Jessica L. Ellsworth

Jess combines extensive knowledge of and experience in appellate courts with a keen ability to help clients approach and solve the litigation challenges they face.

Whether the case involves the FCA, a challenge to federal agency action, sovereign immunity, statutory interpretation, or a contrary jury verdict, Jess helps clients craft winning appellate briefs. Well-versed in appellate argument, she then presents clear and cogent arguments on behalf of her clients in federal courts of appeals around the country (most recently, the D.C., Seventh, and Ninth Circuits) and in state appellate courts (most recently, in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Maine). Jess has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star for appellate litigation in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Jess follows developments in the law on the issues that matter to her clients, and she has successfully litigated motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, and appeals. In FCA cases alone, her clients include pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, defense contractors, and university clients.

Before joining the firm, Jessica served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Honorable Rebecca Beach Smith of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. While in law school, Jessica was named Best Oralist by then-U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter in the Harvard Law School Ames Moot Court Competition.