Linda Coberly

Selected Appellate Victories in Argued Cases:

• U.S. Supreme Court, 2024: Secured a 9–0 reversal of a ruling by the Second Circuit in a case addressing the scope of the private right of action under the federal securities laws.
• Federal Circuit, 2025: Defeated an appeal from a judgment rejecting trade secret, contract, and patent claims that sought more than half a billion dollars.
• Federal Circuit, 2024: Defeated a PTAB appeal that presented both patent issues and potentially sweeping arguments about the recusal practices of administrative patent judges.
• Sixth Circuit, 2023: Defeated an appeal from the dismissal of a massive False Claims Act suit based on the public disclosure bar and other pleading failures.
• Seventh Circuit, 2022: Obtained a win for a government contractor in a billion-dollar municipal contract in an appeal from the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit on the basis of state-actor antitrust immunity.
• Fifth Circuit, 2022: Obtained affirmance of a take-nothing judgment in a contract dispute worth more than US$200 million between an oil producer and a manufacturer of drilling equipment, earning runner-up status for The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week.
• Eighth Circuit, 2021: Defeated a demand for a preliminary injunction (and the ensuing appeal) against a new and beneficial policy for allocating donated kidneys for transplant.
• Second Circuit, 2021: Secured a resounding win in a massive coverage dispute arising out of flood damage caused by Superstorm Sandy.
• Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2020: Obtained discretionary review and reversal in the Wisconsin Supreme Court of a jury award of punitive damages based on a trial court’s entry of a sanction of liability following an alleged discovery violation.
• Seventh Circuit, 2020: Defeated an appeal from a grant of summary judgment in a case relating to a decades-old contract allocating environmental liabilities among railroads.
• Eleventh Circuit, 2019: Obtained reversal of a district court’s interpretation of a critical administrative regulation applying to the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network, in defense of a new and highly beneficial organ allocation policy.
• Fifth Circuit, 2019: As appellate counsel for most of the national banking industry, succeeded in defending the dismissal of a qui tam lawsuit against the banks arising out of Treasury regulations relating to the banks’ receipt of federal benefits payments.
• Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, 2018 and 2019: Won reversal of a decision precluding insurance coverage for claims for copyright infringement and unfair trade practices, defeating application of a “knowing violation” exception.
• Ninth Circuit, 2014: Defeated an appeal from the dismissal of a 10b-5 lawsuit, obtaining a decision that was the first in the Ninth Circuit to hold that loss causation must be pleaded with specificity.
• Second Circuit, 2014: Obtained an appellate victory on behalf of the producer of Emma Thompson’s film Effie Gray, defeating claims that Ms. Thompson's screenplay infringed a copyright.
• New York Court of Appeals and Second Circuit (2010): Won an outright dismissal of a US$2 billion malpractice and aiding and abetting lawsuit against an accounting firm by a litigation trustee appointed in the bankruptcy of brokerage giant Refco, and secured a critical precedent for defendants on the issue of in pari delicto in corporate fraud cases, on certification to New York’s highest court.