Best Lawyers in America for Appellate Practice
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State
Richard E. Sarver is a founding member of the law firm of Barrasso Usdin Kupperman Freeman & Sarver, L.L.C., a New Orleans litigation firm ranked among the top litigation firms in Louisiana. Rick has extensive jury trial experience, including trials in thirteen different states. He has served as lead trial attorney in more than 100 jury trials, including complex multidistrict litigation. Many of his trials have been in bet-the-company litigation, where he repeatedly has succeeded before j...
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.
Dennis R. Rose represents clients across a wide spectrum of industries at both the trial and appellate level. Dennis has extensive experience handling a broad range of disputes in federal and state courts throughout the country. He has served as national litigation counsel in products liability litigation and Ohio counsel for lender liability and toxic tort matters. He represents clients in a diverse spectrum of industries, including financial services, paper, manufacturing, retail, real esta...
Brent G. Steinberg is a Florida Bar board-certified appellate specialist, a distinction achieved by only 216 of the more than 100,000 members of The Florida Bar. He is recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice areas of Appellate Practice , Insurance Law, Litigation – Insurance, and Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs. He handles catastrophic injury , insurance bad faith , legal malpractice, and insurance coverage cases throughout Florida and Georgia, at both the trial and app...
Michael Gwin was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1986. His experience ranges from commercial litigation, complex litigation and appellate advocacy to tort and general litigation, product liability and professional malpractice litigation. Michael is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been listed as one of The Best Lawyers in America since 2006.
Jesse Gessin is trial counsel for businesses and individuals. He is the rare attorney who successfully tries both civil and criminal cases. For example, his multimillion-dollar jury verdict was recognized as the highest California verdict in several categories for that year. He entered the case only a few months before trial. In 2022, hired less than ten days before trial, Jesse achieved a complete defense verdict for a successor trustee against multimillion-dollar claims of wrongful investme...
Andrew Schermerhorn is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area of Appellate Practice. Andrew, who practices law in Kansas City, Missouri, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Andrew is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area. Andrew's practice is devoted to matters that demand strategic judgment, deep procedural knowledge, and disciplined advoca...
Jason concentrates his litigation and appellate practice in the areas of civil rights liability and defense; county and municipal liability; lender and surety liability; general business liability; and insurance defense. He has obtained over 300 favorable judgments on behalf of clients and has successfully defended over 50 civil cases at trial and/or on appeal. According to Westlaw records of the reported dispositive motions that he has filed since 2015, 70% were granted in whole or in part. ...
Alinor C. Sterling is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice. Alinor C., who practices law in Bridgeport, Connecticut, has been recognized since 2018. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Alinor C. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Stephanie E. W. Thompson is a Director of the firm. Ms. Thompson concentrates her practice in the areas of commercial, real estate civil litigation and electronic discovery information management law. Ms. Thompson has assisted in the representation of various clients from multi-million-dollar corporations to small businesses and individual interests in legal matters ranging from wrongful termination and unfair competition, to negligence, commercial litigation, general business and trust dispu...
Michael J. Gayan is a partner at Claggett & Sykes Trial Lawyers in Las Vegas, Nevada. He focuses his practice on Appellate Practice , Commercial Litigation, and Construction Law, and he also works with the firm’s mass torts and class action team. Michael has helped try cases to verdict and has been part of matters resulting in more than $400 million in recoveries for clients, including In re: Kitec Fitting Litigation, the largest class action case ever tried in Nevada. His litigatio...
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.
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.