Washington, D.C.
1501 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005

Phone 202.736.8023
Fax 202.736.8711

Practice Areas
General Appellate
Litigation
United States Supreme Court

Joseph R. Guerra, Partner

JOSEPH R. GUERRA is a partner in the appellate practice of the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin LLP. Prior to joining the firm in 1988, Mr. Guerra served as a law clerk to Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the United States Supreme Court, and to the Honorable Joyce Hens Green of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. While in law school, he served as an intern to the Honorable Harry T. Edwards of the D.C. Circuit.

Mr. Guerra has argued a wide range of federal constitutional, statutory and administrative law matters in federal and state courts throughout the country, including most of the federal courts of appeals. Last year, Mr. Guerra argued and won appeals for AT&T in the Third and Ninth Circuits in cases raising issues under ERISA and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. He briefed and argued a key portion of a successful motion to dismiss a suit under the Alien Tort Statute brought by Vietnamese citizens against the U.S. manufacturers of defoliants used during the Vietnam War by the U.S. military. Mr. Guerra also briefed and argued the bulk of a successful motion to dismiss a suit in which eight States and three private land trusts sued American Electric Power Company, Cinergy Corporation, and three other electric utility companies to abate global climate change as an alleged public nuisance under federal common law. He then briefed and argued the appeal of this dismissal in the Second Circuit on behalf of all of the defendant companies (the case is still pending). Earlier this year, he argued and won a motion for judgment on the pleadings for GE Healthcare in a case brought in Delaware Chancery Court involving a dispute over the interpretation of an asset purchase agreement. He also argued a Third Circuit appeal on behalf of AT&T in a case involving issues under the Communications Act.

In prior years, Mr. Guerra obtained dismissal of an ERISA class action challenging the pension aspects of AT&T’s spin-off of Lucent Technologies, then successfully defended that dismissal in the D.C. Circuit. He won dismissal of a case alleging that AT&T defrauded the Federal Circuit in a patent infringement appeal, and successfully defended that dismissal before the Fifth Circuit. He also won dismissal of a class action filed in California state court challenging on interstate commerce clause grounds AT&T’s collection of local telephone taxes on interstate telephone calls charged to AT&T calling cards. He succeeded in a Fourth Circuit appeal challenging the imposition of municipal franchise fees on AT&T’s interstate cable; represented AT&T in enforcing telecommunications services patents in U.S. District Court; and handled numerous appeals for AT&T of state arbitration orders in federal district court under section 252 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Mr. Guerra has also filed numerous briefs in the United States Supreme Court, the D.C. Circuit, the Federal Circuit and other federal and state appellate courts in cases involving, among other matters, takings claims, commercial and political speech restrictions, due process claims, the constitutionality of term limits, federal preemption, the doctrine of equivalents under patent law, and the United States’ obligations under international treaties.

From July 1999 until January 2001, Mr. Guerra served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, United States Department of Justice, where he worked on a broad range of constitutional, statutory, administrative law, and ethics matters.

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Education