Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation

Successfully defended American in the Fifth Circuit against an ERISA lawsuit alleging its 401(k) plan offered an investment option that benefited the company more than its employees. Not only did the win allow our client to avoid a multimillion-dollar settlement and potentially adverse verdict, but it ensured that American could continue offering a popular Credit Union Option to its participants.

Secured a favorable outcome related to the government’s setting of fee levels for inspection programs of goods shipped through US ports. Despite a difficult standard of review applicable to agency challenges, the D.C. Circuit ruled in our favor on an issue crucial to our clients, holding that the Department of Agriculture cannot continue to collect fees to fund a reserve after a certain date.

Secured a landmark victory in a California appellate court for Anywhere Real Estate’s subsidiary, in a statewide representative action brought on behalf of real estate agents who alleged they were misclassified under California law as independent contractors rather than employees. The case challenged the constitutionality of California statute AB-5, aimed at reclassifying gig workers as employees.

Prevailed in a significant Second Circuit decision overruling controversial precedents that had capped reinsurers’ liability for defense costs. Under the Second Circuit’s 1990 Bellefonte rule, the total amount of reinsurance coverage presumptively included defense costs, even if the reinsured policy paid defense costs in addition to its indemnity limits. We persuaded the court to take another look at this widely criticized precedent and adopt the common-sense rule that reinsurance certificates generally treat payment of defense costs the same way the reinsured policy treats them.

In China Agritech Inc. v. Michael H. Resh et al., we obtained a unanimous Supreme Court victory against efforts to toll the statute of limitations for absent class members, imposing a check on serial class actions. In a rare accomplishment in securities litigation, O’Melveny twice defeated motions for class certification and secured dismissal of the third case on statute of limitations grounds. When the Ninth Circuit reversed that dismissal, the Court reinstated our victory, holding that putative class members who decline to join an existing suit or promptly file an individual action may not commence a class action anew beyond the statutory limitations period.

In a landmark Delaware Supreme Court ruling, O’Melveny secured a decision that Chubb was not obligated to defend Rite Aid Corp. against lawsuits accusing the drugstore chain of contributing to the nationwide opioid epidemic. 

In City of Austin, Texas v. Reagan National Advertising of Texas Inc., we secured a significant victory for municipalities with sign ordinances. Persuading the Supreme Court, we successfully defended the City of Austin’s billboard regulation, which prohibits the digitization of off-premises signs. The ruling upheld the measure as content-neutral, avoiding a First Amendment violation.

In a unanimous ruling for our client, the Supreme Court rejected the government’s interpretation of the federal “aggravated identity theft” statute, which had led to a two-year enhancement to his Medicaid fraud conviction. Our argument, accepted by the Court, clarified that the identity-theft enhancement only applies when the misuse of someone’s name is central to the fraud, not merely incidental.

Achieved a complete victory for Google in a 13-year patent dispute with a hardware manufacturer, affirmed by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, invalidating dozens of patent claims across four patents. This landmark decision concluded protracted litigation that began in 2010, involving multiple reexaminations and appeals, and resulted in the invalidation of all claims protected Google from further infringement claims.

Convinced the Oklahoma Supreme Court to reverse a trial court’s ruling that called for our client to pay US$465 million for nuisance abatement.

Secured victory for client Louis Ciminelli before the Supreme Court in overturning a federal wire fraud conviction based on flawed “right to control” theory. The Court unanimously rejected the theory, ruling it does not constitute a “traditional property interest” criminalized under federal fraud statutes.

In a high-profile appeal, New York’s highest court sided with our client Kesha, reversing two lower court decisions. The court determined that music producer Dr. Luke was a ‘limited-purpose public figure’ due to his celebrity status. This ruling subjected the producer’s defamation claims to a higher standard of proving actual malice, making it more challenging for him to demonstrate that Kesha defamed him by publicly accusing him of sexual assault. 

Secured a victory for Meta when the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court ruling refusing to find Israeli spyware company NSO Group immune from litigation over an alleged hack of WhatsApp. The US Supreme Court turned away NSO’s appeal of the decision that the lawsuit could move forward, after asking the US Solicitor General to weigh in on the arguments presented.

In Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment, LLC, we secured a unanimous Supreme Court victory for our client Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority against a creditor’s suit alleging that President Obama violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause in making appointments to the island’s financial oversight board without the Senate’s advice and consent. The case threatened to nullify much of the work the board has done to help restructure debt and bring about other reforms.

Secured precedent-setting victories in the Federal Circuit on motions to transfer patent cases out of the Western District of Texas, weakening patent plaintiffs’ ability to handpick their venues and cementing our reputation as a leading force in the area.

Obtained a series of precedent-setting victories at the Ninth Circuit and elsewhere on a critical issue in the music industry, allowing Sirius XM and others to play music from recordings created before 1972 for the public without paying record companies.

Convinced the Seventh Circuit to affirm a decision granting summary judgment to our client in a certified pilot class action alleging the airline denied sick and vacation time, as well as full pension payments, to pilot employees on military leave—a purported violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), the federal statute that governs private employment of military servicemembers and reservists.