Murphy, George Watkins

Randolph D. Moss is chair of the firm's Regulatory and Government Affairs Department and a member of the Litigation/Controversy Department. He is also a member of the firm's Government and Regulatory Litigation, Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation, Public Policy and Strategy, and Defense, National Security and Government Contracts Practice Groups, and a member of the Business Trial Group. Mr. Moss joined the firm in 1989 and is a member of the firm's Management Committee.

Mr. Moss originally joined the firm after serving as a law clerk to the US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. From 1996 to 2001, he served as a senior official in the US Department of Justice, culminating in his appointment by the President, and confirmation by the Senate, as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. Since returning to the firm in 2001, Mr. Moss has focused on complex civil litigation, appellate practice, administrative and constitutional law and national security law. He has been recognized by Washingtonian magazine as one of the top constitutional and appellate lawyers in Washington DC.

As Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, Mr. Moss was the principal legal adviser in the Executive Branch. He advised the Attorney General, the White House and the Executive departments on the government's most difficult and important legal questions, from the legality of taking regulatory or administrative action in unsettled areas of the law, to the constitutionality of statutes and pending legislation, to critical issues of national security law. Among other important matters, Mr. Moss issued legal opinions on the war powers resolution, whether a sitting President is subject to indictment, and the effects of Senate acquittal in an impeachment trial. He also issued opinions on a broad range of constitutional issues (including the First Amendment, due process, separation of powers and federalism), on important questions of administrative law, and on the meaning of federal laws in areas involving privacy, copyright, ethics, immigration, appropriations, Native American sovereignty, electronic surveillance, national security, the environment, antitrust, immunity from civil suit, civil rights, international trade and criminal proceedings. While at the Office of Legal Counsel, Mr. Moss also testified before Congress on behalf of the Executive Branch on FDA regulation of tobacco, federal preemption of state law, separation of powers and national security, and whether to amend the Constitution to ban flag desecration.

Practice

Mr. Moss's clients include companies in the financial, pharmaceutical, consumer goods, national defense and telecommunications industries, as well as governmental and quasi-governmental entities and industry associations. He routinely advises and represents clients before federal agencies and before state and federal courts, including the US Supreme Court and other appellate tribunals. Over the years, he has represented clients in class actions and other complex civil litigation, constitutional litigation, agency rulemakings and adjudications and judicial challenges to agency actions.

Recent Highlights

Mr. Moss's recent experience includes:

• Representing an ISP in defending the constitutionality of Virginia's anti-spam statute
• Successfully defending the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold Act on behalf of its congressional sponsors. The mammoth litigation involved 11 different lawsuits brought by 77 plaintiffs ranging from Senator Mitch McConnell to the NRA to the ACLU.
• Representing the Government of Canada in defending the decision of a NAFTA panel before an Extraordinary Challenge Committee. This is only the third time in the history of NAFTA that such an extraordinary challenge has been brought
• Advising the Office of the Governor of Connecticut regarding proceedings to impeach the Governor.
• Representing various private and public entities in state and federal court, before the Department of Agriculture, and as an amicus curiae before the US Supreme Court, defending the constitutionality of state and federal programs that collect agricultural assessments, which are then used to fund research and promotion that benefits the industry as a whole
• Representing a national retailer in seeking to set aside a $4.5 million compensatory and over $33 million punitive damage award entered against the company, including in an appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Representing a motion picture studio in an administrative law challenge, seeking to set aside a US Copyright Office decision regarding the distribution of cable and satellite royalty payments
• Representing an association, as an amicus curiae, before the US Supreme Court in successfully defending the constitutionality of the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998

Professional Activities

Mr. Moss is a Term Member of the Yale Law School Association Executive Committee and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has frequently written about and testified before Congress on a variety of constitutional and administrative law issues. He authored "Executive Branch Legal Interpretation: A Perspective from the Office of Legal Counsel" in the Administrative Law Review, and co-authored "The Least Vulnerable Branch: Ensuring the Continuity of the Supreme Court," which recently appeared in the Catholic University Law Review. In recent years, Mr. Moss has addressed issues of federalism, the First Amendment, national security, presidential powers and executive privilege at events sponsored by the Federal Bar Council, the Federalist Society, the Cato Institute, the Brookings Institute, the Copyright Society, the American Constitution Society, the Center for American and International Law, the Campaign Media Center, Democracy 21, Roll Call, the Duke Law School Public Law Conference, the University of Maryland Law School, the American Conference Institute and the DC Bar Section on Litigation.

Honors and Awards

• Listed in the 2010 edition of Benchmark Litigation for his leading appellate, complex commercial litigation and government and regulatory litigation practices. Recognized in the 2012 edition for  his leading appellate practice, and in Benchmark Appellate 2012 for his work in the District of Columbia.
• Selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 editions of The Best Lawyers in America in the area of commercial litigation. Also recognized in the 2012 edition for his work in first amendment and intellectual property litigation.
• Recognized as a leading litigator in the 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers in Business
• Recognized as a Super Lawyer in the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of Washington D.C. SuperLawyers
• Selected by Washingtonian magazine as one of the "Top Lawyers" in Washington DC, 2004 and 2009
• Edmund J. Randolph Award for Outstanding Service, US Department of Justice (2001)