Akin Appellate Team Named an AmLaw Litigator of the Week Runner Up for AT&T Victory
The American Lawyer’s Litigation Daily has named Akin a runner up for its Litigator of the Week series for a victory on behalf of AT&T at the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, vacating a $57 million forfeiture order imposed by the FCC.
The Akin team argued that in-house adjudication of the FCC’s forfeiture order violated the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution by denying AT&T an Article III decisionmaker and a jury trial, referencing the Supreme Court’s 2024 SEC v. Jarkesy decision. In ruling in favor of AT&T, Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan wrote that the commission had acted as “prosector, jury, and judge” in the process that was conducted completely in-house by the FCC.
The team was led by head of Akin’s Supreme Court & appellate practice Pratik Shah, and included Supreme Court & appellate partner Julius Chen, appellate counsel Margaret Rusconi; telecom, media and technology practice head Jennifer Richter and telecom, media and technology counsel Virginia Hiner Antypas.
