Critical Motions / Appeals
BSP Law’s critical motions and appeals briefing team includes attorneys who have clerked for the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits, and various federal district courts. Team members pride themselves in quickly digesting complex technical matters and mastering novel legal issues to deliver understandable and persuasive arguments to trial and appellate courts.
During the pre-trial and trial phases of any litigation, BSP Law maximizes its clients’ prospects on appeal, including through Rule 702 challenges, motions in limine, and dispositive and post-verdict motions. BSP Law assists clients with appellate matters in state and federal courts across the country. Even where BSP Law is not involved in the trial phase of a case, the critical motions and appeals briefing team will comb the record to craft the strongest arguments for a successful appeal.
Representative Matters
- Represented a plaintiff in a multi-state insurance action, defeated a dispositive motion, and obtained an 8-figure, pre-discovery settlement.
- Won summary judgment on issue of future damages through an opinion that distinguished several unfavorable prior decisions.
- In automotive class actions, led strategy and briefing to successfully defeat motion to compel production of company trade secrets and to require production of information plaintiffs’ counsel used as basis for suit.
- In intellectual property dispute, architected successful defense of motion for sanctions preventing defense of $2 billion demand.
- Won complex post-transfer conflict-of-law motion that foreclosed punitive damages and capped non-economic damages.
- Offered advanced motions and trial support in the Eastern District of Kentucky that resulted in favorable pre-trial and trial rulings in a product liability matter, leading the plaintiff to abandon millions of dollars in claimed damages and helping the trial team obtain a complete defense verdict.
- Successfully moved to dismiss a high-exposure product liability lawsuit in the Eastern District of Michigan on choice-of-law and statute-of-repose grounds and obtained affirmance on appeal.
- Obtained summary dismissal of a multi-million-dollar employment lawsuit in Michigan state court and was awarded $300,000 in prevailing-party costs; both rulings were affirmed on appeal.
- Architected claims, defeated a dispositive motion, and obtained an 8-figure settlement in Michigan state court for client before discovery in a multi-state insurance action.
- Partnered with two trial teams to defend two class actions in two states and spotted a standing problem in one action and an arbitration agreement in the other; neither proceeded past jurisdictional discovery.
- Partnered with trial counsel as critical-motions counsel for a California consumer-warranty case to prepare pre-trial motions, jury instructions, and verdict form for a trifurcated trial, and following a trial continuance, disposed of the case on a summary judgment motion.
- Prepared pre-trial motions and directed-verdict motion, along with the trial team, as critical-motions counsel for a product-liability trial in Texas federal court; punitive-damages claim was dismissed on directed verdict and jury returned defense verdict.
- Assisted trial team to win defense verdict in two-week Ohio consumer protection jury trial, through critical motion briefing and hearings, jury instructions, and verdict forms; preserved verdict in post-trial motion practice.
- Obtained affirmance on appeal in the Tenth Circuit after leading successful summary judgment for automotive manufacturer in case involving advanced driver-assistance technologies.
- Argued appeal in Sixth Circuit, obtaining published ruling that class claims for allegedly inflated fuel-economy estimates depended on proof of fraud on the regulator, and were thus impliedly preempted.
- Before Sixth Circuit, obtained affirmance of summary judgment of hybrid § 301 claims under the Labor Management Relations Act and workers’ compensation retaliation claim under Kentucky law.
- Led complex NAFTA tax appeal in the Federal Circuit, resulting in a published opinion overturning adverse judgment.
- Representing manufacturer in international executive’s employment dispute seeking $30 million damages, obtained summary judgment on multiple grounds and preserved judgment on appeal.
- In contract action against financial services company, sustained federal jurisdiction and won with-prejudice dismissal of appeal.
- Successfully represented the Michigan Legislature in Michigan trial and appellate courts in a constitutional and statutory challenge to Governor Whitmer’s executive orders.
- Obtained interlocutory review and published precedent holding Michigan common-law claims based on ownership of leased vehicles preempted by federal law, and remanding for entry of defense judgment.
- Provided strategy and revamped a brief in an insurance dispute in the Sixth Circuit that led the appellate court to uphold the client’s multi-million dollar summary judgment.
- Authored an amicus brief in the Michigan Supreme Court regarding the proper interpretation and constitutionality of a taxing statute; the high court issued a ruling consistent with our analysis.
- Obtained a published decision in the Michigan Court of Appeals, affirming a multi-million-dollar award of interest and sanctions and later defeated the State’s application for leave to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court in a complex state tax appeal.
- Successfully defended summary judgment in Pennsylvania state court in a wrongful-death product liability appeal.
- Obtained and preserved on appeal a dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction in Missouri state court.
- Successfully preserved the interpretation of tax refund statute in Michigan appellate courts worth approximately $8.5 million to the client.
- Won several election-law victories representing the Michigan Legislature in the Eastern District of Michigan, the Michigan Court of Appeals, and the Sixth Circuit.
- Helped prepare and argue pre-trial motions that defeated punitive damages and limited expert testimony in Georgia, drawing a quick settlement offer.
- Worked with trial and discovery counsel as appellate counsel in a pending class action to defeat a motion to compel valuable trade secrets that would have been incredibly burdensome to produce and that the plaintiffs had not shown were necessary to prove their claims.
- Defended the jury verdict on an eight-issue appeal of a negligence action in the Michigan Court of Appeals and defeated application for further appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.
- Defended summary judgment ruling on appeal in Michigan race-discrimination and retaliatory discharge claim, convincing the appellate court that the plaintiff’s arguments on appeal were not preserved, and that, in any event, the plaintiff had not identified a comparable treated more favorably and had no evidence that the employer’s reason for discharging the plaintiff were pretextual, and that the record was “bereft of any causal connection” between the plaintiff’s complaints and any adverse employment action.
- Successfully mooted an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by moving to amend the trial court’s Notice of Removal to cure the alleged defect in subject matter jurisdiction that the plaintiff argued required remand rather than dismissal.
- Successfully defended summary judgment before the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in a disability-discrimination case on the grounds that an employer has no obligation to create a new position, or convert a temporary position into a full-time job, to accommodate those with disabilities.
- Won published reversal of trial court ruling on interlocutory review that would have imposed vicarious liability for auto accidents on certain long-term lessors.
