Issues & Appeals
Areas of Focus
Appeals often determine how high-stakes disputes end. HWG LLP’s appellate attorneys provide strategic guidance grounded in decades of experience with judicial review of complex legal questions.
Our Approach
Successful appellate outcomes begin long before appellate briefing. Our Issues & Appeals group analyzes complex legal issues with an eye to appeals from the outset of litigation and administrative proceedings. Careful attention to these issues from the outset ensures proper record development, preservation of key issues, and arguments well-positioned for appellate review.
Our attorneys have briefed and argued cases across a wide range of substantive areas in:
- The U.S. Supreme Court
- Federal courts of appeals nationwide
- State supreme courts and other courts of last resort
- Federal and international administrative agencies
- State bar ethics tribunals and appeals to state appellate courts
By integrating appellate perspectives into trial, agency, and disciplinary matters, we put clients in a position to succeed through appeals.
Our Appellate Experience
Appeals involve unique procedural challenges and unresolved legal questions where experience is critical. Our attorneys have extensive experience in:
- Administrative Law Appeals. Appeals and petitions for review of federal agency actions, often involving intricate threshold issues and complex administrative law principles.
- Amicus Briefing and Strategy. Supporting primary parties on issues of broad significance through strategic vision, careful coordination, and precise briefing.
- State and Federal Appellate Litigation. Appealing complex issues from trial courts to federal and state appellate courts, with careful attention to record development and issue framing.
We represent our clients in pivotal appellate proceedings with clarity and nuance.
Why Clients Choose HWG for Appellate Matters
- Integrated strategy from day one, aligning trial, administrative, and appellate perspectives
- Deep experience across federal, state, agency, and disciplinary appellate forums
- Ability to handle complex, precedent-shaping legal issues
- Clear, precise, and persuasive appellate briefing and oral advocacy
- Nuanced understanding of how appellate decision makers approach legal questions
Representative Experience
- Secured a grant of certiorari and a unanimous 9–0 decision in the first major federal abstention case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in more than twenty years.
- Represented a trade association in the U.S. Supreme Court, persuading the Court in 2025 to reject nondelegation challenges to a multibillion-dollar FCC program.
- Obtained remand on behalf of a public utility in a multibillion-dollar U.S. Supreme Court appeal, allowing the utility to pursue relief from companies including Enron.
- Prevailed on behalf of Native American tribe and tribal utility in a D.C. Circuit challenge to an FCC rule, obtaining vacatur and remand for a new rulemaking.
- Intervened on behalf of a coalition of technology companies in a D.C. Circuit appeal upholding an FCC order doubling the spectrum allocated to Wi-Fi.
- Obtained reversal and a new trial from the D.C. Circuit in a high-profile murder case involving private military company conduct overseas.
- Successfully defended a video-sharing platform on appeal, securing a ruling that barred defamation and negligence claims.