Federal Appeals and Motions Practice in U.S. Circuit Courts

Ms. Lerman (“Rachel”) is General Counsel and Vice Chair of LDB and a member of its Board of Directors.  Before Joining LDB as Senior Counsel in July 2021, she was a partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP, where she co-chaired the firm’s national appellate practice group. Her practice focused on appellate law and trial strategy in complex civil cases in state and federal courts nationwide. Ms. Lerman is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee of the LA County Bar Association. Before joining Barnes & Thornburg LLP, she was a partner at the firm of Akin Gump LLP. After completing her degrees at Yale (BA) and Berkeley School of Law (JD), she served as law clerk to the late Hon. T. G. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. For over twenty years, she has done pro bono work on behalf of refugees and non-profit organizations, winning recognition from such groups as Public Counsel, the Harvard Immigration Law Clinic, and the ACLU.

Ms. Sungaila is an award-winning appellate attorney who has briefed or argued more than 170 appeals. She has also developed special expertise in appeals involving Holocaust art recovery. Ms. Sungaila has handled appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts, numerous federal and state appellate courts, and even the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. She is often called to consult during litigation and even prior to the initiation of litigation when an appeal by either side could be inevitable. Before joining CALG, Ms. Sungaila led or co-led appellate practice groups at two different AmLaw 150 law firms, one of the only Hispanic women ever to do so.

Ms. Voigts has worked on cases before the United States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and federal and state appellate and trial courts. A former Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit clerk, she has argued nearly 60 cases in federal and state appellate courts, more than 50 of which were in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A former federal prosecutor with over a decade of public service in the Central and Northern District of California, Ms. Voigts has nearly twenty years of experience handling appeals and critical motions practice and routinely advises trial teams on complex legal issues in a wide range of cases. She has worked, inter alia, on cases involving antitrust law, class actions, contractual disputes, preemption issues, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the False Claims Act, the Stored Communications Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, copyright, and constitutional and statutory interpretation. In the class action context, Ms. Voigts has successfully petitioned for appellate review under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f) and regularly consults on critical motions practice on class actions in the trial and district court.