Best Lawyers in America for Appellate Practice
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Ariail King is a skilled and experienced litigator. Her practice includes class actions and appellate cases. She is a partner at Lewis Babcock, LLP and has been with the firm for over two decades. Before law school, King received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology from the University of South Carolina. Her background in psychology gives her valuable insight and makes her a strong researcher, helping her pinpoint crucial details for each case. King was admitted to the bar in 1996...
Ken Payson’s practice focuses on class action defense, other complex commercial litigation and appellate work, particularly with respect to claims under state and federal consumer protection laws. Ken represents clients from a variety of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, software, and digital media companies. He has obtained numerous orders dismissing putative class actions or denying class certification and has successfully defended them on appeal. He serves...
Focusing on strategic planning, motion practice, and appeals, Dave Wirtes has worked for over three decades helping our firm and our clients be successful in litigation. Dave’s efforts in Alabama, Mississippi, and throughout the Country help protect working men and women in ways most will never know. He has won many battles against powerful defendants and in the course of doing so helped change laws to give victims justice. He has been rated by Martindale Hubbell for decades as AV® ...
Ron Kilgard is a 40-year civil litigation lawyer.Over a long career, he has handled all manner of civil cases, from routine automobile accidents and two-party contract disputes of no interest to anyone but the parties, to multi-million dollar class actions covered in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal . For the last 20 years, Ron has mostly litigated pension plan class actions. Ron helped Keller Rohrback pioneer company stock ERISA litigation in the late 1990s and early 2000s; he ...
M. Hope Keating handles appeals for clients in both state and federal courts. Her areas of representation include all aspects of civil and administrative law. She also provides litigation support during all stages of litigation in all facets of law. Hope regularly advises a myriad of health care facilities and providers on a wide array of complex and practical regulatory matters such as licensure, medical records, end-of-life issues, patient discharge, contracts, and Medicare and Medicaid cer...
Steven Bader is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice. Steven, who practices law in Raleigh, North Carolina, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Steven 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...
Kaytie Pickett is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group. She focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation, arbitration, and appeals for clients in the financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and construction industries. Kaytie has developed a particular focus on moving clients’ high-risk cases out of challenging venues. She has successfully removed cases to federal court, transferred venue, and had cases dismissed on complex jurisdictional grounds. Kaytie also has de...
Scott Perwin represents clients in antitrust matters, other commercial disputes, and bet-the-company litigation at trial and on appeal. With decades of experience, Scott has achieved successful results based on his clients’ litigation objectives and business goals. Renowned in antitrust, Scott has been named Best Lawyers in America’ s “Lawyer of the Year” for Miami six times in either Antitrust Litigation or Antitrust Law. Scott’s work primarily focuses on the pl...
RUSSELL S. SAYRE is a partner in the Cincinnati, Ohio office of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he serves as co-chair of the firm's litigation practice group, concentrating his practice on litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution. Since 1990, Mr. Sayre has represented corporate, business and individual clients in federal and state courts, in arbitrations, and before state administrative boards. Mr. Sayre is admitted to practice in all Ohio courts, in the United States Distric...
A seasoned litigator and certified mediator, Phil Brown handles complex disputes—in business, trade secret, employment, zoning, security and appellate cases—with creative and effective strategies that have won him the respect of other attorneys and the appreciation of his wide-ranging clients, both plaintiffs and defendants. Since his career began over 20 years ago at the internationally recognized law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Phil's skills have helped him ac...
Katherine Earle Yanes was born in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from Williams College, magna cum laude, with honors in economics, in 1993. In 1997, she graduated from Stetson University College of Law, magna cum laude, as valedictorian of her class. She was an associate member of the Stetson Law Review. Following law school, Ms. Yanes served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich, United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Since 1999, she has rep...
Dorothy of Easley Appellate Practice PLLC focuses her work on Appellate Practice nationally, from her office in Miami, Florida. She is the published author of Successful Federal Appeals in All Circuit Courts: A Practical Guide for Busy Lawyers , a practical resource addressing federal appellate procedure and appeal strategies. She has advanced hundreds of appeals. Her work reflects a long-standing interest in legal writing, careful analysis of the record, and clear presentation of complex leg...
Craig T. Enoch returned to private practice after retiring from decades of service on Texas courts, where he decided complex civil matters as a Supreme Court Justice, Appellate Court Chief Justice and Trial Court Presiding Judge. Drawing on extensive knowledge of governmental workings and experience in resolving disputes, Justice Enoch assists businesses in navigating complex laws and regulations. He co-founded ENOCH KEVER to provide effective advocacy for businesses at their intersection wit...
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.