The National Law Journal named Jones Day to its annual "Appellate Hot List" for the ninth consecutive year.

"It is gratifying to be consistently recognized for the great outcomes we earn for our clients in the Supreme Court and in federal and state appellate courts nationwide," said Beth Heifetz, who leads Jones Day's Issues & Appeals Practice. "Again this year, our extraordinary, deep bench of lawyers prevailed for clients with numerous innovative arguments resulting in landmark decisions."

In Kelly v. United States, more commonly known as "Bridgegate," the Firm won a victory for client Bridget Kelly when the Supreme Court unanimously reversed her convictions for federal property fraud. In dismissing Ms. Kelly's convictions, the Court agreed wholeheartedly with Jones Day's theory that an official cannot commit property fraud when the object of her scheme is to use the state's regulatory power for some illicit end.

The Supreme Court also ruled in favor of Jones Day's client The American Legion by upholding the constitutionality of a government-maintained cross on public land. The Peace Cross in Bladensburg, MD, a 93-year-old monument to the fallen of World War I, has been subject to an Establishment Clause challenge since 2014. After the Fourth Circuit declared the memorial unconstitutional, Jones Day successfully petitioned for certiorari by the Supreme Court, and argued that the Court should abandon the three-part test articulated in its 1971 decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman and instead apply the history and coercion approach used in legislative prayer cases. Seven justices agreed with Jones Day that the memorial was constitutional, and six justices (across several opinions) were critical of the Lemon test and agreed that it should not be applied.

The Firm successfully defended Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. on appeal in upholding its victory before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In a unanimous, precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit agreed with Merck, rejecting all of Mayne Pharma's grounds for appeal and affirming the PTAB's judgment that Mayne's claims related to antifungal drugs were unpatentable.

In representing Sheldon Silver, former Speaker of the New York State Assembly, following his conviction on bribery charges, Jones Day persuaded the Second Circuit to order the dismissal with prejudice of multiple bribery counts. This appeal raised fundamental issues about the validity of the so-called "as opportunities arise" theory of federal bribery law, which had enabled prosecutors to charge bribery whenever a public official took official action that was favorable for a prior benefactor, even absent evidence of an agreed quid pro quo. The Second Circuit reined in that theory, holding that prosecutors must prove the official "promised to take official action on a specific and focused question or matter." Jones Day briefed and argued the case.