Susman Godfrey has been named to National Law Journal’s 2020 Appellate Hot List for outstanding appellate litigation victories secured over the past twelve months. These victories include both appellate confirmations of hard-fought verdicts won in district court and, when needed, successful reversals of district court decisions.
National Law Journal profiled the firm’s appellate wins in an interview with Houston-based partner Geoffrey L. Harrison. Together with Bill Merrill, Ashley McMillian and Abigail Noebels, Harrison won a $43.2 million jury verdict and $48.7 million judgment for client Apache Deepwater. Harrison argued the appeal and won a 3-0 affirmance in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The U.S. Supreme Court denied our adversary’s petition for a writ of certiorari.
Successful Affirmances
Susman Godfrey lawyers appeared in appellate courts multiple times in 2019 and 2020 to defend lower court decisions. These triumphs include an appellate victory in the Ninth Circuit for Zillow in a copyright matter against VHT; affirmance in the Federal Circuit of a $50.3 million judgment for Green Mountain Glass in its patent infringement lawsuit against Ardagh Glass, Inc; a Second Circuit confirmation of a judgment worth $160 million for General Electric against the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority; and a $4.1 million win on behalf of Westlake Chemical Corporation against James Construction company.
Reversal Victories
The firm also proved that when needed, it can convince appeals courts to reverse or reconsider adverse district court decisions. Susman Godfrey won a unanimous decision in the Ninth Circuit for Universal Cable Productions reversing the district court’s decision in its entirety in an insurance dispute against Atlantic Insurance Co. Susman Godfrey also won reversal in the Ninth Circuit in the closely-watched In re: National Football League’s “Sunday Ticket” Antitrust Litigation, overturning the district court’s dismissal. We also won a 3-0 decision in California’s Fourth District Court of Appeals, reversing the trial court’s grant of summary judgment against our client’s $271 million fraud and misrepresentation claims in Hussein v. Quality Systems.
Leading Appellate Lawyers
In addition to Geoffrey L. Harrison, lawyers who led the firm’s notable appellate victories this past year include Jacob Buchdahl, Amanda Bonn, Bryan Caforio, Bill Carmody, Ian Crosby, Bill Merrill, Justin Nelson, Shawn Rabin, Marc Seltzer, Stephen Shackleford, Jr. and Kalpana Srinivasan.
