level and in these types of cases in not easy, but we strike a nice balance in terms of being the best at what we can do and also being pretty good people to work with as well."

--Editing by Kristen Becker.

About Potter Anderson

Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP is one of the largest and most highly regarded Delaware law firms, providing legal services to regional, national, and international clients. With more than 100 attorneys, the firm centers its practice on corporate and alternative entity law and litigation, commercial litigation, bankruptcy, intellectual property, labor and employment, and real estate.