Orrick Team Recognized for Daily Journal’s Top Appellate Reversals of 2020

February.04.2021

The Daily Journal has recognized an Orrick appellate and employment team for securing one of its Top Appellate Reversals of 2020 in California.

In this feature (subscription required), the publication cited a win in the Second District Court of Appeal that overturned a $13 million jury verdict against the University of California at Los Angeles involving a former medical professor’s age discrimination and retaliation lawsuit. The unanimous panel found the 2018 trial was marred by prejudicial errors, saying the “errors constituted a miscarriage of justice and created an atmosphere in which UCLA did not receive a fair trial.”

Partner Eric Shumsky, who argued the case for UCLA, told the Daily Journal: “The odds aren’t great for any appellant. But here there was a series of major errors. We developed a strategy of grouping three different errors into a package, to convey the magnitude of the unfairness and make it more difficult for the court to dismiss the errors as harmless mistakes.”

In addition to Eric, the Orrick team included partner Jessica Perry and associates Jeremy Peterman, Elizabeth Moulton and Evan Rose. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius served as trial counsel.

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Eric Shumsky Partner, Supreme Court & Appellate, Intellectual Property

Washington, D.C.; San Francisco

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D:+1 202 339 8464
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Supreme Court & Appellate
Intellectual Property
Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution

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Eric Shumsky Partner

Washington, D.C.; San Francisco

Chambers USA reports that Eric is “hailed as ‘highly intelligent, an effective communicator and a great writer’ by contacts, and his high-profile work in the tech patent sector is of particular interest to those who recognize him as one who ‘prepares meticulously, anticipates every question, and is a gifted orator.’” Legal 500 touts his “exceptional courtroom demeanor and presentation skills” as one of “the finest appellate litigators in the nation.” And Reuters, in a report reviewing some 17,000 practitioners, identified Eric as part of an “elite cadre” of 75 lawyers who are “the most influential members of one of the most powerful specialties in America: the business of practicing before the Supreme Court.”

Eric has served as appellate counsel to a who’s who of leading companies, including AT&T, DISH Network, Facebook, Genentech, Gilead, KPMG, LG Electronics, LinkedIn, Lyft, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Netflix, Norfolk Southern, Synopsys, Twitter, and Union Carbide. Across an array of industries, Eric has briefed and argued issues as diverse as patent and copyright, labor and employment, preemption, punitive damages, environmental law, national security, and foreign sovereign immunity. He has been a primary author of more than 100 briefs in the Supreme Court alone.

Eric has particular proficiency in matters of technology and intellectual property. He regularly litigates novel issues concerning the regulation of the internet, including CDA Section 230, computer fraud, takedown notices, and internet domain names. He has been counsel in dozens of patent appeals in the Federal Circuit—litigating patents ranging from semiconductor construction, computer architecture, and genetic sequencing to tobacco curing, keyboard trays, and electrical junction boxes. A former law clerk on the Ninth Circuit and the Central District of California, Eric has extensive experience in the California state and federal appellate courts where tech issues commonly arise.

In addition to traditional appellate work, Eric has years of experience developing legal strategy in high-profile and complex cases in trial courts. Eric has performed this role in high-stakes multi-district litigation, criminal trials, and civil litigation involving critical dispositive motions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Eric was a partner in the appellate group at Sidley Austin.