Best Lawyers in America for Appellate Practice
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State
Barry is a litigator in our Birmingham office. He recently returned to Sirote, where he began his legal career, after spending the last 15 years representing defendants and plaintiffs in anti-trust, securities, insurance and business fraud cases. He also handles matters involving products liability, shareholder, and other complex litigation and class actions. Barry represents clients in state and federal courts.
Attorney Charlie Rankin began practicing criminal law in 1980. He practices in both state and federal courts. Charlie’s practice focuses on representing clients in a diverse array of complex criminal matters, but he is best known for his work representing clients charged with white collar crimes, including health care fraud, Medicare and Medicaid fraud, computer or cybercrimes, financial fraud, telemarketing fraud, tax fraud, and public corruption. In recent years, he was successful in ...
Kimberly D. Young has been practicing law with Friday, Eldredge & Clark since 2003 and she concentrates her practice in the field of civil litigation, including products liability, intellectual property and premises liability. She has over a decade of experience representing electric and natural gas utilities in Arkansas, including the successful defense of catastrophic injury and wrongful death claims. While she has represented a diverse set of clients in personal injury litigation, most...
A trusted adviser and passionate advocate, John Maley is skilled in advocating before trial and appellate judges, juries and mediators who rely upon his assessment of the case at hand. Whether on attack or defense, John’s understanding of diverse industries and the sophisticated legal issues that permeate complex disputes is at the core of his success as a litigator and trial attorney. John regularly represents publicly traded and private companies in regional and national litigation, t...
Mr. Alford represents public utilities and other clients in a variety of matters, including commercial and tort litigation, regulatory proceedings, and contract and property issues. Representative cases include construction disputes, securities actions, antitrust and unfair trade practice claims, medical licensing, and consumer litigation. Mr. Alford also counsels clients concerning regulatory compliance, employment, and general business issues. Mr. Alford graduated from Louisiana State Unive...
Elissa Bowlin is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice, Personal Injury Litigation - Plaintiffs and Product Liability Litigation - Plaintiffs. Elissa, who practices law in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has been recognized since 2024. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Elissa is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
“ The Best Lawyers in Dallas ” – Since 2005, Chad Ruback has consistently been named one of “The Best Lawyers in Dallas” by D Magazine. This is true of only four other appellate lawyers. “ The Best Lawyers in America ” – Chad is included in the “Appellate Practice” section of The Best Lawyers in America. “ Texas Super Lawyers ” – Chad is included in the Thomson Reuters “Texas Super Lawyers” list, which i...
R. Brent Cooper focuses his practice on commercial litigation, insurance litigation, and appellate practice. He has had significant experience in the representation of clients before federal and state trial and appellate courts, as well as in arbitration proceedings. He has tried numerous cases covering areas of business litigation, construction litigation, catastrophic personal injuries, complex litigation, intellectual property, constitutional and business tort cases. In his 35 years of pra...
Sam J. Vitale is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice and Commercial Litigation. Sam J., who practices law in Novi, Michigan, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Sam J. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Laura Deakins, a shareholder in the Memphis office, focuses her civil litigation practice primarily on the defense of corporations, as well as doctors and hospitals in healthcare liability matters. She has extensive appellate experience, arguing and briefing many matters before the appellate courts. Prior to joining Lewis Thomason, Ms. Deakins served four years as the judicial law clerk to the Honorable Holly Kirby on both the Tennessee Supreme Court and Tennessee Court of Appeals where she w...
James F. Bogan III is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice, Commercial Litigation, Information Technology Law, Litigation - Intellectual Property, Product Liability Litigation - Defendants and Technology Law. James F., who practices law in Atlanta, Georgia, has been recognized since 2009. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which James F. is held by other top lawyers in the same geograp...
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.