Skadden is pleased to announce that U.S. Supreme Court and appellate advocate Shay Dvoretzky is joining the firm’s Washington, D.C. office as a partner. Mr. Dvoretzky, who is launching Skadden’s Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Group, will represent clients in a range of appellate matters in federal and state courts. He has argued 12 cases in the Supreme Court (and will argue another later this Term), as well as dozens more in appellate courts nationwide.
In 2019, The American Lawyer named Mr. Dvoretzky a “Litigator of the Year,” remarking that he “has paved his way through the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals with numerous unanimous wins.” The American Lawyer discussed the victory he secured before the Supreme Court in Merck v. Albrecht, in which he persuaded the Court to hold that a judge, not a jury, should assess a federal preemption defense, and should do so using ordinary, not heightened, legal standards. Mr. Dvoretzky’s other recent Supreme Court wins include convincing the Court to hold that international arbitration agreements under the New York Convention should be treated on an equal footing with domestic ones under the Federal Arbitration Act (GE Energy v. Outokumpu) and to reject a presumption applying the discovery rule to federal statutes of limitation (Rotkiske v. Klemm). For these and other successes, Mr. Dvoretzky was selected two years running as a Law360 Appellate MVP, in 2019 and 2020.
“Shay Dvoretzky is recognized as among an elite group of Supreme Court advocates and as one of the top litigators for high-stakes cases in appellate courts across the country,” said David M. Zornow, global head of Skadden’s litigation/controversy practices. “He is the perfect individual to launch and lead Skadden’s Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Group.”
“Shay is an exceptional practitioner whose intellect and advocacy skills will be a valuable addition to our litigation capabilities, as clients increasingly hire firms that can take a case from inception all the way to the Supreme Court,” said Jennifer Bragg, head of Skadden’s Washington, D.C. litigation practice.
“Skadden is known for its preeminent litigation practices, and I am thrilled to join such an innovative firm to develop a Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation Group on its global platform,” said Mr. Dvoretzky.
Mr. Dvoretzky previously was a partner in the appellate practice at another global law firm. He clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a member of the American Law Institute, the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Administrative Law & Regulatory Litigation Committee. He has been ranked in Chambers USA, recognized as a “leading lawyer” by Legal 500, and named a “Litigation Trailblazer” and included in the “Appellate Hot List” by The National Law Journal. He also has an active pro bono practice.
Mr. Dvoretzky is a graduate of Yale Law School and Yale College.
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The National Law Journal featured Skadden’s addition of Mr. Dvoretzky in an article titled “Skadden Snags Shay Dvoretzky From Jones Day to Lead New SCOTUS Practice” (November 23, 2020).