Appellate Practice

Seattle Appellate Attorney

There are two separate court systems in Washington: the state court system and the federal court system. Both systems have trial courts and two levels of appellate courts. The highest state appellate court is the Washington Supreme Court in Olympia. Below that are three Washington courts of appeals. The highest federal appellate court is the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The intermediate federal appellate court that covers Washington is the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

While most employment law litigation takes place in the federal and state trial courts, cases are sometimes appealed. Frank Freed Subit & Thomas' appellate practice has a national reputation. Our attorneys have successfully argued cases in the Ninth Circuit, the Washington Supreme Court, and the Washington courts of appeals. We have also participated in cases before the United States Supreme Court. Several of our attorneys bring a wealth of experience as former law clerks to appellate and trial judges on the Second, Third, and Ninth Circuits.

Some of our appellate work arises from cases that we filed in the trial court. Sometimes clients hire our firm to handle appeals of cases that other lawyers litigated at the trial court level. In other cases, our attorneys have filed "friend of the court" briefs (amicus briefs) on behalf of employee rights.

Our firm has been involved in many precedent setting employment cases. These include Gambini v. Total Renal Healthcare, a Ninth Circuit case establishing that employers must take into account an employee's disability when imposing discipline, and Brown v. Scott Paper Worldwide Co., a Washington Supreme Court case that held managers and supervisors are individually liable under the Washington Law Against Discrimination.

Appellate cases our firm has participated in as a party or an amicus include:

• Jones v. Giles, 741 F.2d 245 (9th Cir. 1984).
• Lindsey v. Metro Seattle, 741 P.2d 575 (Wash. App. 1987)
• Metro Seattle v. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587, 826 P.2d 167 (Wash. 1992)
• Roe v. Quality Transp. Serv., 838 P.2d 128 (Wash. App. 1992)
• Hill v. United States Dep't of Labor, 65 F.3d 1331 (6th Cir. 1995)
• Dailey v. North Coast Life, 919 P.2d 589 (Wash. 1996)
• Selix v. Boeing, 919 P.2d 620 (Wash. App. 1996)
• Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587 v. Washington, 11 P.3d 762 (Wash. 2000)
• Brown v. Scott Paper Worldwide Co., 20 P.3d 209 (Wash. 2001)
• Hill v. BCTI Income Fund-I, 23 P.3d 440 (Wash. 2001)
• Kiga v. City of Burien, 31 P.3d 659 (Wash. 2001)
• Humble v. Boeing, 305 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2002)
• Staton v. Boeing, 313 F.3d 447 (9th Cir. 2002)
• Clawson v. Grays Harbor College District No. 2, 61 P.3d 1130 (Wash. 2003)
• Desert Palace Inc. v. Costa, 123 S. Ct. 2148 (2003)
• Davis vs. Microsoft Corp., 70 P.3d 126 (Wash. 2003)
• Antonius v. King County, 103 P.3d 729 (Wash. 2004)
• Blaney v. IAM, Dist. No. 60, 87 P. 3d 757 (Wash. 2004)
• Riehl v. Foodmaker, Inc., 94 P.3d 930 (Wash. 2004)
• Al-Safin v. Circuit City Stores, Inc., 394 F.3d 1254 (9th Cir. 2005)
• Anderson v. King County, 158 P.3d 963 (Wash. 2006)
• Gambini v. Total Renal Care Inc., 486 F.3d 1087 (9th Cir. 2007)
• Hegwine v. Longview Fibre Co., 172 P.3d 688 (Wash. 2007)
• Pham v. Seattle, 151 P.3d 976 (Wash. 2007)
• Danny v. Laidlaw Transit Serv., Inc., 193 P.3d 128 (Wash. 2008)
• Hale v. Wellpinit School Dist. No. 49, 198 P.3d 1021 (Wash. 2009)
• Salas v. Hi Tech Erectors, 230 P.3d 583 (Wash. 2010)
• Collins v Gee West Seattle, LLC, 631 F.3d 1001, (9th Cir. 2011)
• Roe v. TeleTech Customer Care Mgmt. LLC, 257 Pl.3d 586 (Wash. 2011)
• Washington Ass'n for Substance Abuse & Violence Prevention v State, 278 P.3d 632 (Wash. 2012)
• ATU 1576 v. Snohomish County, 316 P.3d 1103 (Wash. App. 2013).
• D.R. Horton v. NLRB, 737 F.3d 344 (5th Cir. 2013)
• Demetrio v. Sakuma Bros. Farms, 355 P.3d 258 (Wash. 2015)
• Saucedo v. John Hancock Co., 369 P.3d 150 (Wash. 2016)