WilmerHale has been named to The National Law Journal's Appellate Hot List for the ninth consecutive year. The firm's Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Group, co-chaired by Seth Waxman and Paul Wolfson, was among the 20 firms named to the annual list.
The winners were selected based on their federal and state appeals court victories in the US during 2016. The firm's numerous appellate wins included a string of successes before the Supreme Court. Those victories included Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Mathis v. United States, Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States and Hurst v. Florida.
Waxman and Wolfson led the Gobeille case, which involved the reporting of payment data for health insurance plans in Vermont. The case has far-reaching implications for other similar state payment databases governed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Partner Mark Fleming was victorious in the Mathis case, which reversed a lower court ruling that made it easier to enhance federal sentences under the Armed Career Criminal Act. The ruling will likely have major consequences in criminal and immigration cases nationwide.
Partner Tom Saunders led the Kingdomware case, achieving a unanimous victory for a veteran-owned small business in a case that will affect billions of dollars of contracts awarded each year. The court ruled that a 2006 law giving veteran-owned businesses preferences in VA contracting is mandatory for all contracts.
Waxman and Partner Catherine Carroll also won a victory for pro bono client Timothy Lee Hurst when the Supreme Court held that Florida's capital-sentencing scheme violated the Sixth Amendment because it required the judge and not the jury to find the existence of an aggravating circumstance that makes the defendant eligible for the death penalty.
Among WilmerHale's lower court victories, Bill Lee achieved a major win for Apple when the en banc Federal Circuit reinstated a district court's $120 million judgment in an infringement suit against Samsung. The firm also had several appellate wins for clients including Google, the NCAA and Nike, among others.
View The National Law Journal's Appellate Hot List and read WilmerHale's winning profile.