Labor & Employment Appeals

Lawyers in the Supreme Court & Appellate group represent clients in appeals that raise the most important and complex questions in employment law today, including arbitration, wage-and-hour and discrimination claims, ERISA and benefits litigation, federal preemption and immigration law.

• Engagements

  • Represented Morgan Stanley in an issue of first impression before the Ninth Circuit, in which the Court of Appeals held that federal securities law preempts the enforcement of California’s "forced patronage" statute against brokerage firms. The stakes were enormous, as our client’s policies governed thousands of employees, and California law prescribed steep penalties for every day of a violation.
  • Successfully represented Netflix in a headline-grabbing battle over alleged employee poaching and the enforceability of Fox's employment contracts.
  • Represented Microsoft in a critical case affecting the immigration status of over 1,000 employees. After reviewing Microsoft’s brief, the federal government contacted Microsoft and offered to settle the case on favorable terms.
  • As lead counsel in the employee benefits case MetLife v. Glenn, persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court that courts must give less deference to an insurance company’s decisions to deny benefits than to the decisions of a neutral administrator, because the insurance company labors under a conflict of interest.
  • Successfully defended Kentucky before the Supreme Court against allegations of age discrimination in connection with the structure of its plan of retirement benefits for public employees, a case that threatened to invalidate thousands of plans in two dozen states.
  • Convinced the Washington Supreme Court to deny review and preserve KPMG’s win in Litchfield v. KPMG, a case about whether audit associates are exempt professional employees.