Defense litigation firm managing 100,000+ matters across courts and jurisdictions
Wilson Elser operates a 1,400+ attorney defense litigation practice handling approximately 100,000 active matters at any given time. The tech stack reflects a legal-services-first operation: Westlaw, iManage, and Relativity for case management; Workday for HR/payroll; Microsoft Office and Teams for collaboration. Active projects center on legal process innovation tooling and Workday deployment, while pain points cluster around multi-jurisdictional compliance, discovery risk, and client guideline adherence — all typical constraints for a large, distributed litigation firm managing complex, high-stakes defense work.
Wilson Elser is a national defense litigation firm founded in 1978, ranked 95th in the AmLaw 100. The firm employs over 1,400 attorneys across multiple offices, managing defense and coverage matters in complex torts, commercial litigation, insurance defense, appellate work, and emerging areas like cybersecurity and data privacy. The practice frequently assumes unresolved matters from other firms and serves large international clients across transportation, professional liability, and multi-state litigation. Operations span the United States, Canada, and Peru, with a legal-heavy department structure (264 active legal roles) and ongoing Workday integration to streamline HR and administrative workflows.
Defense litigation, insurance and reinsurance defense, complex tort, commercial litigation, appellate, employment & labor, cybersecurity & data privacy, aviation & aerospace, and design professional liability — serving corporate and insurance clients in multi-jurisdictional matters.
The firm uses Westlaw for legal research, iManage for document/matter management, and Relativity for e-discovery and litigation support, alongside Microsoft Office and Teams for collaboration.
Other companies in the same industry, closest in size