Everyone likes the story of David versus Goliath, where a lowly shepherd boy slew the mighty Philistine giant. No one—least of all, Goliath—expected this result, and that’s why the story is so enduring.

In 2017, Burns Charest partner Daniel Charest and his small law firm were pitted against their own Goliath—the federal leviathan, with its unlimited resources—and they achieved a similar unlikely victory this past year with a trial win over the U.S. government.