The U.S. Supreme Court arguments over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — Obamacare, if you must — figure prominently in this year’s list of hot appellate firms. Scarcely a marquee name in the business wasn’t on the case in some way, shape or form. We also looked for firms that won big-money victories and landscape-shaping precedents in the federal circuit and state appeals courts, where thousands of cases are decided every year.

We asked our readers to nominate firms with at least one significant appellate win between May 2011 and May 2012 and that had an impressive track record overall. We supplemented the results with our own research to arrive at the list of 16 firms you’ll find here.