Heller Ehrman offers its clients the range of experience and breadth of expertise necessary to any successful appeal.  Our attorneys have briefed and argued hundreds of appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court, all federal Courts of Appeals, and numerous state supreme courts and intermediate courts.  Our appeals run the gamut from patents to antitrust to insurance coverage to administrative law to securities to constitutional law—and beyond. 

The attorneys in the Appeals and Strategy Group reflect this range of experience and substantive expertise.  They include former Supreme Court and Court of Appeals clerks, former federal prosecutors, the founding president of the Brennan Center for Justice, and fellows of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Among our notable recent appeals are cases we litigated in the U.S. Supreme Court.  In just the past three years, we have represented parties in:  a patent case that the National Law Journal described as “the most significant patent infringement case to confront the biotech and pharmaceutical industries in a generation”; an age discrimination case about the legality of the retirement plans of dozens of states; an antitrust case on predatory pricing; a high-profile First Amendment case representing 36 law schools against the Department of Defense; a landmark defense of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law; and a closely watched assisted-suicide case.  We have also filed dozens of cert. oppositions, Supreme Court amicus briefs, and cert. petitions, most recently on topics as varied as antitrust, patent law, securities, school desegregation, and criminal law.

Some of our most important cases, however, have been in the federal appellate courts and the various state appellate courts.  These have included cases that have been critically important to business interests, as well as cases with significant impacts on public policy. 

Because of our breadth of experience—and our proven results—clients frequently turn to us for the first time on appeal, whether to overturn a terrible loss in a lower court or administrative agency or to defend an important victory.  They give us high marks not just for the quality of our work, but for our ability to work well with the trial lawyers who have invested a lot of time and sweat equity in the case.

Our focus is not just on appeals, but also on Strategy.  Clients turn to us to address some of their most difficult business problems—problems that cannot be addressed through litigation alone.  We have extensive experience devising integrated strategies that draw upon all the tools of law reform, from legislative activity to administrative action to public advocacy to coalition building.