Cesar Lopez-Morales
Counsel
Washington, D.C.
A former U.S. Supreme Court clerk and DOJ attorney, Cesar handles high-stakes appeals and critical motions in courts across the country.
As a member of the firm's Supreme Court and Appellate group, Cesar draws from his experience at both the trial and appellate level to develop legal strategy, advise clients, and draft persuasive briefs. He is a skilled brief writer who focuses on simplifying complex concepts and crafting a compelling story that frames factual and legal issues in a way that is more likely to produce favorable results for clients.
Cesar routinely co-authors briefs in federal and state courts of appeals and in the U.S. Supreme Court. He is often embedded at the trial level to brief dispositive motions, and to make sure that issues are preserved and that the record is properly developed with an eye towards appeal. His work covers a wide range of substantive areas, including constitutional and administrative law, statutory interpretation, complex commercial litigation, and federal preemption (particularly, in the false claims, products liability, and arbitration context). He also maintains an active pro bono practice, representing immigrants and veterans in their appeals to the federal courts of appeals and filing amicus briefs in precedent-setting cases of public interest. He is especially passionate about advancing the rights of the residents in the U.S. territories.
Before joining Orrick, Cesar was an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch, where he represented the United States and its agencies in dozens of cases involving challenges to the legality of federal laws, actions, and programs. He authored numerous briefs and argued and won dispositive motions in federal district courts nationwide. His experience included litigating cutting-edge matters involving the Appointments Clause; the Spending Clause; the Territory Clause; the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments; the separation of powers; the Administrative Procedure Act; the Federal Vacancies Reform Act; the Freedom of Information Act; and the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act.
Cesar served as a law clerk to Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the October 2023 Term. Before that, he clerked for Judge José A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then-Presiding Judge of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and Judge Jay A. Garcia-Gregory of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
-
- Represent leading biopharmaceutical company in defending against tens of thousands of products-liability and related claims against lifesaving HIV medications at both trial and appellate levels in California state and federal court. Successfully obtained common-issues summary judgment on post-approval failure-to-warn claims, based on federal preemption, as well as secured writ review in California appellate courts.
- Represented leading biopharmaceutical company in California Court of Appeal in a qui tam action alleging violations of the California False Claims Act and presenting a question of first impression about the federal preemption of claims under state false claims statutes premised on fraud on the FDA.
- Represented leading biopharmaceutical company in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in a qui tam action alleging violations of the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute stemming from the organization and implementation of the company's physician speaker programs and advisory boards.
- Represented FOIA requesters at the certiorari stage in U.S. Supreme Court in two cases about the scope of Exemption 5 of the Freedom of Information Act and the continued vitality of the so-called consultant corollary doctrine.
- Represented living assisted facility at the certiorari stage in U.S. Supreme Court in case about the federal preemption of a state supreme court’s interpretation of powers of attorney under the Federal Arbitration Act.
- Represented leading computer technology company in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in an Administrative Procedure Act and a constitutional challenge to the Department of Labor's administrative scheme for prosecuting, adjudicating, and remediating certain claims against government contractors.
- Represented leading consumer technology company in U.S. District Court of Northern California in opposing request for preliminary injunction in high-profile litigation involving novel antitrust theories.
- Represented leading consumer technology company as an amicus in the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., to defend the continued operation of inter partes review of patent claims.
- Represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as an amicus in the Ninth Circuit in ICTSI Oregon Inc. v. ILWU, to defend the legality of statutory protections against unlawful secondary boycotts.
- Represented Military Veterans-Advocacy Inc. as an amicus in the U.S. Supreme Court in Arellano v. McDonough, to defend equitable tolling of deadline in retroactive claim-processing rule.
