U.S. Supreme Court

Our firm has one of the nation’s leading and most active practices before the U.S. Supreme Court. We handle all kinds of cases at the highest level of the judiciary, typically against elite practice groups at major law firms—and we routinely win. Our practice is led by one of the nation’s premier Supreme Court advocates, and our appellate group has the skill and talent to match, with Chambers USA praising our “superbly talented appellate bench” (2021) as “unquestionably as good as they get” (2020).

Our practice is anchored by Daniel L. Geyser, an award-winning Supreme Court litigator. Listed among the “veritable who’s who of the Supreme Court bar” (Empirical SCOTUS, 2018), Dan has argued 11 Supreme Court cases in private practice, with a 12th coming this Term. He recently had three cert. petitions granted in a 12-month period (a feat matched by few global firms), and personally handled over 5% of the Court’s merits docket in 2018-2019. He has been named to the National Law Journal’s “Appellate Hot List” (2018), earned weekly honors as a Law360 “Legal Lion” (2018), achieved national appellate rankings in Chambers USA and The Legal 500 (2019-2021), and was named one of Law360’s 2019 “Appellate MVPs,” an honor awarded to only four lawyers in the United States. In the past half-decade, Dan ranks among the top five lawyers nationwide for total Supreme Court arguments in private practice, notching “rare victor[ies]” (SCOTUSblog, 2021) and “huge win[s]” (Reuters, 2019) in cases that industry experts said could not be won.

Our broader group is deep and diverse. We boast one of the largest full-time appellate teams of any national firm. We have won precedent-setting victories in bet-the-company cases across the country. Most of our appellate lawyers have clerked for federal or state judges (or both), and four are members of the prestigious American Law Institute. Our lawyers have chaired national and state appellate bar groups, and we are regularly invited by the federal and state judiciaries to speak at judicial conferences as the lawyers chosen to help judges stay informed about complex, cutting-edge legal doctrine. We routinely handle high-profile cases of particular importance to the business community, covering every major area of federal law (with deep subject-matter expertise in bankruptcy, securities, energy, intellectual property (especially patents), arbitration, ERISA, and constitutional issues).

While our practice cuts broadly across all substantive fields, our specific expertise is in the Supreme Court itself. Litigation before the Court is not like litigation before other tribunals. There is an art and science to crafting a winning cert. petition, pushing the right notes in a brief in opposition, coordinating a powerful amicus campaign, effectively lobbying the Solicitor General for support, and, of course, creating world-class merits briefing that resonates perfectly with the Court. Our deep knowledge and experience creates advantages and opportunities that others miss. To leverage those benefits, we are often retained in the courts of appeals to best position cases before the Court—whether to maximize or minimize the odds of further review. And we are also sought for advice on tactical decisions, including whether the prospects of a grant warrant the expense of a petition.

While we are regularly retained to take over cases as lead counsel, we are also hired (by clients or other lawyers) to partner with existing teams before the Court. We take pride in developing strong relationships with co-counsel, leveraging the experience, knowledge, and expertise of each member of the team. Our paramount objective is always to achieve the best possible result for the client. But in service of that goal, we believe strongly in making the process a productive, rewarding experience for everyone involved.

With decades of honing our high-end talent and core principles, our group today is among the most active, and successful, Supreme Court practices in the country.