Appellate

Perkins Coie's Appellate Practice group defends victories and seeks relief for clients in appellate courts across the country. We have represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, every federal appellate circuit court, many state appellate courts and dozens of federal and state agencies. Our experience before federal and state courts in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Idaho and Alaska is especially deep. In addition, dozens of our appellate attorneys have served as federal or state appellate judicial clerks. That collective “insider" experience gives us insight into the reasoning and arguments that will resonate with appellate courts.

The matters we handle span the spectrum of civil, business and regulatory issues, and often involve complex records and emerging or unsettled law. Although we focus on appeals, our work often begins before the appeal stage. We regularly consult with clients and trial counsel to help shape trial strategies and preserve important issues for appeal. We also assist with key pre- and post-trial motions that set the stage for appeal. We excel at teaming with trial lawyers — both at our firm and other firms — so that our clients benefit from both the in-depth knowledge of their trial lawyers and the fresh perspective and expertise of appellate counsel.

We also have an active amicus practice that enables our clients (and often entire industries) to weigh in on important issues in appeals involving other parties. In addition, we assist our clients with special projects such as position papers, comments on proposed statutes and regulations, and analyses of recent changes in law.

Examples of recent matters we have handled include:

• Military Justice. In the landmark decision of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 126 S. Ct. 2749 (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the use of military commissions to try detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Serving pro bono, we joined Georgetown Professor Neal Katyal and Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift in representing Mr. Hamdan throughout the proceedings.
• Constitutional Law. In Sanders v. City of Seattle, 156 P.3d 874 (Wash. 2007), we successfully represented a shopping center in a high-profile case pitting public safety needs against the free speech rights of war protesters. In a cutting-edge “civil Gideon” case, In re Marriage of King, 162 Wash. 2d 378, 174 P.3d 659 (2007), we argued — ultimately unsuccessfully — that the trial court should have appointed counsel to defend our client (an indigent woman who could not afford counsel) in a child custody proceeding in which she faced the loss of her fundamental parenting rights and her opponent (her then-husband) was represented by counsel.
• Patents. In Microsoft Corp. v. AT & T Corp., 127 S. Ct. 1746 (2007), we filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court for Intel Corp. supporting Microsoft’s contention that the Federal Circuit had construed Section 271(f) of the Patent Act too broadly. Intel contended, and the Supreme Court agreed, that the U.S. patent laws do not authorize patentees to claim damages based on worldwide software sales simply because the master version of the software code was exported from the United States. In Microprocessor Enhancement Corp. v. Texas Instruments, Inc., 520 F.3d 1367 (Fed. Cir. 2008), we persuaded the Federal Circuit to affirm a summary judgment that Intel's Itanium® 2 processors do not infringe a patent involving conditional execution of instructions in pipelined processors.
• Product Liability. In Turbomeca, S.A. v. Era Helicopters LLC, ___ F.3d ___, 2008 WL 2747465, we persuaded the Fifth Circuit that the economic loss rule of East River Steamship Corp v. Transamerica Delaval, Inc., 476 U.S. 858 (1986), allows no exception for alleged post-sale negligence. The court accordingly affirmed the dismissal of claims that our client, a manufacturer of helicopter engines, negligently failed to warn about an alleged pre-sale product defect. In Clerides v. Boeing Co., ___ F.3d ___, 2008 WL 2746499, we convinced the Seventh Circuit to affirm that claims arising out of the crash of a Boeing 737 during a flight from Cyprus to Greece were properly dismissed on grounds of forum non conveniens and should be refiled in one of those countries.
• Labor/Employment. In Hatch v. City of Algona, 167 P.3d 1175 (Wash. Ct. App. 2007), we persuaded the Washington Court of Appeals to affirm a summary judgment for our client based on the workers' compensation exclusivity provisions in Washington's Industrial Insurance Act.
• Construction. In American Safety Casualty Insurance Co. v. City of Olympia, 174 P.3d 54 (Wash. 2007), we filed an amicus brief for the Washington State School Construction Alliance arguing that project owners may enter into settlement discussions with contractors without implicitly waiving contract defenses. The Washington Supreme Court unanimously agreed in an opinion that adopted several key arguments that we raised.
• Civil Rights/Communications. In Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc. v. craigslist, Inc., 519 F.3d 666 (7th Cir. 2008), we convinced the court that the Communications Decency Act barred Fair Housing Act claims against craigslist, where craiglist merely provided an electronic meetingplace for buyers, sellers, and renters and did not cause or promote discriminatory statements.
• Political Law. In Fleischman v. Protect Our City, 153 P.3d 1035 (Ariz. 2007), the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed an injunction keeping a municipal initiative off the City of Phoenix ballot, agreeing that state law preempted a city charter provision that allowed initiative committees to collect additional signatures after the filing deadline.
• Media Law. In West Valley View, Inc. v. Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, 165 P.3d 207 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2007), we convinced the Arizona Court of Appeals to require a sheriff's office to comply with a newspaper's public records request and provide press releases to the newspaper. The newspaper was awarded its fees and costs as well.
• Wrongful Death. In Atchison v. Great Western Malting Co., 166 P.3d 662 (Wash. 2007), we persuaded the Washington Supreme Court to affirm the dismissal of a claim that an employee had died due to occupational pesticide exposure. The court agreed with us that the statute of limitations had expired because a wrongful death action accrues at death and the statute was not tolled while the employee's daughter was a minor because a minor cannot serve as a personal representative.
• RealEstate/Contracts. In Owens v. M.E. Schepp Ltd. P'ship, 182 P.3d 664 (Ariz. 2008), the Arizona Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated a summary judgment for our client, holding that an alleged agreement to partition a real estate parcel did not fall within the "part performance" exception to the statute of frauds.