Thomas Sprankling's practice focuses on novel legal issues and appeals, with an emphasis on matters involving intellectual property and technology companies, and those arising out of the western United States.

Mr. Sprankling has been involved in briefing and oral argument for agency, trial-court and appellate matters involving a wide range of legal issues, including intellectual property, antitrust, federal criminal and civil procedure, elections, constitutional law, administrative law, Article III justiciability, immigration law and the False Claims Act. He has assisted in filing numerous US Supreme Court merits, cert-stage and amicus briefs, as well as briefs in the New York Court of Appeals, the California Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, and the US Courts of Appeals for the Third, Fourth, Sixth, Ninth, DC and Federal Circuits. He has also presented oral argument in both the Sixth and Ninth Circuits.

Mr. Sprankling is a California native, who was born in San Francisco, was raised near Sacramento and attended college near Los Angeles. Mr. Sprankling attended Columbia Law School, where he was awarded the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Prize for his academic performance—an award given to the top one percent of the class of 2012. Mr. Sprankling joined WilmerHale as a summer associate in 2011 and returned to the firm following clerkships with Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski and US Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

Mr. Sprankling is the co-author of the recently published Understanding Trade Secret Law, which examines both existing and evolving doctrine in this increasingly important area for technology companies.

Publications

• Understanding Trade Secret Law (Carolina Academic Press 2020) (with John G. Sprankling)
• Note, "Does Five Equal Three? Reading the Takings Clause in Light of the Third Amendment's Protection of Houses," 112 Colum. L. Rev. 112 (2012)
• Comment, "Houston, We Have a Problem:  Does the Second Amendment Create a Property Right to a Specific Firearm?," 112 Colum. L. Rev.Sidebar 158 (2012) (with John L. Schwab)