Daniel N. Lerman
Dan’s appellate advocacy spans virtually every major area of federal law, including constitutional law, corporate bankruptcy and reorganization, securities and shareholder litigation, patent disputes, False Claims Act allegations, commercial speech claims and administrative and criminal law. He represents companies and individuals — as both plaintiffs and defendants — in consequential commercial disputes involving significant financial exposure, critical business interests and precedent-setting legal questions across a wide range of industries, including financial services, technology, media and telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, healthcare and manufacturing.
With both deep litigation and appellate experience and a scientific background that includes a Ph.D. in genetics and molecular biology, Dan regularly briefs and argues appeals before the Federal Circuit in patent disputes involving core assets and complex technologies, including medical devices, cybersecurity and telecommunications hardware and software, semiconductors, e-commerce platform architecture and construction equipment. In addition to his appellate work, Dan consults with litigation and trial teams on appeal-focused perspectives and strategies.
Among his most recent appellate successes, Dan briefed and argued the appeal of a nine-figure judgment on behalf of a financial services company in the Second Circuit, securing the appellate court’s affirmance of summary judgment and monetary award in a contract dispute. He also represented a software company in consolidated appeals before the Federal Circuit, successfully defending against a challenge to the constitutionality of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s procedures regarding discretionary denial of inter partes review. In another significant appellate matter, Dan briefed and argued a pending appeal before the Ninth Circuit involving precedential questions of the federal removal of Securities Act of 1933 claims under the federal Bankruptcy Code stemming from the high-profile collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of its parent company, SVB Financial Group.
Dan’s Supreme Court advocacy includes representing parties in petitions for certiorari, at the merits stage and in amicus briefs. Among his most notable work, Dan briefed, argued and won American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, a federal preemption case in which the Court unanimously held that requirements imposed by the Port of Los Angeles on drayage trucks were preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. He has also briefed a wide range of issues in amicus briefs, including personal jurisdiction over foreign corporate defendants, patent exhaustion and invalidity, criminal law issues, the Affordable Care Act and the scope of fee recovery under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Dan is committed to pro bono representation, including briefing appeals on behalf of prisoners, criminal defendants and Section 1983 civil rights plaintiffs in the Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth and DC circuits.
Prior to joining the firm, Dan served nearly six years with the appellate section of the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice, where he briefed and argued criminal appeals in federal courts of appeals across the country and drafted briefs for the Solicitor General’s Office in Supreme Court cases. His appeals involved a variety of alleged offenses, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, healthcare fraud, price manipulation, conspiracy, extortion and murder. Dan also advised on complex appellate issues related to the prosecutions of participants in the January 6 attack at the US Capitol, among other matters. He previously practiced for eight years with the prominent Washington DC litigation boutique Robbins Russell.
Experience & capabilities
Selected matters
Briefed and argued the appeal of a nine-figure judgment on behalf of a financial services company in the Second Circuit, securing the appellate court’s affirmance of summary judgment and monetary award in a contract dispute.
Representing 20 individual and corporate defendants in an interlocutory appeal before the Ninth Circuit of a certified legal question involving the removal of Securities Act claims under the federal Bankruptcy Code stemming from the high-profile collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of its parent company, SVB Financial Group.
Representing private investment funds in an appeal before the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, involving an indemnification dispute related to the advancement of legal fees and defense costs for criminal charges and civil securities suits resulting from a fraudulent scheme allegedly perpetrated by a portfolio manager.
Briefed and presented oral argument to the US Supreme Court in American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, 133 S. Ct. 2096 (2013), in which the Court unanimously held that requirements imposed by the Port of Los Angeles on drayage trucks were preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act.
Represented software company Cyandia in consolidated appeals before the Federal Circuit, successfully defending against a challenge to the constitutionality of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s procedures.
Represented a technology startup developing next-generation analog in-computing architecture before the Federal Circuit, securing dismissal on briefing of an appeal by the plaintiff in a patent infringement action.
Represented a technology asset management and licensing firm in appeals before the Federal Circuit involving patents on reconfigurable computer processors.
Represented computer network security company Centripetal Networks LLC in a patent appeal before the Federal Circuit involving the validity and infringement of cybersecurity patents.
Represented CUPP Computing AS, a Norway-based cybersecurity hardware developer, in a patent appeal before the Federal Circuit involving the validity of patents for mobile device cybersecurity services.
Represented e-commerce company Consumeron LLC in a patent appeal before the Federal Circuit involving the validity of remote delivery and system software patents.
Represented computer network security company Centripetal Networks LLC in a patent appeal before the Federal Circuit.
Representing a wireless communications technology firm in a patent appeal involving the validity and infringement of smartphone-coupling patent claims.
Representing construction-equipment manufacturer Guntert & Zimmerman Const. Div. Inc. in patent appeals before the Federal Circuit involving the validity and infringement of patents related to slipform paving machines.
Representing medical device company Cleveland Medical Devices Inc. in a patent appeal before the Federal Circuit involving the validity and infringement of patents for integrated sleep diagnosis and treatment infrastructure.
Represented Cellect LLC in a petition for certiorari involving important issues of Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) and Obviousness-Type Double Patenting (ODP) doctrine.
Represented an extraditee in a petition for certiorari in a high-profile extradition matter involving habeas jurisdiction over a challenge to extradition under the Convention Against Torture.
Represented a technology asset management and licensing firm in a petition for certiorari involving the constitutionality of Patent Trial and Appeal Board structure and inter partes review procedures.
Represented NexStep Inc., a Silicon Valley-based technology company that develops software solutions and architectural frameworks for automated customer care and technical support infrastructure, in a petition for certiorari in patent infringement litigation involving the application of the doctrine of equivalents.
Defended a Fortune 500 hospital company against a $900 million securities class action and derivative shareholder action premised on alleged violations of the False Claims Act, securing dismissal on a motion to dismiss.
Represented a healthcare executive in sentencing proceedings after his conviction and on appeal.
Drafted the petition for certiorari and merits briefs in Armour v. City of Indianapolis, Ind., 556 U.S. 673 (2012), an equal-protection challenge to a municipal taxation scheme.
Represented a trade association of advanced energy companies in litigation over the Clean Power Plan, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rulemaking regulating carbon emissions.
Defended the state of Vermont’s Act 120, which requires the labeling of food made with genetic engineering, including drafting a motion to dismiss that resulted in dismissal of several claims and a successful opposition to a motion for a preliminary injunction.
Represented creditors asserting fraudulent conveyance claims arising out of the $8 billion leveraged buyout of Tribune Co. in an appeal of a district court decision dismissing their claims before the Second Circuit and US Supreme Court.
Represented the estate of a Holocaust survivor seeking compensation for artwork and securities stolen from his family by the Nazis in World War II.
Background
Education
- J.D., magna cum laude, Georgetown University Law Center, 2008
- Dean’s Scholarship
- Symposium & Development Editor, Georgetown Law Journal
- Domestic Violence Clinic
- Ph.D., Genetics and Molecular Biology, Biological Sciences Division, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, The University of Chicago, 2003
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship
- B.A., magna cum laude, Religious Studies and Biology (with Honors), Brown University, 1996
- Phi Beta Kappa
Bar Admissions
Clerkships
- Honorable David S. Tatel,
U.S.C.A., D.C. Circuit, 2009 - 2010 - Honorable William C. Bryson,
U.S.C.A., Federal Circuit, 2008 - 2009
Court Admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S.C.A., 1st Circuit
- U.S.C.A., 2nd Circuit
- U.S.C.A., 3rd Circuit
- U.S.C.A., 4th Circuit
- U.S.C.A., 5th Circuit
- U.S.C.A., 6th Circuit
- U.S.C.A., 9th Circuit
- U.S.C.A., 10th Circuit
- U.S.C.A., 11th Circuit
- U.S.C.A., District of Columbia Circuit
- U.S.C.A., Federal Circuit
- U.S.D.C., District of Columbia
Professional Affiliations
- Member, Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court
- Member, Federal Circuit Bar Association
- Moot Court Panelist, Georgetown Supreme Court Institute
Recognition
Lawdragon 500: Leading Litigators in America
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