Despite losing appellate star Donald Verrilli Jr. to the Obama administration in 2009, Jenner & Block’s appeals practice has held its own. Even as Verrilli has climbed through senior posts at Justice and White House counsel’s office to become solicitor general, Jenner’s 14-lawyer appellate group has continued to pull in top-tier work.
That included the successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which ruled on May 31 that the ban on federal recognition of gay marriage was unconstitutional. The court was influenced in part by briefs drafted by Jenner & Block partners Paul Smith and Luke Platzer, who worked with co-counsel from Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and lawyers from Boston firms Foley Hoag and Sullivan & Worcester.
