On June 6, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, holding that Congress's enactment of a significant fee increase that exempted bankruptcy debtors in two states violated the uniformity requirement of the Constitution's bankruptcy clause.
The ruling marks the second Supreme Court victory this year for Haynes and Boone, LLP. Partner Dan Geyser, chair of the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court Practice, argued the case on behalf of Alfred Siegel, the trustee of the Liquidating Trust for defunct retailer Circuit City Stores, Inc. The Supreme Court ruling in Siegel impacts virtually every major corporate bankruptcy filed or pending in the first nine months of 2018, with over $324 million at stake for debtors and creditors nationwide.
Mr. Siegel is also represented by Haynes Boone Appellate Partner Ben Mesches, co-chair of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group, and Angela Oliver, an upcoming star in the firm’s Appellate Practice. The Haynes Boone team joined forces with a team from Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP, one of the nation’s leading corporate-restructuring boutiques, who handled the case below.
In April, Dan won an 8-1 ruling at the U.S. Supreme Court in Badgerow v. Walters, another of the Term’s significant business cases. The court sided with his client, petitioner Denise Badgerow, in determining the scope of federal subject-matter jurisdiction for common proceedings under the Federal Arbitration Act. That decision has been extensively analyzed for its profound consequences for arbitration practice nationwide.
Dan is considered one of the nation’s leading Supreme Court and appellate lawyers. He has argued 13 U.S. Supreme Court cases in private practice (more than any other active Colorado lawyer), and he has repeatedly convinced the Supreme Court to grant review over the opposition of elite appellate groups at multiple Am Law 20 firms. 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.
Dan was ranked among the top appellate lawyers nationwide in Chambers USA 2022, which also ranked Haynes Boone’s Appellate Practice Group Band 1 in Texas, with market sources praising the team’s eight, Chambers-ranked appellate lawyers. “Haynes and Boone is the best appellate group in the state,” one source told Chambers. “They are rigorous, an intellectual force, and they have an emphasis on winning.”
