Jocelyn S. Sperling
Of counsel
Jocelyn Sperling is Of Counsel with the Complex Appellate Litigation Group LLP (CALG). For more than a decade, she has represented clients in civil appeals and writ petitions in the California Courts of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit. Her diverse practice includes employment, tort, contract, real property, and attorney fee matters. Ms. Sperling worked at the Ninth Circuit for five years, serving as a law clerk to Judge Richard A. Paez, and later as a staff attorney for the Court. She was also a research attorney at the Alameda County Superior Court and an extern in the federal district court. Before joining CALG, Ms. Sperling was an appellate lawyer at Bien & Summers, at her own firm, and litigated cases at a boutique employment firm earlier in her career. She graduated Order of the Coif from UCLA School of Law. Ms. Sperling serves on the Committee on Appellate Courts of the California Lawyers Association’s Litigation Section, where she has led key access-to-justice projects. She is co-founder and vice chair of the Alameda County Bar Association’s Appellate Law Section, and chair of the ACBA’s Judicial Appointments Evaluation Committee. Ms. Sperling also co-authors a chapter on appealability in CEB’s “California Civil Appellate Practice,” and frequently speaks on appellate issues. In addition to her retained work, she routinely handles pro bono work for Centro Legal de la Raza, a nonprofit organization in Oakland that provides free legal services to low-income communities.
Sharon Baumgold
Of Counsel
Sharon Baumgold consults, writes, and lectures extensively on California appellate writ practice. Ms. Baumgold graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law in 1977. She spent nearly four decades as a writs attorney on the California Court of Appeal’s Second District. There, she reviewed, analyzed, and advised appellate justices on more than 10,000 appellate writ petitions in all areas of state law, including arbitration, probate law, employment, entertainment, government, insurance, real estate, as well as business and commercial litigation. Ms. Baumgold has been the author and update author of the “Action Guide: Handling Civil Writs in the Courts of Appeal” every year of publication since 1992, including the latest edition. She chaired the Appellate Courts Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association for two years. Ms. Baumgold has presented on writs practice to the Los Angeles County Bar Association; California Center for Judicial Education and Research; Women Lawyers’ Association of Los Angeles; the Administrative Office of the Courts; the Beverly Hills Bar Association; and other groups. She has also published articles on writs for the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and in Los Angeles Lawyer.
Susan Horst
Counsel
As private counsel and as counsel with Complex Appellate Litigation Group, Susan Horst provides Writs, Appeals & Trial Motions consulting in both criminal and civil matters. Employment & Educational History • Writs, Appeals & Trial Motions Consulting, Criminal and Civil (2013 to present) • Counsel, Complex Appellate Law Group (2015 to present) • Assistant District Attorney, City and County of San Francisco, misdemeanor and felony jury trials; head of vice crimes unit (1978 to 1980) • Stanford University, Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs(1976 to 1978), and Administrative Assistant and Assistant Director of Summer Session (1971 to 1975) • J.D., summa cum laude, University of Santa Clara School of Law (1972 to 1976, Part Time Division) • BA in English, Stanford University (1965 to 1969) Achievements & Other Notable Experience • Lecturer on Writ Practice – Present and throughout tenure at the Court of Appeal, including for the San Francisco City Attorney, District Attorney, and Public Defender Offices; State Bar of California Annual Meetings; California Lawyers Association; CEB; The Rutter Group (TRG); bar associations; Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER); and PINCUS Professional Education • Publications – Co-Author Chapter 7, “Writs of Mandate and Prohibition Defined,” CEB, in “Appeals and Writs in Criminal Cases,” and Chapter 25, “Termination of Prosecution Without Judgment,” CEB Criminal Law, in Procedure and Practice, as well as numerous training materials for continuing education lectures • Member of the California Lawyers Association Litigation and Criminal Law sections • Volunteer editor at California Litigation Review • Volunteer consulting at Advokids
Benjamin S. Feuer
Chairman
Ben Feuer is the chairman of the Complex Appellate Litigation Group, one of the leading appellate specialty boutiques in the nation. He has been called one of the “top appellate litigators in California" by a national news network. Mr. Feuer regularly represents large and small businesses, individuals, and associations in the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He leads and consults on high-stakes appeals and writs, including bet-the-company commercial disputes, multimillion-dollar tort actions, major real estate controversies, high-net worth family law litigation, and novel constitutional law challenges. Mr. Feuer has received numerous awards for his successes. Before co-founding CALG in 2012, Mr. Feuer practiced with noted litigators at the national firms Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Williams & Connolly. He also served as a law clerk to Judge Carlos T. Bea on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Feuer graduated in the top of his class from Northwestern Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review, argued for the national moot court team, and published an article in the Northwestern Law Review on free speech and election law. He has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Trinity College in Connecticut. The National Law Journal called Mr. Feuer an “Elite Boutique Trailblazer,” the Daily Journal named him one of the “Top 40 Lawyers Under 40” in California, Benchmark Litigation included him on its “40 & Under Hot List” twice, and the Bar Association of San Francisco awarded him its “Outstanding Barrister” prize. Super Lawyers has listed him every year for more than a decade. In 2016, the Minority Bar Council of San Francisco presented Mr. Feuer with its “Unity Award,” for “outstanding commitment to diversity in the legal profession.” He served as co-chair of the Appellate Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco from 2017-2020, and remains on the section’s executive committee. Over the years, Mr. Feuer has organized, moderated, and spoken on more than fifty panels with appellate judges, practitioners, and professors on topics related to appellate practice and constitutional theory. He also regularly authors articles on appellate and constitutional law topics, and his writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle, as well as the National Law Journal, Daily Journal, Recorder, and Corporate Counsel. Mr. Feuer is a regular guest on KALW Public Radio, KGO Talk Radio, and Voice of America broadcasts related to upcoming appellate issues and Supreme Court cases.
Rex S. Heinke
Partner
Rex Heinke is widely recognized as one of the most accomplished and experienced appellate practitioners in California, and among the best in the nation. He has argued more than 175 appeals in federal and state courts across the country. Mr. Heinke is regularly called on to defend major corporations and high-profile individuals in some of their most hotly contested and complex appellate matters. Mr. Heinke received his law degree from Columbia Law School where he was a Kent Scholar. He clerked for the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Frederick Heebe. Mr. Heinke received a BA from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where he was the student body president and an anti-apartheid activist. Before joining the Complex Appellate Litigation Group LLP, he was co-head of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s nationally renowned Supreme Court and Appellate practice from 2001 to 2020. Chambers USA has named Mr. Heinke one of America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the “Litigation: Appellate” section every year since 2012. He has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America guide for nearly 30 years, and has been named to both the Daily Journal‘s list of the Top 100 Lawyers in California and the National Law Journal‘s Appellate Hot List. Mr. Heinke is a past president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and member of the California Judicial Council and State Bar Board of Governors. He serves on the board of directors of the Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, and the Topsy Foundation, a children’s charitable organization in South Africa.
