New York associate Dinis Cheian and Los Angeles partner Jesse-Justin Cuevas have been recognized by The American Lawyer as part of the publication’s 2025 annual industry awards. Cheian has been named among eight finalists for the country’s Most Promising Newcomer and Cuevas has been named a finalist for Young Lawyer of the Year – Beyond Practice. Susman Godfrey has also been named as a finalist for National Boutique/Specialty Litigation Department of the Year and as a joint finalist for Law Firm of the Year.
In 2024, Dinis secured trial win for chip manufacturer, Vicor, when the ITC banned the importation of Respondents’ products that infringed Vicor’s patents. At trial, Dinis cross-examined Respondents’ technical expert and put on Vicor’s own expert. Dinis previously secured an $18.8 million settlement for Pascal Metrics in its trade secret misappropriation suit against Health Catalyst. Dinis played a key role in litigation, notably deposing defendant’s CFO and corporate representative, thus securing key admissions to support Pascal’s damages model. Dinis is currently representing a putative class of millions of immigrants in a suit against the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The suit alleges that the government illegally charged the applicants biometric fees. In addition to originating the case, Dinis leads all its aspects, from drafting the complaint and dispositive and non-dispositive motions, to taking key depositions and defending the two class representatives, to running the day-to-day discovery.
A key player in all her cases, Jesse-Justin has examined multiple witnesses at trial and secured landmark wins in California and nationwide. At Susman Godfrey, Jesse-Justin is the Co-chair of the firm’s Mentoring Committee, which she established in 2021 when she single-handedly developed a firmwide associate mentoring program. She also helped create the Susman Godfrey Prize, an honor awarded annually to 25 1L and 2L law students of color from a select group of law schools who have excelled academically and have impressive overall achievement. Outside the firm, Jesse-Justin co-chairs the Steering Committee for the Los Angeles Summer Legal Institute, the cornerstone legal immersion program for Just the Beginning, a pipeline organization that works to illuminate the path to law school and a successful legal career. She also serves as Co-chair for the Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference for the Central District of California.
In 2024 and 2025 the firm not only secured multiple billion dollar+ wins for its clients, it also took on a constitutional challenge to an executive order by the administration that sought to interfere with the right of the firm and it lawyers to represent the clients of their choosing. The firm secured a temporary restraining order against the executive order in D.C. district court and later won summary judgment against the administration’s order. Susman Godfrey was one of four firms to undertake such litigation in the face of executive orders targeting law firms.
Winners of all categories will be announced at The American Lawyers’ annual awards gala in New York City on November 13th.
