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Jessica L. Ellsworth
Partner Litigation, Arbitration, and Employment
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Overview
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Experience
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Credentials
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Insights and events
Having argued 85 appeals, Jessica Ellsworth focuses her practice on the Supreme Court and courts of appeals. She has represented clients in the Supreme Court, every federal appeals court and over a dozen state appellate courts, reflecting deep experience and a keen ability to help clients solve litigation challenges.
A Chambers-ranked appellate lawyer, Jess was named Litigator of the Week twice in the past year in connection with Supreme Court wins and Most Innovative Supreme Court Lawyer by the Financial Times. She has handled appeals from motions to dismiss through bench and jury verdicts, and she has led and argued key trial court motions when creating an appellate record is crucial. Her cases range from patent and trademark disputes to class actions, arbitrability, statutory interpretation, and jurisdictional issues. She helps clients from around the world navigate U.S.-based litigation at all levels of courts.
Jess is a leader in administrative law where she regularly pursues and defends against Administrative Procedures Act challenges to government agency action, and she has a niche practice in litigating dispositive motions and appeals in FCA cases. In these, and her other matters, Jess brings her appellate perspective to developing and managing case strategy to achieve her clients' goals.
Whether defending a trial court win or seeking to overcome a trial court loss, Jess crafts winning briefs and persuasively argues cases. Working in our Chambers-ranked Appellate practice, Jess's clients and successful appeals span the technology, automotive, pharmaceutical, health, education, and financial services industries.
Jess clerked for the Honorable Martha Craig Daughtrey (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit) and the Honorable Rebecca Beach Smith (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.
Representative experience
Achieved unanimous Supreme Court decision in favor of pharmaceutical company client on standing issue.
Successfully petitioned for certiorari and argued arbitrability appeal in Supreme Court.
Successfully represented cryptocurrency company on question of stays pending interlocutory arbitrability appeals in the Supreme Court.
Successfully represented plaintiffs challenging congressional redistricting plan in the Supreme Court in challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Successfully represented a pharmaceutical company in a game-changing personal jurisdiction case in the Supreme Court.
Prevailed in obtaining JMOL after a $105M verdict in a trade secrets case in federal court.
Prevailed in precedential appeal on design patents in the Federal Circuit.
Successfully argued more than a dozen appeals involving the False Claims Act in the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits.
Successfully obtained discretionary interlocutory review in the Ninth Circuit district court rulings on class certification and denial of motion to dismiss.
Successfully petitioned for Rule 23(f) of class certification ruling in Ninth Circuit, resulting in decertification of class.
Obtained reversal of judgment entered after a bench trial in a trade dress dispute based on lack of personal jurisdiction in Tenth Circuit.
Obtained reversal of bench-trial damages award of $40 million in construction delay case in New York Appellate Division.
Obtained summary judgment in an Administrative Procedures Act case involving complex issues of agency delegation and then prevailed on appeal in the D.C. Circuit.
Obtained reversal of the judgment in a multimillion dollar jury verdict in the Delaware Supreme Court based on legal error in the damages analysis.
Prevailed in a challenge to the FDA's denial of orphan drug exclusivity and obtained order directing FDA to grant such exclusivity.
Dedicated a decade to seeking, and ultimately obtaining, a green card for a Kurdish Iraqi asylum seeker.
Credentials
Education
- J.D., Harvard Law School, 2001
- B.A., Dartmouth College, magna cum laude, 1998
Bar admissions and qualifications
- District of Columbia
- Virginia
Court admissions
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia
Recognition
Publications
Insights and Analysis
03 October 2024
Insights and Analysis
02 October 2024