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Cesar Lopez-Morales

Counsel

Washington, D.C.

A former U.S. Supreme Court clerk and DOJ attorney, Cesar draws from his experience at both the trial and appellate levels to develop legal strategy and draft persuasive briefs in high-stakes cases, with a focus on government-facing work across different sectors.

He is a skilled brief writer who focuses on simplifying complex concepts and crafting a compelling story that frames factual and legal issues in a way that is more likely to produce favorable results for clients. Cesar routinely drafts briefs in federal and state courts of appeals and in the U.S. Supreme Court, presents oral argument in federal and state appellate courts, and is often embedded at the trial level to brief dispositive motions and to make sure that issues are preserved with an eye towards appeal.

Cesar also advises clients on how to analyze executive actions and handles government-facing litigation, including challenges to the legality of federal and state laws and regulations. Cesar's versatility allows him to tackle the most sophisticated and complex legal issues across a wide range of substantive areas, including constitutional and administrative law, statutory interpretation, complex commercial litigation, trade secrets, and federal preemption. And although Cesar handles high-stakes cases across an array of subjects, his work tends to focus on the firm’s technology and life sciences sectors.

Before joining Orrick, Cesar was an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch, where he represented the United States and its agencies in dozens of cases involving challenges to the legality of federal laws, actions, and programs. He argued and won dispositive motions in federal district courts nationwide. His experience included litigating cutting-edge matters involving the Appointments Clause; the Spending Clause; the Territory Clause; the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments; the separation of powers; the Administrative Procedure Act; the Federal Vacancies Reform Act; the Freedom of Information Act; and the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act.

He also maintains an active pro bono practice, representing immigrants and veterans in their appeals to the federal courts of appeals and filing amicus briefs in precedent-setting cases of public interest. He is especially passionate about advancing the rights of the residents in the U.S. territories.

Cesar served as a law clerk to Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the October 2023 Term. Before that, he clerked for Judge José A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then-Presiding Judge of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and Judge Jay A. Garcia-Gregory of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

    Representative engagements include:

    Technology & Innovation Sector
    • Represent leading social technology company in appeal in Ninth Circuit involving Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and various state-law claims relating to the client's self-serve advertising services. 
    • Represent leading agroscience company in high-profile commercial dispute in the Delaware Supreme Court involving a complex question of federal preemption.  The dispute revolves around the collection of post-expiration patent royalties under a licensing agreement that involves multiple countries. 
    • Successfully represented leading consumer technology company in U.S. District Court of Northern California in opposing request for preliminary injunction in high-profile antitrust case.
    • Successfully argued before California Court of Appeal, defending dismissal of trade-secrets misappropriation claim against leading social technology company.
    • Successfully represented leading social technology company in California Court of Appeal, securing affirmance of dismissal of negligence claim.
    • Represented leading consumer technology company as an amicus in the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., to defend the continued operation of inter partes review of patent claims.
    Life Sciences & Health Tech Sector
    • Represented leading biopharmaceutical company in defending against tens of thousands of products-liability and related claims against lifesaving HIV medications at both trial and appellate levels in California state and federal court. Successfully obtained common-issues summary judgment on post-approval failure-to-warn claims in federal MDL (N.D. Cal.) based on federal preemption, and secured writ review in a coordinated procced in the California Court of Appeal that involved more than 24,000 plaintiffs.
    • Represented leading biopharmaceutical company in California Court of Appeal in a qui tam action alleging violations of the California False Claims Act and presenting a question of first impression about the federal preemption of claims under state false claims statutes premised on fraud on the FDA. 
    • Represented leading biopharmaceutical company in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in a qui tam action alleging violations of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute stemming from the organization and implementation of the company's physician speaker programs and advisory boards. Case settled while motion for summary judgment was pending.

    Government-Facing Work Across Sectors

    • Successfully represented and presented oral argument on behalf of veteran in Federal Circuit in an appeal from a highly fractured en banc Veterans Court decision about the scope of "clear and unmistakable error," a statutory ground for veterans to seek collateral review of otherwise-final benefits denials. The Federal Circuit issued a precedential opinion in our client's favor.
    • Represent leading social technology company in the Washington Supreme Court in First Amendment challenge in the largest campaign-finance penalty ever awarded anywhere in the country.
    • Represented leading computer technology company in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in an Administrative Procedure Act and a constitutional challenge to the Department of Labor's administrative scheme for prosecuting, adjudicating, and remediating certain claims against government contractors. Case settled while cross-motions for summary judgment were fully briefed and pending.
    • Represented noncitizen in petition for review in asylum case in Ninth Circuit. Successfully obtained dismissal of removal proceedings against client.
    • Represent prisoner in civil-rights appeal in the Ninth Circuit involving denial of qualified immunity.
    • Represented FOIA requesters at the certiorari stage in U.S. Supreme Court in two cases about the scope of Exemption 5 of the Freedom of Information Act and the continued vitality of the so-called consultant corollary doctrine.
    • Represented Military Veterans-Advocacy Inc. as an amicus in a U.S. Supreme Court case and in a Federal Circuit en banc case.