Partner, Creed & Gowdy
Bryan Gowdy is a board-certified appellate lawyer. His practice is limited to handling appeals, post-conviction motions, and trial support for matters likely to be appealed. His practice encompasses all substantive areas of the law, including plaintiff's injury and products liability, commercial cases, criminal law, and family law. He has briefed and orally argued appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court of Florida, and Florida's district courts of appeal. He also has handled appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits. He is AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell and has been selected as a Top 100 in Florida Super Lawyer, Top 25 in Jacksonville Super Lawyer, and a "Legal Elite" by Florida Trend Magazine. In 2019, Mr. Gowdy began serving as the Chair for the Florida Justice Association Amicus Curiae Committee.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Gowdy was with the national law firm of McGuireWoods LLP, where he primarily handled commercial litigation at the trial and appellate level. Mr. Gowdy began his legal career as a law clerk for federal judges at the trial and appellate level. Mr. Gowdy attended the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he was first in his class, a member of the Order of the Coif, and the management editor of the Florida Law Review.
Before law school, Mr. Gowdy was an active-duty surface warfare officer in the United States Navy, and he graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Partner, Williams & Connolly
Sarah Harris is a partner in Williams & Connolly’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice, where she represents clients in high-stakes appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts across the country. She has argued five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has presented many arguments in federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts. Her cases have run the gamut of substantive areas, including constitutional law—especially First Amendment and separation-of-powers issues—as well as administrative law, arbitration, class actions, antitrust, False Claims Act litigation, commercial litigation, and federal civil procedure.
Sarah is widely recognized for her appellate advocacy. Chambers USA has recognized her as “Up and Coming” in Appellate Law. She has been named to Bloomberg Law’s 40 Under 40 list of top lawyers nationwide and to Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List,” as well as a an appellate “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal and Law360, a “Next Generation Lawyer” by The Legal 500, and as one of Bloomberg Law’s “Five Fresh Faces to Know in Appellate.”
Sarah clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Laurence Silberman on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Sandra Lynch on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Before joining Williams & Connolly, she served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Sarah received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, and her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. She also holds a Ph.D. and M. Phil. from the University of Cambridge.
Co-chair, Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Group and Managing Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP
Joe Palmore co-chairs Morrison & Foerster’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice and is the Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. With 12 oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court and more than 45 in other appellate courts nationwide, Joe has handled complex appeals and critical motions on a wide range of issues important to businesses. Clients call him “an outstanding oral advocate,” praising his ability to remain “completely calm at all times and in complete command of the facts” (Chambers USA).
During a recent U.S. Supreme Court term, Joe successfully argued two cases: Law360 called one of them (Thole v. U.S. Bank) a “landmark ruling” that “made huge waves in the ERISA litigation arena” and named the other (Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Christian) one of the “biggest environmental law decisions” of the year. And Joe’s oral argument before the Supreme Court on the preemptive scope of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in CTS Corp. v. Waldburger was described in the National Law Journal as “brilliant” and a “template for anyone arguing a statutory case before these nine justices in the future.”
Joe’s practice extends to federal and state appellate courts across the country, where he has handled appeals on issues as varied as antitrust, class actions, communications, false advertising, intellectual property, and securities. Joe’s victory in the Federal Circuit for Immersion Corporation in a patent appeal was described by another practitioner as having “saved from the fire tens of thousands of patents that would have gone up in smoke.” Joe has secured important victories in the Second Circuit (where he clerked), including for an online marketplace in a securities class action and for a technology company in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act suit. He also has a successful track record in the Ninth Circuit, including winning for a beverage company defending against an antitrust suit and for an equipment manufacturer embroiled in a dispute over U.S. discovery for foreign litigation.
Before joining Morrison & Foerster, Joe served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice. During his nearly five years in the Solicitor General’s Office, Joe had principal responsibility for briefing the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s minimum coverage provision, which was upheld in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in NFIB v. Sebelius. For his work on that case, Joe received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service (the Department of Justice’s highest honor for employee performance). He also received the Environmental Protection Agency General Counsel’s medal for his successful defense of the EPA’s interstate air pollution rules in EPA v. EME Homer City Generation.
Before working for the Justice Department, Joe spent three years as Deputy General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, where he oversaw all litigation involving constitutional, statutory, and administrative-law challenges to the agency’s actions and argued 10 cases in the federal courts of appeals. His FCC experience includes virtually all aspects of communications regulation, including broadcast, cable, wireless, wireline, and Internet. In addition, he provided counsel to FCC officials on matters likely to result in litigation.
Joe clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. Joe earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, his M.A. in legal history from the University of Virginia, and his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University.
Joe is a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, selected for his distinction as an appellate lawyer. He also serves as a member of the Technology Litigation Advisory Committee of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center and is a master in, and former officer of, the Coke Appellate Inn at Court. In 2016, he served as one of the 15 “nationally recognized lawyers with substantial trial and appellate practices” who advised the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary on the professional qualifications of the Honorable Merrick Garland to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is recommended by Chambers USA and Legal 500 US for appellate law.
Solicitor General of Florida
Henry Whitaker became Florida’s Solicitor General in July 2021. He came to the position after four years of serving in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, including as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, where he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General, and cabinet secretaries on a range of important and complex legal issues. Before that, Solicitor General Whitaker worked on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for almost nine years, arguing more than 40 appeals in the federal appellate courts. He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after graduating magna cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Yale College.
Partner, Creed & Gowdy
Bryan Gowdy is a board-certified appellate lawyer. His practice is limited to handling appeals, post-conviction motions, and trial support for matters likely to be appealed. His practice encompasses all substantive areas of the law, including plaintiff's injury and products liability, commercial cases, criminal law, and family law. He has briefed and orally argued appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court of Florida, and Florida's district courts of appeal. He also has handled appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits. He is AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell and has been selected as a Top 100 in Florida Super Lawyer, Top 25 in Jacksonville Super Lawyer, and a "Legal Elite" by Florida Trend Magazine. In 2019, Mr. Gowdy began serving as the Chair for the Florida Justice Association Amicus Curiae Committee.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Gowdy was with the national law firm of McGuireWoods LLP, where he primarily handled commercial litigation at the trial and appellate level. Mr. Gowdy began his legal career as a law clerk for federal judges at the trial and appellate level. Mr. Gowdy attended the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he was first in his class, a member of the Order of the Coif, and the management editor of the Florida Law Review.
Before law school, Mr. Gowdy was an active-duty surface warfare officer in the United States Navy, and he graduated from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Partner, Williams & Connolly
Sarah Harris is a partner in Williams & Connolly’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice, where she represents clients in high-stakes appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts across the country. She has argued five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has presented many arguments in federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts. Her cases have run the gamut of substantive areas, including constitutional law—especially First Amendment and separation-of-powers issues—as well as administrative law, arbitration, class actions, antitrust, False Claims Act litigation, commercial litigation, and federal civil procedure.
Sarah is widely recognized for her appellate advocacy. Chambers USA has recognized her as “Up and Coming” in Appellate Law. She has been named to Bloomberg Law’s 40 Under 40 list of top lawyers nationwide and to Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List,” as well as a an appellate “Rising Star” by The National Law Journal and Law360, a “Next Generation Lawyer” by The Legal 500, and as one of Bloomberg Law’s “Five Fresh Faces to Know in Appellate.”
Sarah clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Laurence Silberman on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Sandra Lynch on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Before joining Williams & Connolly, she served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.
Sarah received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Princeton University, and her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. She also holds a Ph.D. and M. Phil. from the University of Cambridge.
Co-chair, Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Group and Managing Partner, Morrison & Foerster LLP
Joe Palmore co-chairs Morrison & Foerster’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice and is the Managing Partner of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. With 12 oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court and more than 45 in other appellate courts nationwide, Joe has handled complex appeals and critical motions on a wide range of issues important to businesses. Clients call him “an outstanding oral advocate,” praising his ability to remain “completely calm at all times and in complete command of the facts” (Chambers USA).
During a recent U.S. Supreme Court term, Joe successfully argued two cases: Law360 called one of them (Thole v. U.S. Bank) a “landmark ruling” that “made huge waves in the ERISA litigation arena” and named the other (Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Christian) one of the “biggest environmental law decisions” of the year. And Joe’s oral argument before the Supreme Court on the preemptive scope of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in CTS Corp. v. Waldburger was described in the National Law Journal as “brilliant” and a “template for anyone arguing a statutory case before these nine justices in the future.”
Joe’s practice extends to federal and state appellate courts across the country, where he has handled appeals on issues as varied as antitrust, class actions, communications, false advertising, intellectual property, and securities. Joe’s victory in the Federal Circuit for Immersion Corporation in a patent appeal was described by another practitioner as having “saved from the fire tens of thousands of patents that would have gone up in smoke.” Joe has secured important victories in the Second Circuit (where he clerked), including for an online marketplace in a securities class action and for a technology company in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act suit. He also has a successful track record in the Ninth Circuit, including winning for a beverage company defending against an antitrust suit and for an equipment manufacturer embroiled in a dispute over U.S. discovery for foreign litigation.
Before joining Morrison & Foerster, Joe served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice. During his nearly five years in the Solicitor General’s Office, Joe had principal responsibility for briefing the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s minimum coverage provision, which was upheld in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in NFIB v. Sebelius. For his work on that case, Joe received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service (the Department of Justice’s highest honor for employee performance). He also received the Environmental Protection Agency General Counsel’s medal for his successful defense of the EPA’s interstate air pollution rules in EPA v. EME Homer City Generation.
Before working for the Justice Department, Joe spent three years as Deputy General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, where he oversaw all litigation involving constitutional, statutory, and administrative-law challenges to the agency’s actions and argued 10 cases in the federal courts of appeals. His FCC experience includes virtually all aspects of communications regulation, including broadcast, cable, wireless, wireline, and Internet. In addition, he provided counsel to FCC officials on matters likely to result in litigation.
Joe clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. Joe earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, his M.A. in legal history from the University of Virginia, and his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University.
Joe is a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, selected for his distinction as an appellate lawyer. He also serves as a member of the Technology Litigation Advisory Committee of the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center and is a master in, and former officer of, the Coke Appellate Inn at Court. In 2016, he served as one of the 15 “nationally recognized lawyers with substantial trial and appellate practices” who advised the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary on the professional qualifications of the Honorable Merrick Garland to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is recommended by Chambers USA and Legal 500 US for appellate law.
Solicitor General of Florida
Henry Whitaker became Florida’s Solicitor General in July 2021. He came to the position after four years of serving in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, including as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, where he advised the White House Counsel’s Office, the Attorney General, and cabinet secretaries on a range of important and complex legal issues. Before that, Solicitor General Whitaker worked on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for almost nine years, arguing more than 40 appeals in the federal appellate courts. He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after graduating magna cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Yale College.
2021 Supreme Court Preview
Bryan Scott Gowdy, Sarah M. Harris, Joseph Palmore, Henry Charles Whitaker
Jacksonville Lawyers Chapter - Online Event
On September 29, 2021, the Federalist Society's Jacksonville Lawyers Chapter hosted a virtual discussion giving...
2021 Supreme Court Preview
Bryan Scott Gowdy, Sarah M. Harris, Joseph Palmore, Henry Charles Whitaker
Jacksonville Lawyers Chapter - Online Event
On September 29, 2021, the Federalist Society's Jacksonville Lawyers Chapter hosted a virtual discussion giving...