| Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation |
Our seasoned appellate lawyers have argued more than 125 cases before the Supreme Court, including leading cases in areas such as antitrust, banking law, bankruptcy, communications, constitutional law, employment, energy regulation, federal preemption, patent, securities regulation and tax. We regularly handle matters in federal and state appellate courts throughout the United States, and have represented clients in over 35 patent and other cases in the Federal Circuit in the last two years. In 2009 alone, 31 different WilmerHale lawyers made a total of 50 oral arguments in state and federal courts, including nine in a single ten-day period in November. Combining our trial and appellate strengths allows us to shape litigation strategy from the outset to maximize the likelihood of ultimate success. Clients also retain us to advise them on complex and often unsettled legal issues, no matter what the particular forum or context.
WilmerHale’s appellate practice group, with members in Washington DC, New York, Boston and California, has been honored by Chambers USA every year since 2005. Chambers called our team a "bench of talent that is 'impressive beyond belief'" and cited our "built-in ability and knowledge to tackle appeals both before the state, federal and Supreme courts."
In some notable recent cases, we:
- Won a large award in long-running patent infringement litigation in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In its most recent decision in the case, the Federal Circuit ordered the other side to pay damages and contempt sanctions totaling approximately $200 million.
- Presented oral argument in the Supreme Court on behalf of several ocean shippers in a case raising important issues of class arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (Stolt-Nielsen v. Animalfeeds).
- Convinced a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reverse itself and rule in favor of our client in a tax case that has broad-reaching implications for US companies with overseas operations. One leading tax news service referred to the panel’s decision as “[a] dramatic reversal ... in a case that only months ago had been seen as a major victory for the government.”
- Secured a new trial for our client in a case that The New York Times described as “upend[ing] the first major conviction of a corporate executive in [an options] backdating case.”
- Continued our representation of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. The firm’s early representation of Guantanamo prisoners led to the Supreme Court’s 2008 Boumediene v. Bush decision, which held that the prisoners had a constitutional right to habeas corpus.