Brian Ginsberg is a partner at Harris Beach Murtha and chair of the firm’s national Appellate Practice Group. He leads appeals in courts across New York and across the country, representing businesses, individuals, governments, and other parties in cases spanning a broad spectrum of industries and legal issues. In addition to his appellate work, Brian collaborates on trials and administrative proceedings to help shape legal strategy and litigate critical motions. Brian also is a sought-after media commentator, routinely appearing on network television and in the press to offer insights on legal issues. Before joining Harris Beach Murtha, Brian served in the New York State Solicitor General’s Office as Assistant New York State Solicitor General, representing the state in some of its most important appeals, including appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court. Brian is one of only a small number of private practitioners in the country with experience serving in a solicitor general office—an elite bar widely regarded for skill and integrity in appellate litigation.
Brian has litigated hundreds of appeals and critical motions over the course of his career. He has personally presented more than 110 appellate oral arguments, including 23 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and eight in the New York State Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court. Brian’s cases have covered numerous industries, such as medical drugs and devices, financial services, entertainment, healthcare, telecommunications, energy, transportation, gaming and wagering, and consumer products. Brian’s cases have also encompassed a diverse array of legal subjects: administrative law, constitutional law, class-action defense, intellectual property, tax, insurance, bankruptcy, arbitration, antitrust, professional malpractice, personal injury, civil rights, labor, employment, contractual disputes, business torts, whistleblower actions, elections and voting rights, land use, public safety and emergency-response, white-collar crime, and others. Many of Brian’s matters have attracted significant media attention.
Brian thrives on high-stakes cases, and has established himself as a go-to attorney for clients in crisis. For example, when political activists filed an expedited appeal in New York state court seeking to invalidate a law extending the term limits applicable to a major metropolitan mayoral administration—and force the administration out of office—the administration tapped Brian to lead the defense. Brian and his team persuaded the appellate court to sustain the law in its entirety. When a New York trial court found that lawyers had negligently mishandled their client’s litigation defense and ordered their client to pay the adversary’s attorney fees, the lawyers turned to Brian to clear their names on appeal. Brian and his team obtained a complete reversal of the sanction, and the appellate court’s opinion expressly disavowed the notion that the lawyers had employed a “frivolous” litigation strategy. When a federal court dismissed a prominent fintech company’s lawsuit against a former client for allegedly stealing its most important trade secrets, the company turned to Brian to rescue it from the brink of closure. With Brian leading the effort, the Second Circuit reversed the dismissal and reinstated the company’s key fraud claims. And when a major medical device manufacturer was denied dismissal of claims alleging that it unlawfully failed to warn of dangers allegedly associated with its FDA-regulated product, Brian helped craft the appellate strategy that resulted in a complete reversal and full dismissal of the case.
Additionally, Brian’s analytical background—which includes a graduate degree in mathematics—enables him to successfully handle even the most complex appeals and critical motions requiring mastery of scientific or quantitative concepts. For example, he helped persuade the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reverse a finding of patent infringement against an eCommerce company’s point-of-sale payment terminals. Brian also has accumulated a robust record of success in tax litigation, winning appeals addressing banking corporation franchise tax, tax shelters, as well as the sales taxation of telecommunications products and services, automobile title transfers, and big-box retail promotions.
Another distinguishing feature of Brian’s practice is his extensive experience litigating in the U.S. Supreme Court. Brian has briefed more than a dozen Supreme Court matters on issues as disparate as commercial arbitration and freedom of speech. Most recently, he led the briefing on behalf of the New York State Board of Elections that convinced the court to let stand critical statewide legislative election reforms. He is well-versed in seeking and opposing certiorari, litigating on the merits, and handling proceedings on the expedited “shadow docket.” Brian has contributed to multiple high-profile Supreme Court wins, including Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., which held that the Copyright Act allows domestic merchants to import and resell copyrighted items made and first sold abroad. The New York Times called an amicus brief Brian authored for a bipartisan group of former law enforcement officials in a Supreme Court immigration appeal “the most interesting supporting brief” in that case.
During Brian’s tenure as Assistant New York State Solicitor General, he briefed and argued some of the most consequential appeals brought and defended by the state’s numerous agencies and officials. Among many notable cases, Brian litigated Haug v. State University of New York, in which he prevailed upon the New York State Court of Appeals to reverse a lower-court ruling that threatened to upend the evidentiary standards by which nearly all New York state agencies resolve adversarial disputes. Commentators have opined that “the importance of the Haug decision cannot be overstated” and described Brian’s victory as a “landmark” ruling that “laid bare critical standards of review that will serve as guideposts for future cases.” The New York Law Journal ranked Haug among “those decisions that are most relevant to everyday practice in the Empire State”. Brian’s distinguished service as Assistant New York State Solicitor General earned him the Louis J. Lefkowitz Award, the highest honor given by the New York State Attorney General for outstanding performance by an attorney in pursuit of the public good. Brian was also issued a special commendation by the New York State Department of Transportation for his work in securing the dismissal of a $20 million wrongful-death claim against the state for negligent roadway design.
Before serving in the New York State Solicitor General’s Office, Brian worked in the appellate practices of two global law firms. He also clerked for Chief Judge Michael A. Chagares of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and for Judge Anita B. Brody of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Throughout his career, Brian has taken pride in serving the legal profession. He is chair of the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Together with his Harris Beach Murtha colleagues, Brian edits the LexisNexis New York Appellate Practice treatise. He also writes and lectures on appellate advocacy and is a co-developer of a popular continuing legal education seminar on effective oral argument. Additionally, Brian has authored academic articles on tort law and criminal law that have been cited by courts, scholars, and practitioners. He has been repeatedly honored for his commitment to pro bono representation.
Brian graduated from Columbia Law School, where he was named a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar. He holds an undergraduate degree, cum laude with departmental distinction in mathematics, as well as a graduate degree in mathematics, from Yale University.