Daniel Volchok is a partner in the firm's Litigation/Controversy Department, and a member of the Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Practice Group. He joined the firm in 2005.
Practice
Mr. Volchok’s practice focuses on appellate litigation. He has litigated cases involving various areas of federal and state law, including arbitration, bankruptcy, civil rights, contracts, criminal law, due process, free speech, intellectual property, military law, preemption and tax. Mr. Volchok has filed numerous merits and amicus briefs in the US Supreme Court as well as state and federal appellate courts, and also participated in successful efforts to obtain or oppose certiorari.
In addition to his appellate practice, Mr. Volchok has participated in cases in federal district courts and has advised clients regarding proposed federal and state legislation.
Highlights
- Led a team, by appointment of the Tenth Circuit, in representing a prisoner appealing the dismissal of his civil rights action. Argued the case to the court of appeals, which reversed the dismissal and, in doing so, praised WilmerHale "for providing not only free legal service ... but also providing such high caliber representation in briefing and at oral argument."
- Participated in a successful petition for Supreme Court review and then assisted with merits briefing in a case involving whether federal law allows arbitrators or courts to order class arbitration when the parties’ arbitration agreement is silent as to such question.
- Participated in an appeal to a Federal Circuit on behalf of TiVo, in a case involving infringement of TiVo’s pioneering patent on affordable consumer DVR technology. The Federal Circuit affirmed the jury's substantial damages award to TiVo and the district court's resulting permanent injunction. Led successful opposition to further review by the Supreme Court.
- Participated in defending against the government's appeal from a district court's high-profile dismissal, on due process and right-to-counsel grounds, of an indictment of thirteen individuals for tax fraud. The court of appeals affirmed the dismissal, holding that prosecutors had violated the defendants' Sixth Amendment rights by coercing the accounting firm KPMG, where the defendants had formerly been partners or employees, to stop paying the defendants' legal fees.
- Participated in an appeal to the Tenth Circuit of criminal convictions on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and circumvention of internal controls against former executives of a public company. The court of appeals first reversed the district court's denial of bail pending appeal, and eventually threw out all of the convictions, barring a re-trial on most of them. The Wall Street Journal called the decision “a stunning reversal of a high-profile government prosecution.”
- Led a team appealing the denial of a veteran's application for disability benefits. Following briefing and protracted negotiations, the Secretary of Veteran's Affairs agreed to vacate the denial of benefits and remand the case to the Board of Veterans Affairs for further proceedings. The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims granted the parties' joint motion for remand, in which the Secretary acknowledged that the Board had committed several errors in denying benefits. WilmerHale represented the veteran without charge.
- Participated in an appeal to the Second Circuit in a case challenging a New York law that regulated airlines' provision of services during extended ground delays. Reversing the district court, the court of appeals held that the law was expressly preempted by federal law, and likely implicitly preempted as well.
- Participated in an appeal to the Tenth Circuit from a dismissal of a state-law tort and contract action concerning ownership of a newspaper in Salt Lake City. The Tenth Circuit reversed the dismissal.
- Participated in a challenge in Maryland Tax Court to state officials' attempt to tax certain out-of-state trusts. The court ruled that the attempted taxation violated federal due process.
