Best Lawyers in America for Appellate Practice
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State
W. Scott O'Connell is a trial attorney and litigation strategist in Holland & Knight's Boston and New York City offices. Mr. O'Connell focuses his practice on complex commercial disputes involving significant financial and reputational exposure. He has considerable experience leading class action and aggregate litigation as well as parallel government enforcement and regulatory proceedings, most notably involving health service, financial service, energy, technology, telecommunications or...
Kathleen M. O'Sullivan is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Appellate Practice, Bet-the-Company Litigation and Commercial Litigation. Kathleen M., who practices law in Seattle, Washington, has been recognized since 2009. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Kathleen M. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Formerly a Justice on the Texas Court of Appeals, David Keltner is a highly acclaimed and recognized lawyer in the field of appellate law in Texas. He has served as lead counsel in over 350 appellate decisions and his legal writings have been cited with approval by Texas courts. He has been honored with various prestigious awards and accolades for his outstanding contributions to the legal profession. From 2021 through 2025, he was recognized as a Star Individual by Chambers USA and has recei...
Joe Rainsbury has nearly 20 years’ experience representing clients before state and federal appellate and trial courts. Prized by clients and colleagues for his writing and oral advocacy skills, he has participated in appeals across the country on myriad legal issues. Over the years, Joe has been involved—either briefing the merits or arguing to a tribunal—in cases from nearly every corner of civil litigation. Joe successfully represented a bank on an appeal of the first Sar...
Hon. Erin M. Peradotto, who retired from the appellate bench in 2023, draws on her nearly 17 years of experience as an associate justice with the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, to serve clients of Harris Beach Murtha’s Appellate Practice Group and Business Litigation Practice Group. Harris Beach’s Appellate group is a specialized group of attorneys with experience litigating appeals, as well as other matters involving brief writing, oral advoc...
Alston Johnson practices in the area of litigation, particularly at the appellate level and with particular emphasis in the areas of tort litigation, insurance coverage and litigation, and administrative law. He has extensive experience in legislative and regulatory and governmental matters and has represented numerous public entities in both counseling and litigation capacities. Prior to joining Phelps Dunbar in 1984, Mr. Johnson was a member of the full-time law faculty at the Hebert Law Ce...
Evan H. Krinick is a litigator and appellate lawyer at Rivkin Radler LLP in Uniondale, New York, and previously served as the firm’s Managing Partner for 13 years. Since joining Rivkin Radler in 1987, Evan has represented clients in hundreds of significant matters involving Appellate Practice, Insurance Law, and Litigation - Insurance, as well as commercial, banking, health care, municipal and public authority, tort liability, and insurance fraud disputes. His experience includes repres...
Phil DeRosier has nearly 20 years’ experience representing industry-leading corporations, banks, insurance companies, and individuals in the Michigan Supreme Court, Michigan Court of Appeals, and U.S. Courts of Appeals. Phil has briefed and argued a wide variety of appeals, ranging from commercial contracts to insurance to business torts. He also devotes a significant part of his practice to briefing dispositive motions and working with trial counsel on pre- and post-trial motions, jury...
Nancy Copperthwaite litigates complex disputes, including class actions and appeals, and advises employers on employment law issues. She has handled more than 100 appeals and has argued in all five of Florida’s district courts of appeal (DCA) as well as in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Ranked by Best Lawyers in America for appellate work, her diverse experience includes handling appeals of bankruptcy proceedings, class actions, complex commercial matters, ...
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.