Noelle M. Reed

Ms. Reed was a trial attorney with the Department of Justice’s Terrorism and Violent Crime Division and an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of Texas. As a prosecutor, she handled criminal cases involving terrorism, public corruption, fraud, organized crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, environmental violations and tax offenses.

Ms. Reed’s practice includes representing corporations and individuals in a variety of complex civil and criminal litigation matters. She represents clients as plaintiffs and defendants and has served as lead trial counsel in more than 30 jury trials and arbitrations. She also regularly represents companies and their directors, officers and financial advisors in multiforum securities and fiduciary duty cases arising from mergers and acquisitions. She has represented clients in acquisition-related cases involving more than 100 billion dollars in transaction value.

Ms. Reed recently served as a member of Skadden’s Policy Committee, the firm’s governing body, and is a member of the American Law Institute. During Ms. Reed’s tenure as a prosecutor, she served as a trial advocacy instructor at the National Trial Advocacy Center, which provides litigation training to all federal prosecutors, and as an instructor at the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest, Hungary.

In recognition of her work, Ms. Reed has been repeatedly:

• selected to Band 1 of Chambers USA, in which clients have described her as “the best litigator in Texas” as well as “a calming presence in the courtroom,” and stated there is “no one better for high-profile securities litigation”
• named in The Best Lawyers in America, including previously as its Houston Litigation — Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyer of the Year
• honored by Lawdragon, including as one of its Legends in 2024 and regularly as one of its 500 Leading Global Litigators, 500 Leading Lawyers in America and 500 Leading Litigators in America

Representative matters in which Ms. Reed has been involved include:

• Aspen Technology, Inc. v. M3 Technology. As lead trial counsel, Ms. Reed obtained a $12 million jury verdict and a permanent injunction for client Aspen Technology on its copyright, trade secret misappropriation and tortious interference claims. She successfully defended the verdict on appeal to the Fifth Circuit.
• Oxbow Calcining v. Port Arthur Steam Energy. Ms. Reed served as co-lead counsel in the successful arbitration of contract claims brought by and against client Port Arthur Steam Energy. She successfully defended the arbitration award through appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.
• Bank of America mortgage-backed securities litigation. Ms. Reed is lead counsel for Bank of America and its affiliates in litigation pending in federal and state courts in Texas.
• Archer Well Company v. GW Holdings. Ms. Reed was lead counsel for Archer Well in this contract and securities litigation in the Southern District of New York arising from Archer’s acquisition of five companies.
• XTO Energy, Inc. Ms. Reed represented XTO in shareholder litigation seeking to enjoin Exxon Mobil’s $41 billion acquisition of XTO.
• Virgin Mobile. As lead trial counsel for Virgin Mobile, Ms. Reed obtained permanent injunctions against numerous defendants in a series of trademark infringement cases arising from the hacking of Virgin Mobile cellular phones.
• PISC v. Woolslayer. As lead trial counsel, Ms. Reed obtained a directed verdict on behalf of client Woolslayer in the jury trial of a contract dispute.
• GenOn. Ms. Reed was lead counsel for GenOn and its directors in federal and state litigation in Texas arising from NRG’s acquisition of GenOn.