Sophisticated clients understand that winning critical appeals requires the skill, experience and insight that only veteran appellate practitioners can provide. And in today’s increasingly complex and ever-changing legal and regulatory environment, the need for experienced appellate counsel has never been more important. For these reasons, when businesses, individuals, state and local governments, and other litigants need to undo an adverse decision or safeguard a hard-fought victory, they consistently turn to the Harris Beach Murtha Appellate Practice Group – for matters in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and beyond.

Our market-leading appellate practice wins appeals with a combination of innovative strategy, clear, vivid writing and forceful oral advocacy. Our appellate attorneys have a track record of success in courts throughout the Northeast and throughout the country – including the U.S. Supreme Court – in cases involving a diverse array of industries and areas of law. No matter the court, and no matter the legal issue, we relish the challenge of distilling complex cases to their core and presenting them in a plain-spoken yet powerful manner that resonates with generalist appellate judges.

The Appellate Practice Group is led by Brian Ginsberg, a former Assistant New York State Solicitor General who has litigated hundreds of appeals in federal and state courts nationwide and has personally presented more than 100 appellate oral arguments. While serving in the New York State Solicitor General’s Office, Brian frequently represented clients in their most important appeals brought and defended in U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the New York State Court of Appeals and the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division – three of the most significant courts in the country for commercial and regulatory disputes. Brian is a go-to appellate attorney for high-stakes cases and clients in crisis. His appellate teams have rescued a major city’s mayoral administration from political activists seeking to force it out of office, a prominent financial services company from a former customer illicitly misusing its confidential information, and more. Clients often turn to Brian to develop novel legal theories, interpret complex statutes and regulations and present scientific and quantitative issues in an accessible way.

Brian is joined by Daniel Krisch, a former law clerk for a Supreme Court of Connecticut Chief Justice, member of the Connecticut Judicial Branch’s Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules, and a leading commentator on Connecticut state civil procedure and evidence law; Hon. Erin Peradotto, a retired Justice of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division who served on that court for nearly 17 years and who sat by designation on the New York State Court of Appeals; and Lisa LeCours, a former Chief Clerk and Legal Counsel to the New York State Court of Appeals who served that court in various roles for nearly a quarter-century. Attorneys from the Appellate Practice Group also formerly served as prosecutors, heads of city and county law departments and in-house counsel. In addition to being appellate generalists, many of our members have robust experience in specific subject areas, such as business and commercial litigation, election law, energy law, mass torts, labor and employment law, intellectual property law, municipal law, public finance and other legal disciplines. We are thought leaders as well, having literally “written the book” on appellate advocacy in the New York state court system: the venerable New York Appellate Practice treatise published by LexisNexis, which we meticulously revise and update annually. We draw strength from our many dimensions of professional diversity.

We also draw strength from teamwork and the collaborative approach that drives everything we do. Our appellate lawyers routinely join forces with the firm’s many vibrant industry teams and other practice groups, leveraging their deep substantive knowledge. When called upon to do so, we also work seamlessly with co-counsel from other law firms. And in all cases, we always treat our clients as the full partners they are. We take the time to learn what each case means to our clients, and then we put in the effort to shape our appellate presentation in a way that gives voice to their passions and concerns. Clients know that when they team up with the Harris Beach Murtha Appellate Practice Group, their case becomes our case, and their cause becomes our cause.

Our Appellate Practice Group focuses on appeals, but we also regularly work on cases long before an appeal is ever filed. Our stock-in-trade is the ability to apply strategic thinking and creativity to complex legal and factual concepts to formulate persuasive legal arguments and present them in plain English – a skill that is invaluable at every level of litigation. Our appellate litigators routinely use that skill to assist at the trial level in litigating dispositive motions seeking dismissal or summary judgment, motions involving complicated procedural issues, motions in limine, jury instructions and post-trial motions. Our appellate attorneys also provide strategic counseling regarding threatened and ongoing litigation and recurring discrete legal issues. Additionally, we prepare legal analyses for use outside the litigation context, such as position papers and comments on proposed statutes and regulations.

Whatever the forum, and whatever the task, clients come back to us again and again because they know that the Harris Beach Murtha Appellate Practice Group provides innovative, clear and persuasive written and oral advocacy.