Best Lawyers in America for Appellate Practice
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State
Andy Levy is widely regarded as one of Maryland’s premier trial and appellate lawyers, equally comfortable in civil and criminal courtrooms, before a jury, judge, or arbitrator. He is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, one of the few lawyers in the country to have been inducted as a Fellow of both organizations. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America in nine categories: Appellate Practice, Bet-the-Company Litigation, Ci...
Brian Talcott is a partner in Dunn Carney’s Litigation Practice Group. He is the firm’s lead appellate attorney, and has briefed and argued numerous appeals in the state and federal appellate courts. Brian also specializes in insurance coverage and recovery, professional liability defense and complex civil litigation.
Whether by obtaining an acquittal of his white-collar client at the conclusion of the prosecutor's opening statement, or proving that the drug dog's sensitive nose has been kicked by a horse, during the past 45 years, Dan Monnat has been recognized as a creative trial and appellate criminal defense lawyer. He co-founded Monnat & Spurrier, Chartered, a criminal defense trial and appellate firm in Wichita, Kansas, in 1985. A graduate of the Creighton University School of Law and Gerry Spenc...
Cynthia Eva Hujar Orr has attained national prominence defending citizens and entities in state and federal trial and appellate courts. She has earned the profound respect of her colleagues who elected her to Chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Criminal Justice Section in 2014.Cynthia served as President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers from 2009-2010, President of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association in 2003, and became the first President of the San ...
Hannah concentrates on commercial litigation and has represented clients in a wide variety of areas such as breach of contract and fiduciary duties, fraud, business ownership disputes, construction litigation, and product liability. Prior to joining Gallagher & Kennedy, Hannah was a law clerk for Justice Robert M. Brutinel of the Arizona Supreme Court, where she worked on a multitude of legal issues, including issues concerning the Arizona and U.S. Constitutions, statutory interpretation ...
Andrew Gould leads the appellate practice at Hicks Johnson PLLC, a litigation boutique with offices in Houston and Chicago. An award-winning former federal appellate prosecutor, Andrew regularly advocates in state and federal appellate courts nationwide. He has served as lead counsel in some 270 appeals and has conducted over 40 oral arguments, including over 25 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He also often appears at the trial-court level to assist with complex motion...
For over a decade before joining ADJ Rachel Ekery served as staff attorney for Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson at the Supreme Court of Texas. Previously, Ekery was an associate at Baker Botts LLP in Dallas and a shareholder at Scott Hulse PC in El Paso, Texas, where she focused on business litigation and appellate matters. She earned her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Duke University and her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was an editor of ...
David R. Boyd is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice, Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation and Education Law. David R., who practices law in Montgomery, Alabama, has been recognized since 1995. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which David R. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Mary has commanded a robust career guiding legal issues that have left lasting impacts on government authority, election campaign finance and election law. As a former Solicitor General for the State of Arizona, she has a mastery of public law issues and has led an extensive set of complex, high-profile lawsuits and appeals in state and federal courts. Her experience handling this complex litigation positions her well to get to the core of the issue in a dispute and provide critical strategic...
Ms. Breetz's practice focuses on both federal and state appellate advocacy, complex commercial litigation, including financial institution, real estate, and trust and estate litigation. She currently serves as co-chair of the firm's Appellate Advocacy group. Recent Assignments Handles a variety of federal and state court litigation and appellate matters for the Kentucky Bar Association and related entities and employees, e.g., Deters v. Herrick, 2020 Ky. Unpub. LEXIS 14 (Ky. 2020); Mischler v...
James E. Lobsenz maintains an extensive appellate practice in both state and federal courts, with substantive experience in constitutional law, freedom of speech, police misconduct, civil rights, criminal defense, employment law, and evidence. After clerking for Associate Justice Mathew O. Tobriner of the California Supreme Court and Chief Justice Vincent L. McKusick of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, he joined King County as a deputy prosecuting attorney before serving as a public defen...
James G. Thomas is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice, Commercial Litigation and Criminal Defense: White-Collar. James G., who practices law in Nashville, Tennessee, has been recognized since 2016. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which James G. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Conor is a skilled litigator who draws on his years of experience with the Department of Justice and in private practice to help navigate clients from a lawsuit’s inception through its successful completion. Conor expertly tries cases, frames the issues in the trial court for potential appeal, and develops a successful appellate strategy. Conor has a varied litigation practice. He has tried multiple federal cases and handled significant pre-trial discovery and motions practice. In one f...
Dominic E. Draye is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice. Dominic E., who practices law in Washington, District of Columbia, has been recognized since 2021. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Dominic E. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.