Complex Appellate Litigation Group LLP

Firm specialty: High-stakes business, civil, and white-collar criminal appeals in federal and state appellate courts

Managing Partner: Ben Feuer

Number of partners: 7

Number of other fee-earners: 18

Offices: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Newport Beach

Website: www.calg.com

The Complex Appellate Litigation Group LLP is one of the nation's leading appellate specialty boutiques, with more than two-dozen award-winning appellate attorneys and former appellate court law clerks.The firm has no associates, so every one of its lawyers has at least a decade of experience taking on high-stakes appellate matters for businesses, governments, organizations, and individuals. The firm has a nationwide appellate practice, with special expertise in California and the Ninth Circuit.

Recently, the firm:

• obtained vacatur of a $36.5 million jury verdict against a mechanical engineering corporation sued in a wrongful death action;
• achieved victory for a large insurance company in a $29 million appeal involving defamation and invasion of privacy claims;
• won a complete victory across five separate, related appeals totaling more than $13.5 million, in a contract and tort dispute between business founders;
• and successfully defended on appeal an intellectual property judgment in favor of one of the world’s leading technology firms.

The firm is currently representing a European conglomerate in a contract and tort appeal with more than $100 million at stake, several major technology companies in multiple intellectual property and trade secrets appeals, a large insurer in a high stakes COVID-related coverage appeal in the California Supreme Court, another large insurer in an appeal arising from litigation over the largest-ever female-driven Ponzi scheme, and scores of other federal and state appellants, appellees, respondents, petitioners, and amici parties. The firm also regularly consults at the pre-trial and trial stages, sometimes embedding its appellate experts on trial teams.

The firm’s Chambers-ranked attorneys include:

• Rex Heinke, who spent 20 years as co-chair of Akin Gump’s national Supreme Court and Appellate Practice before joining CALG
• M.C. Sungaila, who was the only woman to head an Amlaw 100 firm’s appellate group before joining CALG
• Brian Sutherland, who regularly represents major corporations in critical appeals in California and New York

The firm also boasts Anna-Rose Mathieson, who clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Ben Feuer, who was named an “Elite Boutique Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal; Pat Benke, who previously served for 35 years as a Justice of the California Court of Appeal; Johanna Schiavoni, a former president of the San Diego County Bar Association; Frank McGuire, who was the Clerk of the California Supreme Court; and other recognized talents.

In addition to recognition in Chambers, the firm was named one of the 20 Top Boutiques in California by the Daily Journal and has won numerous other awards. Its attorneys have been named California Lawyers of the Year several times, and many have received other accolades.