Joshua Rosenkranz is Co-Chair of Heller Ehrman’s Appeals & Strategy Group.

Experience

Mr. Rosenkranz has broad litigation experience in state and federal court at all levels across the country, including the Supreme Court of the United States.  A former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. and then-Judge Antonin Scalia on the D.C. Circuit, Mr. Rosenkranz has personally argued over 100 appeals in state and federal appellate courts across the nation, and has served as attorney of record in some 1,500 other appeals.  In 2007, the American Lawyer listed him as one of the “Fab 50 Young Litigators” in the country, who “seem likely to lead the pack inside the courtroom.”

Mr. Rosenkranz’s practice spans a wide range of subjects.  Among them are complex commercial litigation, securities, intellectual property, antitrust, federal preemption, products liability, insurance law, corporate governance, white-collar crime, and constitutional litigation.  Among his recent clients are Philip Morris USA, QUALCOMM, DIRECTV, Ernst & Young International, Pacific Gas & Electric, Bank of America, Deloitte, Merck KGaA, Visa, National Semiconductor, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Society of American Law Teachers.

Mr. Rosenkranz has played a leading role in eight Supreme Court cases.  He has argued four Supreme Court cases in the past three years.  In 2005, he successfully argued a closely watched Supreme Court case for Merck KGaA, securing a broad ruling upholding the right of pharmaceutical companies to get a head start in conducting research to secure FDA approval for a new drug even while another company claims a patent on the drug.  The National Law Journal described it as “the most significant patent infringement case to confront the biotech and pharmaceutical industries in a generation.”  The Term before last, he argued another controversial Supreme Court case, representing 36 law schools in a challenge to the Solomon Amendment, which requires institutions of higher education to host, and support, the recruiting efforts of the military.  He argued a bankruptcy case at the Court last Term, he has played a leading role in an age-discrimination case this Term, and will be arguing a major ERISA case this Term.

Before joining Heller Ehrman, Mr. Rosenkranz was the founding president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, one of the country's foremost public interest firms. Over the course of eight years, he was the Brennan Center’s chief strategist on litigation and public policy advocacy.  Under his direction, the Center represented parties in connection with over 50 cases (including three at the U.S. Supreme Court) and filed almost 40 amicus briefs (including 20 at the U.S. Supreme Court).  Before creating the Brennan Center, Mr. Rosenkranz founded the Office of the Appellate Defender, a public defender office specializing in criminal appeals in New York state courts.

Representative Engagements

• As lead counsel, on behalf of Merck KGaA, persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a 9-0 opinion holding that pharmaceutical companies are permitted to perform experiments on promising drugs before a relevant patent has expired.
• Lead counsel in a Supreme Court case representing 36 law schools and an organization almost 900 law professors in a suit challenging, on First Amendment grounds, the Solomon Amendment, a federal law requiring academic institutions to assist military recruiters.
• Lead counsel in Supreme Court case arguing, on behalf of Pacific Gas & Electric, that an unsecured creditor cannot recover attorneys fees for intervening in a bankruptcy proceeding.
• Leading role in representing Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold and other sponsors successfully fending off 11 consolidated lawsuits challenging the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform measure, before a three-judge district court in Washington, D.C., and then the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Successful appeal on behalf of Visa International and Visa USA of the largest verdict ever issued under California’s unfair competition law, a restitution award with potential exposure of over $800 million.
• Ninth Circuit appeal representing the five major tobacco companies fending off antitrust challenge to the Master Settlement Agreement.
• Lead counsel in a Federal Circuit appeal defending an injunction against an ITC proceeding involving mobile phone technology.
• Lead counsel in a Federal Circuit appeal about the scope of patent law jurisdiction in the federal district courts.
• Sixth Circuit appeal of a preliminary injunction issued against Philip Morris USA’s nationwide incentive program under the Robinson-Patman Act.  The Sixth Circuit stayed the injunction.
• Third Circuit appeal of a preliminary injunction issued against a major software manufacturer for copyright infringement.
• Appeal to New York State intermediate appellate court of the denial of motion a motion to dismiss on behalf of a Ernst & Young International in a large securities-fraud case seeking over $600 million in damages.
• Appeal to the California Supreme Court of a ruling that excess liability insurance policies do not cover liability ordered by an administrative  agency.
• Appeal to New York’s highest court of high-profile defamation case challenging allegedly corrupt practices of rabbis who have successfully defended on the ground that the Establishment Clause prohibits the suit.
• Lead counsel representing the Mayor of New Paltz in connection with criminal and civil cases challenging his decision to perform same-sex marriages, yielding the first ruling by any New York court declaring the ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional.
• U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief arguing that a patent licensee should not be permitted to sue a licensor alleging patent invalidity while retaining the benefits of the license.
• U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and numerous other medical and psychiatric associations, against imposing the death penalty on offenders under the age of 18.
• U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief arguing that the fruits of a Miranda violation must be suppressed.
• Amicus brief for the Federal Circuit en banc, urging abandonment of the presumptions governing a patent infringer’s failure to consult counsel (or decision not to introduce evidence of having consulted counsel) upon learning about an infringing patent.

Before joining Heller Ehrman, Mr. Rosenkranz led or was intensively involved in the following cases: