Max Carter-Oberstone

Max is an experienced appellate practitioner that has litigated many dozens of cases in appellate courts across the country. Max recently secured the reversal of an $85 million judgment against one of the world's largest technology companies in a case alleging patent infringement before the Federal Circuit. Max also recently argued and won a case before the Ninth Circuit in which the Court granted his client relief from removal under the Convention Against Torture. In 2021, Max was an Orrick Justice Fellow at the Policing Project at NYU Law School—a non-profit think tank focused on police reform and democratic accountability. There, he drafted model legislation on a range of policing-related topics. He also designed and implemented the Policing Project's Fourth Amendment impact litigation strategies. After returning to Orrick, he has remained active in the Fourth Amendment space, recently filing a cert-stage amicus brief on behalf of legal scholars that urged the Supreme Court to take a case implicating an important exception to the exclusionary rule.

Before joining Orrick, Max was an Associate Deputy Solicitor General at the California Department of Justice. There, he authored or co-authored dozens of appellate briefs—many of them in the U.S. Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court—and argued two cases in the California courts of appeal. He was the principal author of a Ninth Circuit brief filed on behalf of California and four other States in a case challenging federal regulations affecting the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate. He also litigated a challenge to the Trump administration's rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which resulted in a victory at the Supreme Court.

Max served as a law clerk to the Honorable Susan Y. Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and the Honorable John T. Noonan, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Before law school, Max worked at a New York investment bank, and as a legislative aide to a California State Senator.