Brian D. Ginsberg, a veteran appellate lawyer with broad-based experience litigating in state and federal courts across the country—including the New York State Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court—has joined Harris Beach PLLC as partner.
Brian joins the firm’s Appellate Practice Group, bringing a track-record of success in high-stakes appeals and complex motions spanning numerous industries and areas of law. At Harris Beach, he collaborates on appeals and related matters with a variety of the firm’s practice groups and industry teams.
Brian comes to Harris Beach from the Office of the New York State Solicitor General, where he served as Assistant Solicitor General and represented the state in some of its most economically, politically, and socially significant appeals. During his tenure with the state, Brian earned the Louis J. Lefkowitz Award, the highest honor given by the New York State Attorney General for outstanding performance by an attorney in pursuit of the public good.
“Brian is one of a small number of attorneys in private practice today with experience serving in the New York State Solicitor General’s Office, which is one of the most prominent government appellate offices in the country,” said Chris Jagel, Harris Beach Partner and Chief Executive Officer. “We’re excited that he chose Harris Beach for his return to private practice, and look forward to continuing to recruit lawyers of his caliber.”
“Brian is an experienced appellate attorney and his extensive technical background will be particularly helpful on matters involving complex scientific or quantitative concepts,” said Lana Ivy, leader of the Harris Beach Appellate Practice Group. “We are continuing to build out our appellate team, and the addition of Brian is key to that effort. The breadth and depth of experience on appellate matters we offer is unique, especially considering the size of the firm.”
Over the course of Brian’s career in government and in private practice, he has handled hundreds of appeals and critical motions. He has personally argued 85 appeals, including 21 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and seven in the New York State Court of Appeals. Brian’s cases have encompassed a vast array of industries, such as financial services, entertainment, healthcare, telecommunications, energy, transportation, gaming and wagering, and consumer products, and have involved all manner of legal issues, including land use, taxes, insurance, intellectual property, labor and employment, business torts, contractual disputes, and class-action defense.
Brian also adds to Harris Beach his expertise litigating appeals of national significance in the U.S. Supreme Court. Brian has briefed more than a dozen Supreme Court cases, generating multiple high-profile victories. The mainstream media has recognized Brian’s Supreme Court work, as well, with the New York Times calling an amicus brief he authored in a Supreme Court immigration appeal “the most interesting supporting brief” in the entire case.
Throughout his career, Brian has guided clients to victory in some of the most closely-watched appeals in the private and public sectors. For example, in Haug v. State University of New York, Brian persuaded the New York State Court of Appeals to reverse a lower-court ruling that threatened to upend the evidentiary standards by which nearly all New York state administrative agencies resolve adversarial disputes. Commentators described the case as one of “those decisions that are most relevant to everyday practice in the Empire State,” calling it a “landmark” ruling the importance of which “cannot be overstated.”
During his previous tenure in private practice, Brian litigated and prevailed in many significant appellate matters of importance to the business community. Notably, his work helped persuade the Federal Circuit to reverse a finding of patent infringement in an eCommerce case (CardSoft, LLC v. VeriFone, Inc., Fed. Cir. 2015) and the Ninth Circuit to reject a copyright infringement challenge to a satellite company’s flagship commercial-skipping DVR technology (Fox Broadcasting Co. v. DISH Network, 9th Cir. 2013).
Additionally, at the trial level, Brian was a principal architect of the litigation strategy that led the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to dismiss a False Claims Action against a group of major pharmaceutical manufacturers accused of having defrauded the federal government of more than $500 million by misrepresenting certain drugs as covered by Medicaid and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (United States ex rel. Conrad v. Abbott Laboratories, Inc., D. Mass. 2013).
Brian is a former law clerk for Chief Judge Michael A. Chagares of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Judge Anita B. Brody of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Columbia Law School and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in mathematics from Yale University.
About Harris Beach
Founded in 1856, Harris Beach and its subsidiaries provide legal and professional services to clients across New York state, as well as nationally and internationally. Harris Beach is among the country’s top law firms as ranked by The National Law Journal and ranks as a BTI Elite law firm based on in-depth interviews of more than 600 corporate counsel at the world’s largest and most influential companies. Clients include Fortune 100 corporations, privately-held companies, emerging businesses, public sector entities, not-for-profit organizations and individuals. Principal industries Harris Beach represents include cannabis, education, energy, financial, food and beverage, health care, insurance, manufacturing, medical and life sciences, real estate developers, science and technology, veterinary medicine, and state and local governments and authorities. Our more than 210 lawyers and consultants practice from offices throughout New York state in Albany, Buffalo, Ithaca, Long Island, New York City, Rochester, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, and White Plains, as well as from offices in New Haven, Connecticut, Newark, New Jersey, and Washington, DC. For more information, go to www.harrisbeach.com.