Riding the Circuits: Practice in the Ninth Circuit

Leading businesses, public entities, and employers rely on Scott Dixler’s capabilities in matters involving complex intellectual property disputes, class actions, discrimination claims, and torts.

Scott has presented nineteen oral arguments in state and federal appellate courts. Recognizing Scott’s capabilities as an oral advocate, clients have retained Scott to argue appeals briefed by other counsel.

Scott serves on the Amicus Committee of the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel. He is also on the Board of the Los Angeles Lawyers' Chapter of the Federalist Society. Scott has been recognized as a “Rising Star” by Super Lawyers from 2016 to 2020.

Prior to joining the firm, Scott gained experience as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York.

Ben Cooper advocates for clients in high-stakes appeals and writ proceedings in the U.S. Supreme Court, federal circuit courts, and state supreme and intermediate appellate courts from coast to coast. Ben’s practice also emphasizes both trial-court and appellate representation in such fields as insurance coverage and bad-faith defense; intellectual-property protection and e-commerce disputes; federal, state, and local taxation; Native American law; and constitutional litigation.

In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which includes nine western states, Ben is the author of Thomson Reuters’s 1,000-page treatise Federal Appellate Practice: Ninth Circuit, and served as the court-appointed Chair of the Appellate Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. He previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit. Ben is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Council of Appellate Lawyers and of the State Bar of Arizona’s Appellate Practice Section, Intellectual Property Section, and E-Commerce & Technology Section.

In addition to appellate advocacy, Ben works closely with trial counsel, taking the lead on or assisting with preservation of error, dispositive motions, class-action certification, motions in limine, jury instructions, and post-trial motions. He is the lead author of Thomson Reuters’s Arizona Trial Handbook and the longest-serving member of the State Bar of Arizona’s Civil Jury Instructions Committee.

Milan Dale Smith, Jr. is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He joined the court in 2006 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.

Smith was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit by President George W. Bush on February 14, 2006, to a seat vacated by Wallace Tashima. The American Bar Association rated Smith Substantial Majority Well Qualified, Minority Qualified for the nomination.[2] Hearings on Smith's nomination were held before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on April 25, 2006, and his nomination was reported by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on May 4, 2006. Smith was confirmed on a recorded 93-0 vote of the U.S. Senate on May 16, 2006, and he received his commission on May 18, 2006.

Born in Pendleton, Oregon, Smith graduated from Brigham Young University with his bachelor's degree in 1966, and from the University of Chicago Law School with his J.D. in 1969.

Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen is a federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. She joined the court in 2012 after being nominated by President Barack Obama. Nguyen previously served as a judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California. She is the first Vietnamese-American woman to serve on the federal bench and the first Asian American woman to serve on a federal appellate court.

Judge Nguyen was born in South Vietnam. She fled from the country with her family in 1975 after the fall of the government. She earned her A.B. from Occidental College in 1987, and her J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law in 1991.