Mitchell Mirviss co-chairs the firm’s appellate advocacy group. He represents clients in appellate and other complex litigation in many areas of commercial litigation, product liability, and intellectual property. He has extensive experience in such matters as jurisdiction, punitive damages, attorney-client privilege, class actions, constitutional and civil rights, intentional torts, legal malpractice, and children’s rights.

With more than twenty years of successful appellate practice experience, Mr. Mirviss has handled a broad array of complex legal issues in both federal and state appellate courts. He has overturned five large multi-million dollar punitive damage verdicts and sanctions judgments totaling over $400 million and resulting in no tort liability. In addition, he brought and successfully argued a major Fifth Amendment case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Maurice M. v. Bouknight, 493 U.S. 549 (1990) and co-drafted the winning briefs in Howard Delivery Serv., Inc. v. Zurich Am. Ins. Co., 547 U.S. 651 (2006), a significant and widely cited bankruptcy law decision.

Significant Matters

For the last four years, Mr. Mirviss represented the majority owners of the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers and Philips Arena in a $170 million high-profile fight against a minority owner over control of the teams and arena (including the appellate briefs that reversed a trial court judgment divesting the minority owners of ownership at no cost plus capital contributions of less than $30 million).  He has focused on complex corporate finance and fraud issues arising out of the Enron bankruptcy, writing the briefs that defeated legal challenges to Enron’s actions to recover over $2 billion paid for derivative transactions, commercial paper, energy trading, and various fraudulent credit facilities.  (Two last cases are on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.) 

He has handled a series of patent infringement, government contract disputes, and bid protest appeals in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as well as six punitive damage appeals in federal and Maryland state cases (all successful in reversing jury verdicts ranging from $1 million to $200 million).  Mr. Mirviss has handled successfully a wide variety of issues in the Maryland appellate courts – products liability; labor law; fraud; attorney-client privilege and ethics; and a range of commercial issues.

Activities

Mr. Mirviss is an active participant in community affairs.  In addition to heading the firm’s pro bono committee for several years, he has served multiple terms as president of the board of directors of Advocates for Children & Youth, Inc., a statewide advocacy organization on children’s issues, written legislation reforming court procedures for foster children, served eleven years on the board of the Maryland Disabilities Law Center, successfully litigated a constitutional challenge to Maryland’s denial of counsel at bail hearings, and served for the past twenty-three years as lead counsel for a class of more than 5,000 Baltimore foster children in litigating and monitoring a federal consent decree requiring broad protections for their safety and well-being, most recently winning a major decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upholding the rights of foster children to enforce federal child welfare laws.