Our appellate team combines deep knowledge of industries and substantive law with a well-earned reputation for excellence in appellate advocacy. We help clients win cases and shape the long-term development of the law in their interest.
We bring to bear extensive experience in:
- Diverse industries, from transportation, energy, and insurance to Internet and telecommunications, manufacturing, and retail
- Evolving areas of the law, such as constitutional jurisprudence, white-collar defense, intellectual property, taxation, ERISA and public pension plans, labor and employment, tribal jurisdiction, international trade, and environmental torts
- Cross-cutting issues, including class actions, punitive damages, administrative process, federal pre-emption, jurisdiction, and abstention
We appear in every circuit and numerous states, from discrete matters in intermediate appellate courts to high-stakes disputes and precedent-setting US Supreme Court cases.
Our lawyers excel at pitching specialized issues to judges, telling a compelling story, and explaining technically complicated facts in simple language.
We also participate at the trial level, to assure that key legal issues are persuasively presented and fully preserved. We bring a fresh and independent perspective in observing and advising during trial, preparing and arguing pretrial dispositive and procedural motions, motions in limine, trial briefs, jury instructions, and post-trial motions.
We emphasize collaborating with trial counsel, whether at Steptoe or other firms, while offering clear-eyed evaluations of the merits, potential strategies, and client prospects.
Representative Matters
- Earthworks v. Dep't of Interior (2024). Successfully represented hard rock mineral mining company as intervenor in support of Department of Interior regulations governing location of millsite claims in support of mining. DC Circuit upheld regulations under the Mining Law of 1870.
- ACS Primary Care Physicians Southwest, PA and Emergency Services of Texas, PA v. Molina Healthcare of Texas, Inc. (Tx. App. 2024). Served as co-counsel in securing complete appellate reversal of trial court judgment on various causes of action against health insurer based on alleged underpayment for emergency room physician services.
- Virtual Integrated Analytic Solutions, Inc. v. Formicola (Tex. App. 2024). Secured appellate reversal of trial court denial of special appearance challenging personal jurisdiction over non-resident defendant alleged to have conspired in theft of trade secrets from Texas company.
- Rechnitz v. Schmidt (5th Cir. 2024). Secured affirmance of $10.3 million summary judgment entered by bankruptcy court on bankruptcy trustee's fraudulent transfer claim against subsequent transferee.
- Nessel v. Enbridge, 104 F. 4th 958 (6th2024). Represented pipeline operator in efforts by state officials to shut down 654-mile pipeline and defended district court’s order denying remand to state court.
- CACI-Federal v. U.S. (2023). Successfully represented government contractor in Federal Circuit in securing vacatur of agency determination that contractor had an organizational conflict of interest that would have barred contractor from participating in later bidding.
- Broidy v. Muzin (2023). Successfully represented victim of alleged foreign government-sponsored hacking scheme in appeal by foreign country's US-based agents of foreign country to DC Circuit, which held the US-based co-conspirators were not entitled to common law foreign immunity.
- City of East St. Louis, III. v. Netflix, Inc. et al., 83 F.4th 1066 (7th 2023). Successfully defended television network in a series of nationwide lawsuits from municipalities seeking fees from over-the-top streaming services under state cable franchising laws
- Merritts v. Richards, 62 F.4th 764 (3d Cir. 2023). Secured a reversal of district court’s dismissal of condemnation alleging violations of federal and state law.
- Jesse v. Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern R.R. Corp., 43 F.3d 861 (8th 2022). Successfully defended railroad in fatal grade crossing dispute based on federal pre-emption theories.
- BNSF Ry. Co. v. Loos, 586 US 310 (US 2019). Successfully convinced the Supreme Court to grant certiorari and rule that an employee’s lost wages award for a workplace injury was taxable "compensation" within the meaning of railroad and tax statutes.
- Griffioen v. Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Ry. Co., 914 N.W. 273 (2018). Convinced Iowa Supreme Court to dismiss punitive class action alleging over $6 billion in damages due to flooding purportedly caused by railroad operations.
- United States v. Slatten (DC Cir. 2017). Obtained a reversal of a mandatory 30-year sentence for a State Department security contractor convicted of using government-issued automatic weapons in perceived self-defense in a war-zone shooting incident.
- Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing (US 2015). Established in the Supreme Court that the Federal Power Act pre-empted state price subsidy schemes that supplanted FERC-approved prices for electricity generation.
- Thomas v. Nugent (US 2014). Obtained certiorari and vacatur of Fifth Circuit decision that granted qualified immunity to police officer amid allegations of extreme force.
- Schaffner v. Monsanto Corp. (2024). Successfully represented leading pesticide manufacturers as amicus in Third Circuit decision holding that state failure-to-warn claims were pre-empted by federal pesticide laws with respect to EPA's determination that glyphosate-based pesticides were not required to carry cancer warning on label.
News & Publications
Press Releases
Steptoe Partner Shannen Coffin Joins Washington Legal Foundation Legal Policy Advisory Board
April 17, 2025
Press Releases
March 11, 2025
Publications
How to Keep Trade Secrets Secret When Regulators Expect AI Transparency
Corporate Compliance Insights
March 6, 2025
Press Releases
December 3, 2024
Publications
Next Stop, SCOTUS?: Preemption Holding Creates Circuit Split Over Pesticide Labeling
Washington Legal Foundation: The Legal Pulse
September 9, 2024
Press Releases
August 23, 2024
Client Alerts
July 3, 2024
Press Releases
Steptoe Achieves Favorable Court Ruling on Behalf of Client Barrick Gold
June 25, 2024