The firm's Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Practice has been recognized by Law360 as a Practice Group of the Year for the fifth time, showcasing some of the firm's significant victories during the calendar year of 2015. One of only five firms honored for appellate litigation, WilmerHale "headlined" according to Law360 because of "a major victory in the Second Circuit for tech giant Google Inc. in a copyright dispute over Google Books." The ruling held that Google's project to scan millions of copyrighted books without permission was legal under the fair use doctrine.

In a recently published feature, Law360 dissects the Google Inc. victory along with some of the group's other successes which include the record-breaking eight cases argued before the United States Supreme Court  last term-the most of any law firm. As Partner Tom Saunders shared with Law360, "To have, within a single appellate group, five different people who can argue before the Supreme Court in a single year…that is just a tremendous repository of knowledge and skills that clients can draw on, not just for Supreme Court work but for a wide range of Court of Appeals work and other matters regarding difficult questions of law." 

Former US Solicitor General and Co-Chair of the firm's Appellate Group Seth Waxman and Vice-Chair Mark Fleming also shared thoughts on team morale and casework. "There are not many firms that have a lot of young lawyers with Supreme Court arguments under their belts," said Fleming. "We all get along well with each other and it's a great working environment."

"When you get that kind of chemistry in a social group of any sort, really good things happen," said Waxman. "It also helps to have a group of dynamic where everybody feels like they are getting new professional opportunities and continual evidence of professional growth."

The group's win for Walt Disney Co. unit Marvel Entertainment LLC in a dispute over a Spider-Man toy is also discussed, along with a win for client Cisco Systems Inc.

Read the article published by Law360 on January 11, 2016.