Brian Sutherland

Practice Areas

Brian Sutherland handles major appeals for businesses and public entities in the federal courts, California, and New York. Brian has argued more than 60 appeals and briefed dozens more in complex commercial and government disputes. He started his legal career in New York, where he practiced with WilmerHale and served as an Assistant Solicitor General in the New York State Office of the Attorney General. He moved to California in 2014, where he is certified as a specialist in appellate law, a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and ranked for appellate litigation in California by Chambers USA. Brian was a partner in Reed Smith’s appellate practice before joining CALG in December 2023.

He has won landmark appeals in state courts of last resort. Brian has successfully represented clients in state high courts, including major wins in mortgage foreclosure, arbitration, taxation, and partisan gerrymandering. He has successfully obtained discretionary review in state high courts in matters arising under the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230) and California’s taxpayer standing doctrine.

Brian regularly represents amici in the United States Supreme Court. He has served as lead counsel in representing former elected and appointed government officials and leading academics in the Supreme Court. Brian authored and filed amicus briefs that Justices Kagan and Breyer cited in partisan gerrymandering and census matters, respectively. Most recently, he represented Georgetown Law Dean William Treanor in Moore v. Harper, whose work Chief Justice Roberts cited multiple times in his majority opinion.

He graduated cum laude from New York University School of Law and clerked on both the Second Circuit and Southern District of New York. Brian was as an Articles Editor on the NYU Law Review. After law school, he served as a law clerk to Reena Raggi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Alvin K. Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.