Steven J. Lindsay

Since joining Kirkland, Steve’s representative matters include:

• On behalf of a pharmaceutical company, successfully obtained a complete defense verdict on all counts brought against the company in an Illinois trial court related to the manufacture and sale of the over-the-counter antacid.
• On behalf of aircraft manufacturer, defended on appeal in the Seventh Circuit the dismissal of lawsuit brought by pilots for foreign airlines who sued the manufacturer under Illinois law to recover lost wages following the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft.
• On behalf of diagnostic testing provider, defended on appeal in the Seventh Circuit an order compelling the opposing party to arbitrate breach-of-contract claims over that party’s assertions that the district court lacked jurisdiction to compel arbitration, and that the party was fraudulently induced to adopt the contract’s arbitration agreement. The opposing party voluntarily dismissed the appeal.
• On behalf of a telecommunications equipment provider, defended on appeal in the Seventh Circuit a $544 million jury verdict for the provider under the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Copyright Act based on the opposing party’s misappropriation of trade secrets.
• On behalf of an imaging equipment manufacturer, defended on appeal in the Ninth Circuit a $40 million jury verdict for the manufacturer under the Defend Trade Secrets Act based on the opposing party’s misappropriation of trade secrets. 
• On behalf of electronic-nicotine delivery-products company, sought in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia the disclosure of FDA internal review documents under FOIA relating to the company’s premarket tobacco applications for certain and FDA’s subsequent marketing denial order.

Before joining Kirkland, Steve’s representative matters included:

• On behalf of a federal government contractor, secured an en banc Ninth Circuit victory holding that a California statute that attempted to override the Federal Government’s immigration detention decisions violated the Supremacy Clause and was preempted by federal immigration law.
• On behalf of the Governor of Florida, obtained a rare grant of initial en banc hearing by the Eleventh Circuit and secured an en banc victory upholding, against constitutional challenge, a state statute implementing a felon re-enfranchisement amendment to the Florida Constitution. 
• On behalf of a federal government contractor, secured a unanimous Ninth Circuit vacatur of a preliminary injunction that barred the contractor from accepting or transferring detainees into or out of two federal detention facilities in McFarland, California.
• On behalf of the United States, secured a unanimous affirmance by the Seventh Circuit of a criminal defendant’s conviction and 20-year enhanced sentence for armed bank robbery and using and carrying firearm by brandishing it during and in relation to a crime of violence.
• On behalf of the House Minority Leader, along with dozens of other Members of Congress and several constituents, appealed to the D.C. Circuit a constitutional challenge to COVID-era House Resolution allowing Members to cast their votes by proxy.
• On behalf of the President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate and the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, obtained in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina a denial of the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction with respect to seven out of eight North Carolina voting laws that plaintiffs claimed were unconstitutional and contrary to federal law.
• On behalf of the President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate and the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, defended in a North Carolina trial court the State’s voter-identification statute against an equal-protection challenge. The statute was ultimately upheld by the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2023.