People

Edward C. DuMont

Partner

Vice Chair, Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Practice Group

DuMont, Edward C.

Ed DuMont is a partner in the firm’s Litigation/Controversy Department and a vice chair of the Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Practice Group. He joined the firm in 2002. Mr. DuMont focuses on Supreme Court and appellate litigation, dispositive motion practice in lower courts, and advising clients with respect to complex or novel legal issues.

Practice

In Supreme Court matters, Mr. DuMont’s practice has included seeking or opposing review in cases involving a variety of issues, including antitrust, arbitration,  patent, trademark, environmental, and constitutional questions; advising clients on the specialized Supreme Court litigation process; and filing merits and amicus briefs in cases involving topics such as limitations on the imposition of class-action arbitration under standard commercial arbitration clauses; preemption of state investigative authority by the National Bank Act; the permissibility of taking cost-benefit considerations into account in environmental regulation; federal constitutional constraints on state land-use decisions; ERISA preemption and health care regulation; the proper limits on asbestos litigation; government contracts with Indian Tribes; and the constitutionality of copyright extensions.

In other appellate and district court matters, Mr. DuMont has argued or led briefing in cases involving issues as wide-ranging as infringement of the pioneering patent on digital video recording technology; the intersection of antitrust and patent licensing law; how the FICA tax applies to a prominent university’s retirement annuity program; constitutional, statutory, and administrative law issues raised by Indian gaming; the successful appeal of white-collar criminal convictions; complex insurance and reinsurance issues; Due Process and Commerce Clause limits on the reach of state tax and antitrust laws; and how constitutional privileges apply to a public official.

Out of court, Mr. DuMont has advised clients and other counsel with respect to constitutional, legislative, regulatory, procedural and Indian gaming issues.

Before joining WilmerHale, Mr. DuMont served for several years as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the US Department of Justice, and also as an Associate Deputy Attorney General handling issues relating to computer crime, e-commerce and privacy. He has argued 18 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, including cases involving national banks and annuity products; standards and procedures in employment discrimination cases, including the Americans with Disabilities Act; ERISA issues; First Amendment limits on government restrictions on access to records; American Indian law in the commercial and tax contexts; manufacturers’ claims for the costs of toxic tort suits arising out of government contracts; validity of local government fees under federal statutes and the Commerce Clause; and constitutional aspects of criminal sentencing.

Honors & Awards

  • Recognized as a Nationwide leader in the Appellate Law field in the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers in Business
  • Selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions of The Best Lawyers in America for his exceptional appellate practice
  • Selected as a "Top Lawyer" in the 2011 edition of Washingtonian magazine

Speaking Engagements

Highlights

  • Successfully petitioned for Supreme Court review in a case involving review under the Federal Arbitration Act of an arbitrator’s decision that the parties’ arbitration agreement authorized class arbitration.
  • Advised holders of bonds issued by a foreign financial institution on complex issues arising in litigation over the suspension of interest payments.
  • Led trial court and appellate briefing in federal and local courts in multiple proceedings arising out of discrimination claims against a large institutional client. Every court decision favored WilmerHale’s client.
  • On behalf of a major international consumer electronics firm, secured a favorable en banc decision from the Federal Circuit in a significant case at the intersection of patent licensing and antitrust law, enforcing the limits of the patent misuse doctrine.
  • Led appellate briefing for TiVo, the innovative originator of the consumer DVR, in en banc Federal Circuit proceedings involving the legal standards for enforcing injunctions in patent cases.
  • Successfully petitioned for Supreme Court review and led merits briefing in a case involving whether arbitrators may order class arbitration when a commercial arbitration agreement is silent on that question. The Court ruled in favor of WilmerHale’s client, agreeing that the Federal Arbitration Act prohibits imposing class arbitration on unconsenting parties.
  • Led preparation of petition for rehearing en banc seeking further review of a Ninth Circuit panel’s decision in a corporate tax case presenting fundamental questions of US statutory and treaty law relating to transfer pricing. (WilmerHale was first engaged after the unfavorable panel decision.) The panel reversed itself and ruled in favor of WilmerHale’s client.
  • Led briefing after WilmerHale was engaged to appeal convictions resulting from widely publicized charges related to the “backdating” of employee stock options. The Ninth Circuit reversed all convictions and remanded for a new trial.
  • Briefed and argued a Seventh Circuit appeal on behalf of a major university challenging, in a case of first impression, the IRS’s treatment of certain retirement plan contributions for purposes of FICA taxation.
  • Led appellate briefing for TiVo in a Federal Circuit case involving infringement of TiVo’s pioneering patent on affordable consumer DVR technology, leading to affirmance of an injunction and substantial damages awarded by the district court.
  • Led appellate briefing after WilmerHale was engaged to appeal criminal convictions in a case involving charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and circumvention of internal controls against former executives of a public company. The WilmerHale team first secured Tenth Circuit reversal of the district court’s decision denying bail pending appeal. After full briefing and argument, the court of appeals reversed all the convictions, going out of its way to emphasize that most of the charges could not be retried. The Wall Street Journal called the decision “a stunning reversal of a high-profile government prosecution.” The government ultimately dropped all charges against WilmerHale’s client.
  • Key member of teams that secured summary judgment on behalf of a tribal client defending the Secretary of the Interior’s decision to take land into trust for the Tribe; successfully defended that judgment in the DC Circuit; secured denial of certiorari; and successfully then handled both follow-on litigation seeking to raise other claims and substantive submissions to the Interior Department concerning related complex and novel legal issues.
  • Led briefing on behalf of the National Indian Gaming Association and a number of Indian tribes and other tribal organizations as amici curiae in an important DC Circuit case challenging the National Labor Relations Board’s decision to assert jurisdiction over casinos operated by Indian tribal governments on tribal land.
  • Key member of teams that briefed appeals on behalf of major insurance companies in a Second Circuit case involving interpretation of policies covering the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center attack and a Connecticut Supreme Court case involving whether a reinsurance treaty covers portions of a $1.1 billion settlement of insurance claims arising out of an insured’s asbestos liabilities.
  • Leading role in briefing Federal Circuit case that led to an important decision addressing the competitive effects of package licensing of patents relating to new technology products. The court agreed with WilmerHale’s arguments on behalf of a major international electronics manufacturer, which had hired the firm to challenge the contrary result previously reached by the International Trade Commission. Mr. DuMont also played a leading role in subsequent proceedings, including securing denial of Supreme Court review and briefing on remand before the ITC, which resolved all remaining issues in the client’s favor and issued a General Exclusion Order.
  • Leading role in briefing on summary judgment, before the DC Circuit, and opposing Supreme Court review in a case for a tribal government client, leading to the first appellate opinion to decide an important issue relating to the eligibility of certain lands for casino gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
  • Part of a team of lawyers that advised a major insurance company extensively in connection with judicial and legislative efforts to address the asbestos litigation crisis.

Practices

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Education

JD, Stanford Law School, 1986

BA, summa cum laude, Yale University, 1983

Bar Admissions

District of Columbia

California

New York

Clerkships

The Hon. Richard A. Posner, US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1986 - 1987