Even better than an appellate reversal is winning in the trial court. Embedding an appellate specialist on a trial team can provide significant benefits: persuasive briefing improves the client’s odds of success in the trial court and preserves the record for any appeal. That is where BSP’s embedded appellate counsel team thrives. Team members have clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits, and federal district courts across the country. BSP’s embedded appellate counsel work to quickly digest and distill issues for busy trial judges, taking leading roles on motions in limine, expert challenges, jury instructions, verdict forms, directed-verdict motions, and the bevy of other filings that come in the run-up to and during a trial.

To read more about this specialized role and the benefits it can provide to clients, click here.

Representative Matters

• Won directed verdict as to punitive damages in product-liability case before trial team ultimately obtained a complete defense verdict; no appeal followed
• Assisted trial team in achieving complete defense verdict in consumer-fraud trial and successfully defended that verdict on post-trial motions; plaintiffs abandoned appeal
• Partnered with trial counsel to brief and argue motions that resulted in dismissal of punitive damages at pleading stage, exclusion of plaintiffs’ liability and damages experts, and denial of class certification; no appeal followed
• Achieved favorable in limine rulings that precipitated a favorable settlement
• Represent automotive manufacturer in briefing dispositive and pretrial motions on a portfolio of cases involving advanced driver assistance features
• Got directed verdict on punitive damages prior to complete defense verdict and successfully protected that verdict on post-trial motions; no appeal followed
• Brought in to assist trial team with navigating and briefing difficult sanctions issues, as well as Rule 702 motions in a trade-secret case and re-shaped case to excise key parts of plaintiff’s damages theory and avoid major sanctions
• Obtained trifurcated trial in a consumer-warranty action that paved the way for successful judgment-as-a-matter of law motion
• Prepared trial plan and executed in limine strategy for bellwether mass-tort environmental case that led to global settlement; won summary disposition on holdouts’ claims, no appeal followed
• Obtained favorable evidentiary rulings and limited economic expert’s opinions, forcing abandonment of high-dollar economic loss claims; complete defense verdict followed
• Represented leading automotive manufacturer as critical-motions counsel in class-action issue trial
• Led multi-defendant team in putative class action in strategy and briefing of critical pre-certification discovery motion; while the motion was pending, the action resolved
• Opposed three dozen motions in limine, including attempt to add punitive damages, shortly before case settled
• Shaped summary judgment and in limine strategy that led to a sua sponte trial continuance by the judge and a grant of summary judgment involving emerging technologya
• Attached to trial team just a few weeks before trial and positioned punitive-damages issue in a favorable posture to facilitate settlement
• Led multi-defendant team in briefing motions in limine, jury instructions, and verdict form in a case alleging design, manufacturing, and warnings defects
• Opposed demand for punitive damages through successful arguments about personal jurisdiction, voluntary transfer, and choice of law
• As class counsel working with trial teams in multiple states, defeated multiple putative class actions at the pleading stage through arguments about standing, real-party-in-interest, and arbitration