Appellate + Supreme Court

Morrison & Foerster has a thriving national appellate practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, in the federal courts of appeals, and in state appellate courts. Leveraging their substantive expertise, our appellate attorneys have taken on some of the most challenging legal issues, including intellectual property, federal preemption, arbitration, patent law, tax, antitrust, financial services, RICO, securities, and class actions.

Our practice is consistently ranked as one of the top appellate and supreme court practices in the country by the Chambers guides, Legal 500 USA, and The National Law Journal. Co-chairs, Deanne Maynard and Joseph Palmore are both ranked in the 2017 guides for Chambers USA and Legal 500 USA and for the fourth year in a row the National Law Journal has named the practice to the Appellate Hot List.

U.S. Supreme Court

Several of our attorneys have particular expertise before the Supreme Court of the United States, having served in the Office of the Solicitor General and as law clerks to Justices. Deanne E. Maynard and Joseph Palmore, co-chairs of our Appellate and Supreme Court practice group, have collectively argued more than 20 cases before the Supreme Court and have filed more than 250 briefs there.

We regularly represent major corporations, trade associations, and industry groups before the Supreme Court. We are skilled at presenting our clients’ positions in a context that facilitates the Supreme Court’s resolution of a broad legal issue presented, while also advancing our client’s interests in the particular case. Our attorneys are experienced at briefing and oral argument before the Supreme Court on the merits of cases, and also at the certiorari stage. We are particularly adept at drafting briefs in opposition to certiorari petitions to preserve lower court victories as well as at preparing compelling certiorari petitions for Supreme Court review. We also represent clients in meetings before the Department of Justice, the Office of the Solicitor General, and other federal agencies related to appellate and Supreme Court litigation.

Federal and State Courts of Appeals

Our experience in the federal and state courts of appeals reflects similar breadth. Over the past five years, we have represented clients in more than one hundred cases in the federal courts of appeals, and in more than forty cases in state supreme courts. Our attorneys include numerous former federal appellate law clerks, as well as a former federal court of appeals judge and a former justice of the California courts of appeal.

Our appellate group works closely with our intellectual property attorneys. The firm’s attorneys have extensive experience arguing cases in the Federal Circuit, collectively handling more than 40 appeals in that court. For this reason, our practice was highly ranked in the 2009 edition of Legal 500 US, in which the editor writes, “Morrison & Foerster LLP’s 45-strong appellate practice makes for a formidable opponent in any commercial arbitration or patent appeal, in large part due to the group’s ability to collaborate with the firm’s robust patent litigation practice.”

Our group also has a preeminent and active practice in California’s appellate courts. In recent years, we have represented clients in dozens of appeals throughout the State on a wide variety of business issues. We have multiple attorneys with extensive experience with California’s specialized practice and procedure. Our attorneys include former Justice Miriam A. Vogel, who joined our firm after 18 years as a justice of the California Court of Appeal.

In federal and state courts, we provide our clients a wide range of appellate assistance, including work at the trial level to frame legal arguments for appeal, particularly on case-dispositive and post-judgment motions, drafting extraordinary writ petitions, strategic analysis of when and where to pursue further review, amicus curiae briefs, and, of course, briefs and oral argument in appellate courts. We frequently are retained after trial to bring an appeal and often work with trial counsel. We actively monitor appellate developments relevant to our clients’ industries to alert them to the potential effect of pending cases and forthcoming rulings.